A Direct Marketing Agency - Helping Brands Acquire and Retain Customers

Henry Winkler once said, "Assumptions are the termites of relationships." Of course he was speaking of relationships between people; however, if a recent MediaPost's Online Video Insider post by Gregory Wilson is any indication, it applies just as well to brand relationships.

In his post, Wilson tells an interesting anecdote about a CMO of an undisclosed company speaking about quantifying relationships via online video. Wilson quotes the CMO:  "If we can measure how long someone is engaged in my advertising, then we can start to get a handle on how well my branding is working." The parallel drawn here is that a relationship between a customer and a brand is comparable to a relationship between people.

In general, this may be true. However, while it is possible to have this meaningful exchange between a person and a brand, it isn't enough to assume that a positive relationship exists simply because there has been time spent. There are two reasons for this.

First, there is the issue of what constitutes a relationship. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word relationship as "the state of being related; a condition or character based upon this" (OED 2008). There is nothing here that says anything about the nature of the relationship. Thus, a mouse may be said to have a relationship with a hungry cat. A tonsil may be said to have a relationship with a virus. A failed skydiver may be said to have a relationship with rapidly approaching concrete.

Secondly, there is the communicative issue. Productive relationships involve an exchange on an intellectual or emotional level. That is, one person can't do all the talking in a true relationship. There are countless ex-wives who will attest to this. In the relationship between a person and a brand, the conversations tend to be one-sided, with the brand doing all of the talking. Only when a person actively and positively engages with the brand in what at least feels like mutual communication will the relationship feel productive.

Thus, the key is to engage the customer in a positive and mutually communicative way over time. This is why in-the-box questionnaires, coupons with purchase, and sweepstakes surveys on receipts are so good at building brand relationships. The more the customer has the opportunity to interact with a company and feel as if they are participating in the relationship, the stronger the relationship becomes. Because the Internet is primarily a communication tool, the opportunities expand astronomically with Internet-driven promotions. (And that's a subject for another blog post.)