I don’t know who needs to hear this, but brands can’t be friends with people. A brand desperately trying to be a ‘lovemark’ is like a distant acquaintance desperately trying to be your BFF. It’s pathetic, at best.
Yes, brands must consistently perform to gain people’s trust. Brands must consistently exceed consumers’ expectations to earn their respect. And brands must (positively) surprise people, in order to deserve advocacy. But brands have to be satisfied with advocacy. Because advocacy is a brand’s crowning achievement.
Love is another thing altogether. Love is ineffable, precious, elusive… It’s not for brands or things. Love is for beings. Beings usually give love to other beings. Brands can’t give love. And if they can’t give it, do they deserve to receive it? Only in rare cases, would humans say they love an inanimate object. And in reality, their emotion is usually directed at the people and experiences associated with the object, not the object itself.
Just ask them why they (claim to) love ‘that thing’, and listen. Are they mentioning product features, benefits and service quality? Or do they talk about what ‘that thing’ enables them to do, see and feel? Now, which of these aspects elicit emotions, and is it really love? Not the object. And: probably not.
People only have so much love to give. So, the best brands will not arrogantly expect to receive some of it, but rather humbly serve as a conduit for love between beings, and a trusted catalyst for positivity in people’s lives.
