There used to be big differences between products when it came to quality and price, now the uniqueness of products seems to be dwindling. In this kind of situation how do you make sure people buy your product and not someone else’s? An effective strategy is to stop selling your product and start selling feelings. This concept is a difficult one to grasp and begs the question, how exactly do you sell feelings?
Branding is the Key
The most important part of selling feelings is to have a strong identity and brand. To explain this further, let’s have a look at one of the most well-known brands, Coca Cola. If people can choose between Coca Cola and Pepsi, most people will choose Coca Cola, not because it tastes better, but because Coca Cola brings up happy feelings. The colour red, Santa Claus, the self-created fairy tale like world full of beautiful flowers and funny creatures and the happy jingles all pop up in our heads when we think of Coca Cola due to some very clever marketing. It’s not the product that made Coca Cola popular, it’s the way the brand makes us feel.
Specialize Your Target Group
Coca Cola targets a huge group of people, but they have the resources to do so. Not all products are suited for this, especially if the competition is sufficient. That’s why it’s a good idea to choose a more specialized target group, e.g. only young, hip people who like to be ahead of the trends. You can focus your marketing outlets on this group and make them feel like if they choose your product, they have the hippest, coolest and newest product of them all.
Your Product Adds to People’s Identity
If you want to take it up a notch, the thing you want to achieve is to have people buy your product to show others their identity. If they own your product, that says something about what kind of person they are. This overarching idea of identity can range from their personality to the feelings they exhibit towards others.
Coca Cola are currently doing a ‘Share a Coke’ campaign in the UK which ties into the idea of identity really well, with something as simple as customized Coca Cola bottles. This reaches out to people who feel the named, personalized bottle reaches out to their own identity. The result of this is that people have been sharing images of themselves with the Coca Cola bottles on social media, which reinforces the idea that Coca Cola is friendly and sociable, and if you drink and share their product, you will be too.