Impulse, Affinity, and AI - Building Brands of the Future Through Content and Community
Welcome
to the movement.
Let’s build an
Affinity Brand.
Where We’re At
The content landscape is shifting. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the way we work, live, and experience the world. Social platforms are reshaping the way content is delivered and consumed. With the future of consumer brand experiences in constant limbo, brands must understand the fundamentals of human needs in order to build strong, lasting businesses of the future. We’re here to help brands do just that.
Types of Brands
There are two types of brands:
Impulse brands
Affinity brands
Impulse Brands
Impulse brands take advantage of consumers, harnessing the power of human nature’s desire for instant gratification, impulsively selling consumers on products, building little appreciation for the brand. Impulse brands pull people away from what they want to be doing and consuming to drive revenue.
Impulse Brands take people away from what they want
😕
Impulse Brands take people away from what they want 😕
Affinity Brands
Affinity brands serve consumers value outside of just selling them products. They allow the consumer to feel heard, seen, and understood. They allow consumers to gain a sense of connection through a shared worldview, values, and identity. They also create community. With Affinity brands are where people want to spend their time.
Affinity Brands provide what people want
🙂
Affinity Brands provide what people want 🙂
Building Trust
with Consumers
Imagine your strongest friendships. How would you describe them? Are they extractive or additive to your life? Do you feel urged to do something that is not in your best interest when you’re with them? The greatest relationships in life are additive and authentic, serving the best interest of both parties. The same type of relationship should be true with brands and consumers.
The rise of AI will only continue to permeate the marketing landscape. It will be easier than ever before to create and push out enormous amounts of content, engaging consumers with impulsive content. Landing pages will auto-correct for conversions. Images will be produced with lifelike quality. And generative videos will cover social feeds.
However, when consumers view content put out by brands harnessing this new technology, there will be a moment of disconnect. A moment when they lose trust in the brands who’s ads are labeled with a “generated by AI” watermark on all of their advertising material. They will feel less connected, or even turned off. They may feel that the relationship is inauthentic.
This creates an opportunity. The question is: which type of brand will you be?
Stories + Connection
Humans love stories. They are a core driver of our evolution as a species. Stories help us learn, understand, and feel connected to one another (1, 2).
Today, people feel isolated. They lack meaningful connection with other humans who share their worldview and values. Amongst Gen Z, text message is the preferred method of communication with friends. In a hyper-connected world, we experience the paradox of isolation. (1, 2)
Strong brands have the opportunity to tap into this behavior, and make the life of the consumer better, and more connected emotionally, psychologically, and physically. They do so through affinity content, and by fostering both community and experience (and quality products, of course).
Affinity content exists to signal the worldview of a brand, engaging and attracting a particular type of person. It entertains, informs, relates to, inspires, and motivates its target consumer. Affinity content allows a brand to earn valuable time with the consumer. Time where the consumer is not being asked to purchase, but rather where value is being shared with the consumer. This can take many shapes and forms: a documentary, brand film, video series, or other creative medium such as written word or images.
The Role of Dopamine
When people have novel experiences, whether meeting new people, learning new things, pursuing difficult tasks, or consuming engaging content, there is a dopamine response within the brain (1, 2, 3). Dopamine drives us to seek more of what feels rewarding, whether it be food, alcohol, exercise, or various online activities (1).
The major social media companies have been criticized for their role in taking advantage of this natural, human relationship with dopamine, driving people of all ages to become addicted to their platforms (1, 2, 3). This approach has, in part, lead to the downfall of the legacy media companies. They sought readership via clickbait, impulsive content in order to sell ad space. For a while, it worked… Until it didn’t. Consumers shifted their focus to more authentic, independent media voices who provided high-value content, in an honest and reputable way. Today, the legacy media companies are slowly fading into the background.
There are consumer brands who implement these same tactics to get consumers to buy their products. They thrive on cheap content, without building meaningful relationships with consumers. Rather than building trust, they take advantage of the consumer’s brain function by gamifying consumer experiences, and leveraging short-form, impulsive content (1). We call these Impulse Brands. They tend to work… until they don’t. Their low price point typically represents their value of the relationship with the consumer. This is not to say that inexpensive products are inherently impulse brands, but many have to implement these tactics.
Meet Consumers
Where They’re At
American consumers spend upwards of 7 hours consuming digital media every day. Amongst teens, social media absorbs nearly 5 hours of their time every day (1, 2). We cannot change consumer behavior. But we can work with it to improve their lives, nudging them to embark on a journey towards a more empowered version of themself (1, 2). A version where they experience all of the benefits that can be provided by an Affinity Brand.
Consumers seek connection. Although they spend enormous amounts of time online, much of the content consumed provides them little value. We can change that and re-direct their behavior towards activities that will be more enriching to their lives, sense of wellbeing, and mental health. This can be done through affinity content.
Affinity Content helps brands build strong relationships with both prospective and existing consumers through media, by providing value outside of a product-for-dollar transaction. It is where a brand allows consumers to feel heard, understood, and enables them to feel emotionally connected to the brand. It entertains, informs, inspires, relates-to, and motivates its target audience.
Many successful brands implement this strategy into their marketing efforts. Brands like Nike RedBull, Apple, Yeti, Spotify, ON Running, The New York Times, and others.
Producing and publishing this content, and magnetically attracting your “in-group” creates an audience. This audience is a key component in the flywheel that creates strong brands. This audience is converted into a community.
Building a
Community
Every Consumer Product Brand inherently has a community baked into their company. As mentioned above, they are those who fall into your in-group, who purchase your products and consume your content. They are those with high affinity for your brand. Rather than creating a transactional experience, brands have the opportunity to build a community by converting customers into community members. This brings together likeminded individuals who have a shared set of values.
Within the community, people are able to connect with others who align with their interests, values, and worldview.
Imagine any time your have met someone with the same niche interest(s) as you. The conversation was endless, and experience gratifying. A parallell effect can be produced by consumer brands for consumers.
All of this is done not only because it is what is right, but also, when the question of what brand to purchase arises in the mind of the consumer, the question is already answered. Instead of taking, you are giving. And you continue to give. The consumer reciprocates with more than just their dollar. But with something just as, if not more valuable— their affinity. This is what builds lasting, strong, Affinity brands.
At Tale, we help consumer brands do this.
You can either pull people away from what they want, or you can be what they want.
Affinity brands are the future. You’ve chosen the right path (and it’s less crowded 😉).
If you're ready to build or transition into being an Affinity Brand, We’re here to help. At Tale, we specialize in aligning your brand’s Ideology with meaningful content, ensuring a distinct voice in the marketplace.
See our demo reel and work below.
Tale Demo Reel