Every business is fighting every second to get its share of noise in the marketplace. These new playing grounds demand that brands create constant engagement and lasting connections with their consumers. The best way to build those connections is to bring to life an idea so powerful that it is capable of persuading consumers to actively pursue a relationship with the brand, not vice versa.

That is why, we claim, advertising today is not just about producing good looking layouts, sleek graphic designing, or wild creative thoughts. Advertising is getting beyond making films or producing jingles. In fact, advertising today is the business of creating Business Driven Creative Ideas. Every piece of work we produce as brand custodians are expected to aid the symbolic & emotional bond With their consumers.

Business Driven Creative Ideas create disruption. They change how people think and influence what people do. And at a point in time, they can have enormous power to build businesses and brands. It’s not about changing as to how consumers view a company or brand, but also as to how a company views itself, offering the business new spaces in which to explore and grow.

One of the ways to generate these ideas is by studying consumer insights. The main purpose of consumer insights is to understand what the consumer cares about that particular brand as well as his underlying mindsets, moods, motivation, desires, and aspirations that trigger his attitude and actions towards that brand or category.

In the marketing world, we continually strive to achieve greater and enhanced insight into the consumer’s thoughts, motivations, and behaviors in order to deeply engage with them with the view of influencing their purchasing decisions.

Studying consumer insight also helps to identify unmet needs in the marketplace, or a better way to satisfy an existing need. It is NOT about a product or service. It’s about a consumer need that isn’t being met as well. The marketer’s challenge is to find a way to capitalize on the thinking that identifies the need. That could lead to a product or service, of course, but the insight is independent of the solution.

Generally, as a marketer, you are always looking to uncover these invaluable consumer insights to develop a clear picture of the habits and motivations of your target audience. You can take the help of several research tools to understand these insights. Once we have unearthed these insights, the challenge to us is to develop strategies that leverage our insight into the mind of the consumer as to what we know about how he thinks and feels and how that influences his actions. The insights can help to develop deep and engaging media campaigns that will resonate with the target market to ultimately influence their behavior in the way you want them to, such as buying a product or service or being a loyal customer or even a brand ambassador.

Another good way to breed this business driven creative idea is to analyze your brand more vividly. We have to understand that every great brand has some meanings attached to them. These brands always have a differentiated position that sets them apart from their competition. These brands stand for something in the minds of consumers.

Deciphering Brand Loyalty

Great brands have always been able to establish a bond, primarily emotional, between themselves and their consumers. And this bond, amongst marketers, is known as “brand loyalty”. Great brands that are able to address real and meaningful brand loyalty in ways that resonate with their consumers will always be successful and profitable.

Studies show that strong brand loyalty is generally built on the basis of the following three parameters:

1. Differentiation in the mindset of the consumer

2. Relevance to the consumer

3. Credibility in the market

Brand Differentiation

Differentiation is the key for more strong brands and it can produce some dramatic business gains. You can build differentiation on the basis of product designs or service offerings. During my school days, I still remember Kwiks cheese balls dominated the market all across. Then a few years later, there was a new brand, U-n-Me cheese rings. U-n-Me cheese rings were similar in terms of their taste and other variables except for their shape which was in the ring shape creating a niche of ‘ring-shaped snack category’, and this was also clearly communicated through their advertising.

Or differentiation can be created by discovering a better business model to satisfy the same need of the consumer. Quite often, advertising is the most effective tool, which is used to create differentiation in the mindset of consumers. In advertising circles, there are three areas where you can differentiate yourself: in devising the right strategy, in evolving the right media mix, or in its creative execution. And, most often, it is achieved through a mix of the three.

Brand Relevance

Relevance is not absolute. In fact, it’s a bit of a moving target. Few years ago Blackberry was a highly relevant brand among youth, and upwardly mobile hyper-busy professionals. Not anymore. Technological advances from Apple and Samsung wiped the Blackberry off the map. Such is life in the world of high tech. If you don’t innovate quickly your brand relevance to the consumer will fall faster than you can presume.

Credibility begins by knowing yourself, meaning your brand, and the core essence of your company. You can’t stay true to yourself if you don’t know what you are really about: your passion, your purpose, and your promise.