The FMCG sector is a competitive one. Thousands of products from hundreds of brands are displayed to the shoppers in supermarkets, grocery, and convenience stores. How can an FMCG brand remain top of mind of customers and increase its market share? By connecting with the customer.
In this article, we are going to focus on helping you understand the importance of humanizing your brand. While it might sound just like another buzzword, a humanized brand is one that customers appreciate and recall faster.
“Humanizing” your brand
You might be wondering what we mean by humanizing your brand. Well, it refers to adopting a more personable approach and communication style. By humanizing your brand you give your shoppers the possibility to get to know your brand as a person. Nowadays, a brand needs to be perceived as a person, not as a business.
For this to happen, you want to make sure that your brand has a personality. This personality or vibe is given by the brand voice, story, brand elements, and core values. All of these combined offer your shoppers the real image of your brand.
Why it’s important to humanize your CPG brand
While a brand is not a person, your shoppers are and they need to build connections. Also, statistics show that 64% of customers want brands to connect with them. By bonding with shoppers and showing them that your brand is approachable you have a better chance of building trust.
Customers tend to develop emotional connections with brands. Actually, over 60% of both men and women mentioned they felt an emotional connection with a brand. This impacts the purchasing decision. Why? Because most purchasing decisions are emotion-based. People shop because they need products, but they select the ones from brands they trust, like, and have a connection with.
5 tactics to help humanize your CPG brand
Now that we’ve discussed the importance of humanizing your brand, let’s see some tips that can help you with your own FMCG brand.
1. Share the brand’s core values
This is the most important thing in branding. Every brand has a mission, a vision, and core values. When it was created, the brand needed to fill a gap in the market and it tried to help customers. As time goes by, you have to remember those values and share them with your shoppers.
89% of shoppers stay loyal to brands that share their values. Customers want brands to be more involved in the most pressing problems in the world. From racism to climate change issues, shoppers are expecting brands to take a stand. Get involved, share your core values, and show shoppers what you stand for.
2. Use storytelling
Storytelling in retail is an important strategy that can help brands connect with customers. We all love stories and we like to be immersed in them. When brands use storytelling in their campaigns they manage to humanize their brands.
Share the story of your brand and allow customers to get to know your roots and your mission. Include storytelling in your campaigns, both online and in-store to create connections with shoppers.
3. Make your products talk to customers
Retail technology allows you to promote your brand and products in a more innovative way. Tokinomo, the robotic POP display, is the perfect solution for promoting products in-store. It allows products to speak, dance, and sing at the point of sale. This manages to humanize your products as well.
This is an amazing way to connect and engage with shoppers in-store. While on social media you can engage with customers 24/7, it’s difficult for brands to connect with your brand in-store. With Tokinomo it is possible.
4. Speak your audience’s language
No matter if you have a campaign in-store, share a post on social media, or publish an “about us” page on your website, it is essential to speak the language of your shoppers. This makes you more relatable.
Customers will be more likely to engage with brands that speak their “language”. Depending on the target audience, adapt your brand voice to make them feel as if they can reach out to you anytime.
5. Constantly engage with customers
Last but not least, it’s all about being constant. Shoppers need to know that you will respond when they have an issue or when they want to praise your products on social media. While it might be harder to engage with shoppers in-store, it is not impossible. Sampling, pop-up shops, POP display robots, events, and in-store brand activations are great tactics that will help you connect with shoppers.
Allow your customers to connect with your brand
Nowadays, shoppers create real connections with brands. This leads to higher brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. However, when brands tend to focus solely on business instead of engagement, shoppers head directly to the competition.
By humanizing your brand you allow your customers to relate to it, connect, and create an emotional bond.
