Empathic Marketing – aka, what’s true in life is true in marketing.
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The document presents a framework for empathic marketing, emphasizing the importance of empathy in building brand relationships similar to personal relationships. It argues that effective marketing should focus on creating emotional connections with customers through shared values and experiences, while rejecting outdated marketing concepts like traditional vs. non-traditional media. The framework stresses that empathy, experiences, and endorsement must drive brand engagement, reinforcing the idea that strong brands are built through meaningful interactions and storytelling.
Empathic Marketing – aka, what’s true in life is true in marketing.
- 1. What’s true in life is true in marketing: A framework for empathic marketing. David Murphy Founder & Serial Thought Provoker wikibranding
- 2. To be human is to be empathetic.
- 3. Empathy: Being aware of, understanding and sensitive to the feelings, thoughts and experiences of another.
- 4. What’s true in life is true in marketing.
- 5. The way in which we form personal relationships mirrors how we form brand relationships.
- 7. Think about the people with whom you enjoy your most lasting relationships. They are likely to be people who “get you” because you share empathetic values and views, a shared sense of style or humor.
- 8. They’re likely to be people with whom you’ve enjoyed memorable experiences which deepened your first impression.
- 9. People you trust because their reputation is highly regarded…by people whose opinion you hold in high regard.
- 10. They’re likely to be people who consistently surprise us because they always seem to be doing something new and interesting.
- 11. Empathic marketing breaks with the past.
- 12. Communications today are consumed differently. The way in which we build brands must evolve as well.
- 13. Brand planning has been hijacked by brand pyramids, Venn diagrams and other constructs that get too far removed from the customer. Empathic Marketing is designed to refocus marketing back on fundamental human truths.
- 14. Developed before hyper- competition. Ignores the wonderfully irrational nature of human beings, aka consumers. Developed in a mass media age. Ignores the nonlinear nature of media consumption. Empathic marketing is modeled on the way in which people form personal relationships – empathy, experiences, endorsement and energy. The 4Ps AIDA The “4Es”
- 15. Experiences form deeply held beliefs Product performance Unique interactions Media context Brand associations and content Momentum conveys leadership New product cycle Events New services Alliances Media channels Empathic Marketing Empathy drives personal relevance Shared point of view Shared values Similar dreams and ambitions Engage via passion points Empathy! Experiences Energy! Perceptions Behaviors Peer review deepens commitment Social media WOM PR Endorsement
- 16. Empathy! Experiences Energy! Endorsement Brand saliency (image metrics): Relevance Differentiation High esteem / quality Familiarity Customer engagement (marketing and product): Customer satisfaction Total & unique web visits Bounce Rate Avg. pages/ time spent per visit Conversion rates eMail open rates Mobile CTA rates Brand advocacy (Loyalty, PR, social media): Net Promoter Score Consumer product ratings Blogger recommendations Social media sentiment analysis Facebook fans and engagement YouTube Shares Twitter re-tweets Brand momentum (image and market metrics): Innovation Success Leadership Popularity Google search Traffic (online and in-store) Sales (volume & share) Sample Metrics Perceptions Behaviors
- 17. Empathic marketing liberates us from antiquated vocabulary.
- 18. It rejects tired distinctions like “traditional vs. non traditional marketing.”
- 19. There is only traditional thinking. (And this is punishable by irrelevance.)
- 20. It views labels such as “new media” as old ideas.
- 21. If you want to make anyone under 40 laugh, refer to the web as “new media.” Ditto for mobile.
- 22. It refuses to allow “online and offline” to live in silos.
- 23. In an era of QR codes and second screen viewing, is anything really offline?
- 24. It doesn’t use “brand advertising” to mean TV and print.
- 25. The internet is the most powerful brand building tool ever. Storytelling. Experiences. Sight, sound, motion. Peer endorsement.
- 26. It fully recognizes the strategic value of TV, print and outdoor.
- 27. Good luck reaching B2B execs with a viral video, or my mom through Twitter. Let me know how efficient your street teams are in reaching millions of guys relative to a spot on an NFL game.
- 28. The new model embraces media as a source of creativity.
- 29. How and where a brand shows up can be as important as what it says.
- 30. It relishes metrics, both hard and soft.
- 31. Ignore store traffic and nobody will care about the awareness gain. Click-through rates at the expense of emotional relevance and differentiation will not matter as the brand degrades to commodity status. True marketing professionals balance these seemingly conflicting goals.
- 32. One thing will never change: We must build strong brands.
- 33. Products become brands by creating empathetic relationships with customers. Brands become enduring, profitable assets when they deliver relevant differentiation.
- 34. Relevance = volume Differentiation = margin
- 35. Empathy
- 36. Brand empathy occurs when customers project themselves onto the brand. Define a brand's source of empathy and you'll find its essential truth.
- 37. We tend to have our deepest and most lasting relationships with people who share our values; our beliefs; our sense of humor; our sense of style.
- 38. Empathy isn’t squishy. It’s a hard metric in nearly all brand equity research – e.g., personal relevance, affinity, trust, a brand for me, understands my company’s needs.
- 39. Great brands tell great stories. Stories help us connect. They convey meaning. In a fast moving world, meaning trumps information.
