How Media & Tech Brands Keep Us Coming Back
Tech businesses – like those in SaaS, media, and eCommerce – consistently top the list of the best brands. But what is it about them that keeps us coming back?
Tech and media are ingrained in our daily lives. We use web apps to work and organize our week. We watch sports and stream movies on Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon. Social media apps litter our phones and fill up hours of our day. The list goes on and on.
But what is it about tech and media brands that make them so universally loved? In this post, we’ll show you. Plus, we’ll give you access to our latest report highlighting top media and tech brands in the UK and Germany, today.
Let’s dive in.
The “Familiarity Feeling” Keeps Audiences Coming Back
We frequently talk about how important it is to build brand awareness. And for good reason. Besides putting you on the map in the minds of your prospects, it also enables you to mold your brand perception.
But brand awareness isn’t what motivates consumers to make a purchase. After all, consumers know about thousands of brands, but they only buy from one or two in every industry and category. The driving factor behind purchases is brand familiarity.
What is brand familiarity? Simply put, brand familiarity is customers’ knowledge of, and connection to a brand. Brand familiarity grows over time as customers have positive interactions with brand touchpoints like marketing campaigns, social media messaging, brand sponsored events, customer support, and virtually everything else included in the customer experience.
As top spots in SaaS verticals and media niches are hotly contested and customers get harder to hold on to, the need for brand familiarity is increasing. Not only does it minimize the impact of negative press and improve word-of-mouth referrals (WOM), but it also builds a better case for existing subscribers and free trial users to pay for full access to your solution.
Tech & Media Brands We Know and Love
The reality is, building a relationship with customers doesn’t happen overnight. It requires months and years of nurturing -- and in some cases, the right turn of events.
For instance, many big news, media, and eCommerce brands took off during the 2020 pandemic, due to the sudden need for their services. Shoppers turned to eCommerce stores like Amazon to purchase all sorts of consumer products – from food to exercise equipment – that they could no longer get from a brick-and-mortar store. News viewership reached an all time high in the United States, and news sources like social media rose multiple percentage points above their previous consumption rates. And streaming services across the board exploded in growth.
But the strategy behind their success goes much deeper than product necessity. These popular brands also focused heavily on their brand strategy and relationships with their customers.
Take Amazon for example. Besides building rapport with customers over the years – with its intuitive online store and exceptional delivery service – the leading eCommerce brand often markets with empathy and relatability. One of the most notable instances of this was during the pandemic, when they rolled out campaigns that spoke to the disappointments, struggle, and fear people were experiencing. As this helped customers feel understood and heard, Amazon was able to establish a greater sense of familiarity and affection for its brand.
But this isn’t a one-off strategy that Amazon whipped out to capitalize on the online shopping trend during the lockdown. Over the years, they’ve consistently used their ads to connect with customers and support their values of customer obsession and trust. As a result, they’ve successfully become the leading eCommerce brand on the market and earned the business of over 200 million Amazon Prime members.
By building empathy and appreciation for customer needs into your marketing campaigns, you can improve customer perception of your company and strengthen your prospects’ desire to get to know your brand. And done right, this can help you hold onto customers as seasons change and new events occur.
Creative Marketing Campaigns Are Pushing Tech Brands Forward
Sympathy and understanding aren’t the only emotions that resonate with customers. In fact, in 2020 and 2021, top technology brands and media companies used a variety of emotions and strategies to capture customer attention.
This year, Google and WhatsApp have been more upbeat in their messaging by highlighting the exciting time of global reopening alongside fun use cases for their product suite. Meanwhile, brands like eBay are using clever humor to entertain their customers and make their brand feel more relatable. And many companies have refreshed or built out a new, cohesive brand identity to ensure future campaigns, messaging, and design assets are spot on.
Regardless of approach, the outcome has generally been the same. These tech brands have increased their reach across the globe, strengthened their brand perception, and grown more familiar to their customers. And, as a result, many have increased their customer acquisition and retention.
With customers embracing the “new normal” of working, learning, and living at home – media and tech brands will only grow in their adoption and use cases. However, with so much competition in every vertical, it won’t get any easier to earn subscriber loyalty.
You can get a jump on the competition by getting familiar with the top tech and media brands in the UK and Germany, though. Check out our report to see which brands are in the top ten, today, and get some insight into how they’re doing it.
