• Emotional connections are not only the province of certain “emotional” categories or brands. Consumers are emotional about checking accounts and discount merchandise, not just about soft drinks and expensive fountain pens. Bank of America and Wal-Mart create emotional connections just as surely as JetBlue and iPod do. They do it in different ways — depending far more on their people than on their products — but the result is the same.
  • Gallup surveys have shown that 11% of U.S. car owners are passionate about the car they own, but 13% are passionate about the place where they bank, and 12% are passionate about the mass merchant retailers where they shop. People aren’t either “emotional” or “unemotional.” Consumers are typically highly emotional about some brands and products while completely indifferent and “unattached” to others. Business customers are as emotional about their B2B purchases as car buyers, clothing shoppers, and resort visitors are about their selections.
  • Consumers’ emotional connections have a specific — and fairly simple — structure, regardless of the nature of the particular emotions involved. As revealed by Gallup’s customer engagement metric, the structure begins at the foundation of the customer relationship with Confidence, then proceeds through Integrity to Pride to — at the pinnacle of the relationship — Passion about the service, product, or brand. (See sidebar: “Levels of Customer Engagement.”)
  • Emotional connections are not merely warm and fuzzy, nor are they simply interesting to contemplate and debate. They have powerful financial consequences, ranging from share-of-wallet to frequency and amount of repeat business. “Fully engaged” retail customers spend more and return more frequently than those who are disengaged. Retailers that have taken action to enhance their customer engagement by capitalizing on the engagement-building skills of their own customer-facing employees have seen double-digit increases in both sales and profit per square foot. Gallup has seen these results not just in the United States, but around the globe — and we’ve seen them for banks, auto dealers, hardware stores, and business services marketers. Emotional connections are universally important, and managing those emotional bonds pays off handsomely.
  • Some companies are very good at creating emotional connections with their customers. Most, however, are not. Companies that are successful at creating emotional connections benefit from stronger results, not only in cash flow and profit, but in market share.
  • Emotional connections aren’t static. They ebb and flow, and the results can affect a company’s long-term business success. Emotional connections can be measured. They can be enhanced. And they can be managed. It’s not easy, but it’s demonstrably possible.

Excerpt from “Getting Emotional About Brands”

http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/12910/getting-emotional-about-brands.aspx