- 40. Elements of a great story Archetype! The Journey! Conflict! The universal characters that form our collective unconscious. The hero, temptress, ruler, et al create deeper connections with consumers. The most compelling protagonists are on a quest toward something inspiring. Great brands project a sense of purpose – a true north that guides their values and behavior. Great stories hinge on a clearly defined antagonist. Great brands are clear on what they oppose in order to be crystal clear about what they believe.
- 41. Archetypes are the universal personalities spanning ancient mythologies through today. Our psychological hardwiring. Components of the collective unconscious that inform perceptions and behavior.
- 42. Archetypes are central to storytelling Lover Hero Sage Magician Outlaw Innocent and Jester Evil
- 43. The hero’s journey Drawn from analysis of mythology across cultures and time: “A hero ventures forth from the common world… confronts obstacles and adversaries… wins a decisive victory… and returns with the power to help his fellow man.”
- 44. The hero’s journey: Hollywood An innocent young prince attempts to run away from his troubles only to discover the redeeming power of friendship and truth.
- 45. The hero’s journey: Politics A man rises above racial barriers to inspire a nation to defy the divisiveness of red states and blue states and reclaim the promise of the United States.
- 46. The hero’s journey: Brands An authority-defying rebel uniting a community in a crusade against fear. An advocate of women’s self-esteem battling against the falsehood of media-defined beauty. A free thinker liberating creativity from a world of beige conformity.
- 47. Experiences
- 48. Like people, brands are judged by what they do, not just by what they say.
- 49. Experiences transform perceptions into deeply held beliefs.
- 50. Every interaction defines the brand, e.g., the packaging, how the phone is answered; customer service; the online experience; events; the trade show booth; mobile gaming.
- 51. This is not a soft measure. The 2011 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index shows that customers increasingly define value through the total brand experience, and that experiences have a strong impact on customer decision-making.
- 52. Endorsement
- 53. If brands are built on empathetic relationships, then that relationship is now a ménage á trois.
- 54. In a socially wired world, brands are not solely defined by the relationship between the customer and the product. It’s about the relationship shared among all the customers of the product.
- 55. Advocacy isn’t just an conquesting strategy – it’s also a loyalty strategy. When a customer advocates a brand, they deepen their commitment to the brand by putting their name and reputation on the line.
- 56. Energy
- 57. Energy is a powerful force. It casts an aura of infectious momentum that is often measured in brand research as success, innovation, leadership or popularity.
- 58. Maintaining energy requires that we think through what happens in the months after a launch. It’s the absence of energy that causes otherwise loyal customers to get bored; to flirt with other brands; to spice up their life by trying something new and interesting.
- 60. Experiences form deeply held beliefs Product performance Unique interactions Media context Brand associations and content Momentum conveys leadership New product cycle Events New services Alliances Media channels Empathic Marketing Empathy drives personal relevance Shared point of view Shared values Similar dreams and ambitions Engage via passion points Empathy! Experiences Energy! Perceptions Behaviors Peer review deepens commitment Social media WOM PR Endorsement
- 61. Empathic Marketing Framework Empathy! Energy! Experiences! Endorsement! KPIs! KPIs! KPIs! KPIs! Cultural Context! Perception! Behavior!
- 62. Perceptual analysis Relevance Differentiation Worth (quality / value) Familiarity Brand values Customer values Innovation New / surprising Gaining in popularity Exciting Sales (volume & share) Sources: Tracking study A&U study Sales reports EMPATHY! ENERGY!
- 63. Behavioral analysis Shopping behaviors Store traffic Web traffic eMail open rates CTR / VTR Advtg awareness / recall Sentiment analysis PR analytics SM likes / followers Sources: Web analytics OLA analytics eMail analytics Tracking study EXPERIENCES! ENDORSEMENT!
- 64. Cultural context analysis Societal trends Cohort values Media & technology Fashion & design Economic issues
- 65. Cultural Connection Mapping Collective Counter Influential Contextual EMBRACE SEED ACKNOWLEDGE LEARN
- 66. Empathy Mapping Strong brand equity Weak brand equity Strong customer value Weak customer value FOCUS FIX REFRAME MONITOR
- 67. Experience Mapping More effective Less effective Direct impact on goals* Indirect impact on goals* INCREASE INVESTMENT INNOVATE AND TEST MAINTAIN INVESTMENT DECREASE INVESTMENT *Goals = Image / Engagement / Sales
- 68. Key insights form the E4 Plan FOCUS FIX REFRAME MONITOR INCREASE INVESTMENT INNOVATE & TEST MAINTAIN INVESTMENT DECREASE INVESTMENT EMBRACE SEED ACKNOWLEDGE LEARN Empathy Energy Experiences Endorsement KPIs KPIs KPIs KPIs Cultural Context Percep9on Behavior
- 69. Defining Cultural Context! What the brand owns:! What the brand needs:! Brand Equity! Brand Empathy! What the brand believes:! What the customer values:! Image:! Engagement:! Key Marketing Metrics! Sales:! Brand proposition:! Brand Experiences! Archetypal Voice:! Interactions: !!Iconography:! Channels:! Empathic Marketing Brief
- 71. Thank you.