“The heart has its reasons that reason does not understand”. Blaise Pascal
I have always liked the quote by this famous French mathematician and philosopher so I have used it countless times in my career to emphasize the importance of building brands with relevant and differential emotional attributes through advertising.
Brand´s intangible qualities are crucial when it comes to a consumer´s purchasing decision. It is often emotional ties that prevail over rational qualities or the basic need that a product or service meets.
And this is so in every sector: FMCG, services, BTB and also in Healthcare. That´s is why we say that what users really want to acquire through the purchase decision process are brand experiences and not just the product or service itself.
Back in 1960-70s Philip Kotler, sometimes called the father of modern marketing, coined the term augmented product to refer those characteristics that any commercial offering must posses in order to be distinctive and attractive to consumers. So, this is nothing new.
Measuring Emotions
It has always been a challenge to measure emotional ties of a brand and, specifically, determine their role boosting the sales of a given product or service, even in the digital web2 era in which we are living.
Legendary marketing pioneer John Wanamaker supposedly stated: Half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don´t know which half.
This is why we have always asserted that awareness and brand image should be the only valid indicators of the effectiveness of our work, in the mass media era, and also in the digital one.
Until now.
Making Intangible Things Tangible
How can we render tangible brand values that have always been intangible?
How can we make it easier for brands to transfer these values to their consumers so that they also become owners of them?
The blockchain technology that makes web3 possible allows tokens (crypto assets) to be brand tangibles that also provides consumers with utility
Through brand tokens:
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We generate sense of ownership - stake - in a piece of the brand
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We can strengthen ties acknowledging the consumer through the transfer of tokens each time he or she interacts with the brand
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We can give to the token holders access to special perks or exclusive experiences
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We can allow consumers themselves to exchange them with each other
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Through this peer-to-peer transfer, we can achieve highly valuable word-of-mouth advertising and advocacy branding for the brand
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We can also get them to demand the tokens themselves, just as they do with the product or service itself
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We can create co-marketing activities with other brands through the combinations of their tokens
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We can measure consumer brand loyalty in our digital spaces - such as social media and the future metaverse - by going beyond conventional metrics
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We can encourage and reward open innovation with our consumers
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We can engage our community in decisions that affect the brand and its own iteration over time
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We can achieve significant differentiation from our competitors
Starbucks is one of the first brands to take this step in its Starbucks Reward digital loyalty program, taking it to the next level on web3. The project is called Starbucks Odyssey and is supported on the Polygon network, a layer-2 built on Ethereum.
In this case it seems that the token will be non-fungible, and it will allow Starbucks consumers to earn and purchase digital assets from the brand that can be used to access to benefits, unique experiences and services.
It was announced last September 12, and for now one can sign up on the waiting list to join it.
How Can You Create Your Own Brand Token?
There are several platforms that can help you create your own token and interact with your community in a very intuitive way…and risk-free:
A couple of months ago we created our own brand token with Coinvise called IDGRS.
In the next blog post I will share with you how this platform works to create and manage, in a very simple way, your tokenized brand.
If you are passionate about brand management in all kinds of environments and media, I encourage you to look into the value of this technology for branding in the web3 age. I´m sure that it will be massively adopted in all industries in the close future, so get ahead of the curve now!
Remember, like everything in life:
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Learn
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Invent what does not yet exist
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Experiment (even celebrating failure)
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Iterate and continue to generate new knowledge
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Share what you know
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Keep learning
Get out of your comfort zone. You can only win.
