Dell Computers has been thrashed many times for subpar customer service. If you promise one benefit and deliver another, your brand loses value. If you project one set of values, and act on another, your brand is lost.

The experience leaves the customer confused. Unable to align with a set of values promised, the customer feels betrayed. The customer loses faith in the brand.

On the other hand, fostering the faithful with positive brand interaction produces evangelists.

The “evangelizing moment” of a customer is when they touch the soul of the company. They become “branded” aligning with the meaning of the company’s true purpose. Think of Apple providing Seekers (those in search of new adventure or experience) the ability to “Think Different”. It connects to the Seekers core value – to be unique and nonconforming.

That connection between the core values – the soul of the company and the soul of the customer – is why they evangelize. They have found a temple of core value at which to worship. It’s mythic. It’s epic. The brand becomes icon because it connects to the subconscious yearnings of the customer, imprinting on the brain. The pictured emotional experience becomes a conduit through which the customer can again be touched by those core values.

Those pictures and emotions then become language in the brain of the customer. And it’s the language of evangelism.

It’s simple. No soul, no brand.  So create your SoulBrand. Copyright 2008 Leili McKinley

the pull and the push…

When I try to explain to people the difference between the old way of marketing and the new paradigm in marketing, I compare it to the forces of push and pull.

The old method of advertising is interactive marketing. The term is misleading. Most people think it means that there is some type of interaction on the part of the person advertised to, and there is. But, it is not conversational. Instead, the advertiser wants you to interact with their campaign in a specific set of steps. Following the call to action and visiting a website for instance. It’s the push to make you do something. Live this image. Buy this now.

Social Media Marketing is just the opposite. It’s the pull of the tribe.  The tribe already has your trust so the actions they take are ones you align with. On a larger scale, it’s the allure of belonging in the group as you take action together. “l am doing this so why don’t you do it with me?” On an individual level, the attraction is to behave the same way to get the same results that benefits your fellow tribeswoman. “She looks hot! I want to look hot too. I want to go to her hairstylist” and you do.

While advertising tries to use the same tactic, with a billboard for instance, of a gorgeous woman telling you the benefits of the salon, it doesn’t have the same impact because it’s pushing you to go. It is not pulling you in as a trusted friend. Your friends have your best interests at heart and advertisers do not.

Companies that are at the forefront of this paradigm shift have demonstrated an understanding that creating and maintaining trust uses the power of attraction. People are attracted to people they like, want to imitate, respect and admire. The tribe will watch company actions. They will move to align with companies that earn trust acting on principles admired by the tribe. When the alignment becomes real enough for the tribe to “take ownership” of their experience with the company, they move from customer to brand evangelist.

This is the path to follow to create brand evangelists.