Fall Out of Brand Love Misconceptions

Brand love for your store counts a lot. University of Michigan researchers concluded that it is even more important than the shopper’s judgment of merchandise quality in predicting the extent of praise of your store to others and resistance to believing criticisms of your store.
     This is surely not to minimize the power of consumers falling in love with the merchandise. A set of Arizona State University and Texas Christian University studies on that theme described people who called their cars by pet names, experienced a relentless drive to be with their bicycles, and purchased guns in what the purchasers later described as a moment of passion. Those love-smitten firearm purchasers subsequently spent six times more for accessories, on average, than did those not describing passion and intimacy when talking about their guns.
     Researchers from Xavier University, Texas Tech University, and Kansas State University characterized brand love as “loyalty beyond reason” and demonstrated how it manifests itself in physiological bodily measures of love.
     Consumers who fall in love with a store and its merchandise show two characteristics, each of which can be encouraged by you:

• Feelings of passion about everyday activities. So coach your sales staff to listen most attentively when shoppers express urges to do business with your store or purchase certain merchandise. Build store advocacy not limited to customer loyalty. Beyond, “I love to shop there,” to “I get an excellent price on top-quality fashions,” or, “Everyone there listens to any complaints and then makes things right.” 
• Confident certainty. So respect the shopper’s opinions. Also be there to buttress against fading certainty. Love-smitten consumers become more likely to buy from you when they’re feeling sad or unsure of themselves. Facilitate the love by including some comfort products and indulgent services in the mix you offer. 

     At the same time, kill any misconceptions that store love or merchandise love are identical to love for another person. Researchers at Bergische University in Germany, a country carrying the stereotype of never getting overly mushy, looked into the difference using physiological measures and pictographic scales. The researchers verified that brand love can be highly arousing, but not as emotionally involving as what a consumer experiences with a person they love.
     Of course, it’s always possible a customer would fall in love with the operator of a retail store as a person. Interpersonal love in the retail setting. It could happen.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

Click below for more: 
Love Your Role as Store Matchmaker
Arouse the Love for Your Store
Brand Love for What Shoppers Experience