When you peel away the layers of marketing and brand advertising for any product or service, and get down to the bare essentials of what a product’s actual function is, they’re usually not all that exciting.
Psychologically, however, consumers like to be wooed by companies who sell them products.
No matter how many boxes your product checks in terms of a target consumer’s needs and wants, the consumer still wants to know that you “get them.”
Most people long for deeper relationships, and to the extent your company can talk to target consumers the way you would talk with a friend, the more likely they will remember your company if they ever need the products or services you offer.
How Will You Remember Me?
ThriVe Express Women’s Healthcare strives to become “a good friend” to young women by being interested in what they are interested in.
ThriVe knew that an effective branding campaign would be essential to achieving this.
Bridge VanMeans explains:
“The other thing that we thought would be important was branding, because these kids are all addicted to branding. They only buy branded clothes. They only drink branded drinks. If you don’t have a brand, you are not relevant to them.
We thought it would be pretty easy to come up with a magnificent aesthetic look for the ThriVe centers. We decided to develop a highly stylized aesthetic, and a very strong brand, so that young women could start identifying with us as being kind of the hip, in-fashion, on-trend brand.”
A Neurologically Triggering Environment
ThriVe’s branding strategy seeks to show young women that it cares about what they care about, even for, and perhaps especially for, things that are not specifically part of “women’s healthcare.”
For example, ThriVe created a look and feel in their centers that resonates with the fashion-focused mindset of young women.
Bridget VanMeans explains:
“…we made the centers aesthetically dynamic. We call it a ‘neurologically triggering environment.’ I want her walking in and going, ‘Oh, my gosh!’ And I want her taking out her phone and taking pictures of the center. And that’s what happens, because that’s how cool the centers are, how gorgeous they are, how ‘blinged-out’ they are!”
I am not aware, at this time, of any other Pregnancy Help Center in the country that thinks this way.
It is a risky branding strategy – not in the sense that it might repel young women – but in the sense that it might “raise eyebrows” among ThriVe’s benefactors, many of whom will be 30 to 50 years older than the young women ThriVe is reaching with its branding messages.
While ThriVe’s “blinged-out” centers may not resonate personally with many of its benefactors, what will resonate powerfully with them is results.
After all, if ThriVe’s forward-thinking branding strategy didn’t improve results, as measured by market share, it would all be just for show.
Tomorrow, we’ll close out the week investigating if ThriVe’s branding approach paid off in terms of increased market share.
Regards,
Brett
