Empathy is a Brand’s Superpower
By Levina Kusumadjaja
Think of your favorite coffee shop.
That familiar scent of the room when you step inside the place. The baristas smiling at the familiar sight of you. The eco-friendly paper cup with the bamboo straw. Your favorite spot, away in that corner, right by the window.
Now, tell me, why is this your favorite coffee shop? What makes this coffee shop stand out from the rest of the other coffee shops?
Chances are you will tell me all about how the coffee shop makes you feel. Perhaps it makes you feel so at home. Perhaps you feel like it’s the friendliest place in your neighborhood. Perhaps you feel like you’re so valued and appreciated because the way the baristas handle coffee follows all the proper guidelines of how to make the perfect cappuccino. But even if you are a coffee expert yourself and you tell me about all the unique ways that this shop roasts and brews their coffee, the core of it is still about how you feel about the place.
This is the reason why empathy is a brand’s superpower.
Because the main point of branding is to create an emotional connection between the brand and the customer, empathy is the key to capture the customer’s heart. Empathy is the skill that makes customers feel understood, valued and seen. It is what makes them leave that particular coffee shop feeling like they just had the best time in the whole world. It’s not about making stuff up and faking it in the market so that customers believe the brand is what it says it is. It is about understanding what the customers desire and becoming the brand that fulfils those desires.
The main point of branding is that emotional connection between the brand an the customer.
Empathy places the customer at the focus of the whole journey. It is not about what the brand can showcase, but it is about what the customer longs to experience. It’s about that “aha” moment when the customers express, “Oh my goodness, this brand gets me!”—this is the emotional connection that we’re talking about. A brand is able to connect with customers not because it fulfils a certain industry standard, but because the brand knows who the customers are, what the customers are like, and how to talk to the customers.
Just like every human relationship, the connection is formed when the people in the relationship feel understood and their needs are met.
In a human relationship, meaning comes from the depth of understanding, acceptance and fulfilment in the relationship. You need to know one another deeply and then from that place, you will know how to make the other person happy. What makes a relationship work is the ability and willingness to listen and put the other person’s needs first. Similar to brands and customers, what makes a brand’s relationship with the customers work is when the brand listens to the customer and practices empathy.
Once a brand understands and knows the customer, everything else will overflow from that understanding.
Branding isn’t complicated. What makes branding complex is when the brand knows nothing about the customer. If a brand knows exactly what the customers are feeling, thinking, and desiring, there will be endless options to build an emotional connection with the customers. To do this, a brand must have empathy—and that’s why empathy is a brand’s superpower.
“The way people feel and think are important because people buy with emotions. We think people buy with logic but they don’t, people buy with emotions. And that’s the way we interact with brands.”
- Nick O
Cheers!
Levina
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About the author:
Levina is a writer based in Indonesia. Because of Melinda Livsey, she recognized the power of brand strategy for every creative. She is sharing about her learnings as she goes to help creatives have fun in their growth and journey of building brands. Connect with her on LinkedIn and say hi!