Photo By Chelsea Rose Riggs, Co-Founder & Director of Growth - Petzbe
Imagine your brand as a person—what words would you use to describe them? How do you want someone to feel when they encounter your brand for the first time? As pet parents, the abundance of products in the pet market can be overwhelming as the options seem endless. How do pet parents choose one product over another when many pet companies offer similar items?
The key lies in a company's ability to build a brand that evokes emotion - because feelings play a pivotal role in steering human behavior and decision-making. Pet parents experience a range of emotions related to their beloved pets. Understanding and tapping into these emotions helps your brand connect with pet parents on a deeper level.
If Your Band Was a Person?
Imagine your brand as a person—what words would you use to describe them? Whether you're selling toys, health supplements, food, accessories - defining your brand's personality traits sets the stage for connecting with your audience. Consider the emotions you want your brand to convey.
How Does This Person Make them Feel?
How do you want someone to feel when they encounter your brand for the first time? Envision them sitting down with your brand and engaging in a conversation. If your brand exudes personality traits like playfulness, interactivity, reliability, entertainment, and energy, you aim to leave them feeling amused, pleasantly surprised, and curious. If your brand embodies traits such as compassion, dependability, knowledge and trustworthiness, the goal is to evoke emotions of relief, empowerment, and hope.
How to Tap Into Your Audience’s Feelings?
Pet owners experience a range of emotions related to their beloved pets. How can your brand resonate with these emotions? These are some common pet parents experience.
Concern and Anxiety: Pet parents experience worry or anxiety about their pet's health, well-being, behavior, and safety. This creates opportunities for brands to offer reassurance, solutions, and support. Center your message on empathizing with how your product brings comfort and safety to their pets. Illuminate the relief and ease it provides before delving into the specifics that make it happen. And stay away from complicated words and industry jargon.
Let’s take a pet GPS tracker company as an example. Pet parents cannot imagine anything worse than losing their pet - it breaks one’s heart just thinking about it. They would feel - Grief, Guilt, Regret, Despair, Panic, Heartache, amongst many other things. How can you tap into these feelings? Let’s compare the two examples below.
Keep real-time tabs on your pet's whereabouts, ensuring you can quickly locate them if they wander off. Water & Dust Resistant, Real Time Location, Geo-Fencing & Activity Tracking. Read more about our solutions here >>
Never Lose Sight of Your Best Friend. Always Keep Track Of Your Friend. Read more about our GPS tracking solutions here >>
Photo By Chelsea Rose Riggs, Co-Founder & Director of Growth - Petzbe
Guilt or Regret: Pet owners feel guilty about not spending enough time with their pets. Educate and assure them that it's OK to leave pets alone for short periods to ease their guilt, while telling them how your product can keep them entertained or safe during those solo hours.
Love and Affection: Pet owners have a strong bond and deep affection for their pets. They feel joy, warmth, and happiness when spending time with their animals. Stand out by emphasizing how your toys elevate the bonding experience, creating lasting and cherished moments for pets and their owners.
Humanization of Pets: Often referred to as anthropomorphism, this phenomenon involves attributing human forms, behaviors, and emotions to animals or objects. It’s widely practiced among pet parents, by tapping into this psychological phenomenon, you can connect with pet parents in a unique way. In fact, anthropomorphism served as a key motivator for Petzbe founder Andrea to launch the Petzbe app! Notably, her Brussels Griffon, Angus, holds the esteemed position of Co-CEO at Petzbe. Read about Angus here
Photo By Chelsea Rose Riggs, Co-Founder & Director of Growth - Petzbe
Striving for Perfection on Social Media Makes You Less Relatable
Although using flawless aesthetic images may be alluring, statistically, they don't yield optimal results. In our collaboration with Pretty Litter during the early stages of their social media marketing, and before we had launched Petzbe, they initially focused on using perfect stock photos that often didn't showcase their product. When we recommended incorporating organic authentic content featuring real cats in their natural environments, as well as content created by customers, they were initially hesitant due to the perceived lack of neatness. However, embracing organic content, coupled with copywriting infused with humor, ultimately became the cornerstone of their successful social media strategy.
Photos By Chelsea Rose Riggs, Co-Founder & Director of Growth - Petzbe
Some initial steps in building an emotionally resonant brand
By defining your brand's personality, understanding your target audience, and crafting a compelling brand story, you can create a memorable and emotionally resonant brand that sets you apart from the competition. Embrace the power of emotions to guide your brand's journey and drive meaningful connections with your audience.
Brand Identity:
What core emotions do you want your brand to evoke in our audience?
How should your brand make people feel when they interact with it?
What existing brands evoke emotions similar to what we desire for our brand?
Brand Personality:
If our brand were a person, how would you describe its personality traits?
What emotions should your brand's personality convey in various situations?
How does your brand want to be perceived by its audience on an emotional level?
Target Audience:
What emotions are prevalent among your target audience, and how can your brand connect with these emotions?
How does your target audience currently feel about your industry, and how can your brand change or enhance those emotions?
Brand Story:
What emotional journey do you want your audience to experience through our brand story?
How can you infuse relatable and emotional elements into your brand narrative?
For more insights in building a pet brand, contact us at hey@petzbe.com
Read more about our marketing services here