Is your brand an advocate for your customers?

It’s really easy to say, “Of course our brand is an advocate for our customers.” But I’m not talking about what’s expected. Like having a customer service pledge or a department dedicated to addressing complaints. That’s simply the price to play in today’s world. I’m talking about going beyond caring. That means building something special into the bones of your brand. Empathy.

When helping to build or evolve a brand, I look at four main components. One of those components is the people you hope to serve. A great brand has an unparalleled empathy for those it hopes to serve.

How do you give your brand that empathy? Here are a few tips.

Stop calling them your target audience

These are the people you hope to serve. When you refer to them as a target, you dehumanize them. How can we truly develop empathy for them when we talk about them as if we were hunting them down?

Create personas for your segments (the groups of folks you hope to serve.) Personas have you build a description of a person who represents the segment that you hope to serve. It’s easier to develop that empathy when you spend the time to describe the humanness of those you hope to serve.