In 2023, with the energy crisis, unstable geopolitical situations, and supply chain challenges, warning signals are multiplying, heralding a tense and highly competitive economic environment.
It is now crucial for every advertiser to:
- Stand out from competitors to support their results
- Reinvest and strengthen the trust relationship to foster customer loyalty
How can this be achieved? By focusing on your brand’s values! Dartagnan has drawn inspiration from its clients’ campaigns and shows you how to make your emails the most effective tool for enhancing your brand image and commitments.
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Why invest in your brand’s values and commitments during a crisis?
In a rapidly evolving world, brands are obligated to appeal to and distinguish themselves in front of their audience to navigate an increasingly competitive landscape. Their most significant asset: a brand image driven by strong values and commitments.
Inflation in 2023: impact on buying behavior
Even as consumer spending continues to decline, inflation is emerging as a major concern for consumers globally and is already affecting their habits.
To compensate for their loss of purchasing power, consumers are not hesitating to seek out the best opportunities:
- Price research and promotional offers
- Comparison of product and service quality
- Increasing demands on return policies
At present, consumers have all the necessary tools to navigate wisely among the offers, and they are increasingly willing to trust new names as long as they meet their expectations.
Adapting your business and marketing strategies
To cope with this ultra-competitive environment, brands must more than ever show agility and adapt their business and marketing strategies.
- Diversification of the product or service range
- Adaptation and rationalization of pricing strategies
- Cost control
- Innovation, digitization, and reinvention of the shopping experience
- Adaptation of logistics practices to address supply chain dysfunction
- Optimization of cross and omnichannel approaches
Among the many possible approaches, according to the 2022 Nielsen Global Annual Marketing Report, two strategic factors for differentiation and sustainability seem to stand out:
- Enhancing your brand image and establishing a top-of-mind position in your industry
- Being increasingly transparent about your values, promises, and the actions taken to fulfill them.
Brand engagement: a consumer expectation
By implementing these strategies, brands are merely aligning themselves with the increasing number of consumers who are vocal about their expectations. Therefore:
- Nearly 66% of people are willing to pay more if it means using brands that express concern for the values that matter to them.
- More than half of US consumers preferentially buy products from brands that support causes they believe in.
- 92% of consumers consider it important for companies to act responsibly.
The days when brands had an obligation to remain reserved are gone. Today, more than ever, consumers expect advertisers to commit to just causes, express their worldview, and show how they participate.
In short, they expect brands to be ethical, responsible, and to prove it!
| Optimize your email strategy: the best way to accelerate your performance. Dartagnan explains how to do it. |
CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) policies, values, and commitments: the beneficial impacts of showcasing them to your audience
Provided that this commitment is genuine and enduring, a brand’s ability to develop a real policy of social and environmental responsibility influences public opinion and positively affects the image it conveys.
Building trust with your audience and fostering customer loyalty
It is estimated today that:
- 65% of consumers remain loyal to a brand because of its social responsibility
- 84% of consumers tend to speak positively about companies with social responsibility commitments
Customers and consumers are more likely to trust a brand that engages and shares its values. They can then become its best ambassadors.
Currently, 67% of companies are adapting their marketing strategy to focus on customer retention rather than customer acquisition, which is a much more profitable approach!
Ultimately, giving more visibility to your values and commitments also means strengthening your branding, gaining transparency and authenticity, and this is precisely what will earn you the trust and loyalty of your target audience.
Getting to know your audience better
By sharing your causes and actions, you also give yourself the opportunity to identify the issues that matter most to them.
Just like Jules, you can even go as far as building survey campaigns to better understand your customers’ concerns and their expectations regarding your brand.
These initiatives are not only valuable for your email performance but also for co-creating your brand’s positioning and marketing strategies in line with your target audience’s concerns.
Transforming customer relations and the buying journey
Promoting your CSR policies, as well as your values and commitments, is also a fantastic opportunity to enrich your customer relationships and reinvent your buying journeys.
With 18h39.fr, Castorama has gathered its audience around a media platform with ethical and responsible values, aiming to inspire its readers on topics related to decoration, home improvement, renovation, gardening, new lifestyles, DIY, and more.
With Relove, Jules has built a community where each member shares their opinions on collections, tests products, expresses their needs, expectations, and tastes – essentially co-creating the Jules of the future.
In both cases, these brands (which are part of Team Dartagnan) have developed dedicated email campaigns to further unite their community around their values.
It’s an innovative and highly engaging approach in which email plays a significant role.
How to make your emails a tool for promoting your values and commitments?
Because it is the most ROI-driven marketing channel and the most direct and impactful mode of communication with your customers, your emails are also the most effective tool for enhancing your brand image with your customers. