which BRAND have you LOVED lately?

 "Love" has become a key factor in many marketing programs. 

·         "Get consumers to fall in love with your brand."

·         "Get to their hearts as well as their minds."

·         "Create intimate, emotional connections. Pamper them with attention and affection."

So, does "love" work in marketing?  Sure. As a matter of fact, falling in love is a good analogy for the branding process.

A young person will fall in love and will get married. Now suppose the next year that same person meets someone who is better looking, wealthier and more fun to be with. Bingo, he or she tends to change their spousal brands.

Not likely. The surprising thing is not that half of all marriages end in divorce. The surprising thing is that half of all marriages don't end in divorce.

Falling in love with a person is an emotion that has consequences that can last for years. Besides, people normally don’t fall in love a second time without falling out of love first.

Falling in love with a brand has similar consequences. Just because you run across a "better" brand doesn't necessarily mean you will switch. Pepsi might taste better than Coke, but most Coke drinkers have fallen in love with the brand and NOW they won't switch.

Then "love" must be a powerful marketing strategy, right?

What differentiates the winners and losers in most categories is purely a question of who was first in the mind.

Loving one brand blocks your interest in exploring other brands in the same category. This is the ultimate advantage for the "first brand into the mind."

Without some help from a leader brand that does something inappropriate, it's exceptionally difficult for a No. 2 brand to overtake a leader. You can't fall in love with the No. 2 brand in the category until you first fall out of love with the No. 1 brand. Therefore, The No. 2 brand should pay attention in creating love for its own brand in such a way that eventually the consumers fall out of love of No. 1 Brand.  A No. 2 brand can also launch a marketing campaign to weaken the leading brand. It is also known as "repositioning the competition."

People track a similar pattern. When a consumer is in love with a particular brand, he won’t be always comparing his brand with other brands.

Most marketing messages are misdirected. If you're not the leader, then almost everything you say about yourself is totally overlooked. The consumer thinks, hey, I already love a brand, and it's not yours.

"Open happiness" is Coca-Cola's latest performance. However, why do people drink Coke instead of Pepsi? It's surely not because Coke makes them happier than Pepsi. People have fallen in love with Coke because it's the genuine cola. It was first. It's the original. It's the real thing.

Brands that are first in the mind can often effectively strengthen their leadership by using ideas and concepts that relate to their authenticity.

What's love got to do with it? LOTS. But you need to figure out how to create that love.

Have you generated the correct love for your Brand?