Love Conquers All – And Builds Brand Affinity.
The relationships we have with brands are alot like the relationships we have with people. Our friends and loved ones reflect who we are, the values we hold dear and behaviors we want to associate with. Social dissonance occurs when a friend behaves in a way that conflicts with our personal values (say refusing to wear a mask in public). The opposite occurs when a friend displays the type of behavior that reinforces a shared set of values – and the same goes for brands.
Which is why when brands choose to make a stand for something like Burger King have done recently by publicly supporting Helsinki’s annual Pride Week, they stand to build a high degree of brand affinity with like-minded people. Burger King Finland along with their agency TBWA\Helsinki recently launched their ‘Love conquers all’ campaign as part of Pride Week in the capital city. The campaign centers around a powerful image of the Burger King and McDonalds mascots captured in a moment of unbridled passion.
“Burger King has always stood for equality, love and everyone’s right to be just the way they are,” Kaisa Kasila, brand manager for Burger King Finland, said. “The only instance where it might not seem so, is when we’re bantering with our competitor. But we want to be clear – it all stems from the respect we have for them. And we know McDonald’s stands for the values we stand for, too”.
When this type of brand behavior comes from a place of genuine and consistent brand values, over time the affinity can build to unshakeable brand loyalty. However, if not part of a long term demonstration of brand values the same action can be seen as opportunistic and erode brand affinity rather than build it.
As always, the strategic direction for brands is genuine integrity. All brands must understanding the core audience with absolute clarity, and then define what they must stand for (and equally should not stand for) in order to align with the values of that audience. In defining this critical foundation, all brands can then build over time a body of behavior that demonstrates their values with integrity. This genuine behavior reflects the ‘True’ nature of our brand and when executed consistently will build ‘Deep’ and meaningful relationships with those people most important to their long term success.
This brand philosophy that we’ve seen play-out time and time again in both a positive and negative sense over the last 30 years is reflected by our own agency name; Truly Deeply.
Truly Deeply is an Australian-based branding agency with 30 years experience working with brands to position them for growth. Our deep expertise is in the creation of high engagement brands that attract the attention of their audience and stand out from their competitors. We have a deep expertise working with corporate, retail, food & beverage, health and property clients. Find out more here
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Pics courtesy Burger King Finland