How you make me feel

We all carry memories of past experiences with brands that leave us with lasting feelings (good, bad, indifferent) towards them.

Through a multitude of touch points, individual brand narratives are carved into our consciousness that ultimately guides our behaviour and affinity towards a brand.

It's not rational, it's emotional.

Personally - as an example - we reserve a deeply-held hatred for one South African leading insurer (one that aligns itself with the colour green).

So much so, that we have vowed to never engage with them ever again (no matter what kind of superficial changes they purport to have committed to) and make it a point to warn others about their wildly unethical business practices. Our particular dislike of this brand is born from countless consistent interactions that have proven, time and again, what the brand's endorsed culture is really honed to deliver on...that being...the wilful abuse of power.

How you make people feel (intentionally and unintentionally) is an important barometer that determines whether or not those people will willingly engage with you in the future. It's a metaphysical lever that can be idealised and nurtured with intention.

The problem is that there isn't an easy metric to assess performance in this domain. Consistently capturing a Net Promoter Score is perhaps a start, but there is so much nuance here it's very difficult to get an accurate picture of what's really going on 'out there'.

What is of use though is an acknowledgement of the power of 'how you make people feel' and a complete commitment to crafting it in a specific direction.

How do you think your brand makes people feel?

How would you like your brand to make people feel?

What would need to be in place for people to feel the way you would like them to feel?

What barriers are preventing you from creating the feelings that you have got in your mind?