The more love you can generate with your most cherished consumers, the more power, growth, and profit you command. It’s as simple as that.

But, how do you achieve it? Well, to complement his excellent book, Beloved Brands, Graham Robertson gave us the whistle-stop tour of how to create brands that people don’t just engage with, they love them. This talk isn’t just theory – it’s super practical too.

Some of the headlines included:

• Why brand love matters
• The difference between a product and a brand
• The love cycle, and how brands build emotional attachments over time, with associated actions
• Why you should love your customers back
• Setting your brand out as the solution to the enemy
• Figuring out your customers through insights and the tools to do so
• The consumer benefits ladder – insights, product, functional, emotional
• The functional & emotional benefit cheat sheet
• The balance between creativity and strategy
• Why ‘love it’ is the best bar you can set
• Why brand love means more profit

 Graham’s profile:

We’re really excited to have the author of Beloved Brands, and founder of the namesake company speaking with us. Graham Robertson.

Professionally, Graham has led some of the world’s most beloved brands at Johnson and Johnson, Coke, General Mills, and Pfizer, rising up to VP Marketing. He’s won numerous awards including Marketing Magazine’s “Marketer of the Year”, BusinessWeek’s best new product award and 4 Effie advertising awards. His book, Beloved Brands, is the playbook for how to build a brand that consumers will love. Might I say with it sat on my desk with tea stains very happily on it, that it’s one of the most practical marketing/business books I have ever read.

On a personal level, we first came into contact with Graham at the beginning of lockdown when we announced our webinar schedule. We asked the community who else they’d like to see and Graham’s name was mentioned a couple of times. Some days later we were on a call and we immediately saw why people were so keen to have him involved. Not only is Graham’s philosophy very much in line with everything we’re trying to do with The Marketing Meetup (he speaks about love for goodness sake!), but having had the chance to work through his book, Beloved Brands, he also outlines very practical steps on how you can go about creating a brand that matters, truly.

Graham himself posted possibly the best explanation why this session is relevant. We would try and add to it, but he said it best, so here it is: The reason behind creating beloved brands is simple; you make more money. If consumers love your brand, they think less and feel more. They cheer on your every move; defend you at parties, buy the mugs….pay higher prices. Retailers cave to your every demand. Suppliers cut their costs to be part of your roster. Competitors can’t replicate the emotional bond. You can enter new markets, and your consumers will follow. Higher usage frequency as your brand becomes linked to their favorite part of their day or week or year. You don’t need to promote on price. People want to work for your company, and they know everything about your brand on day 1. You get free media, easier search, free influencers talk. The more love you can generate with your most cherished consumers, the more power, growth, and profit you command.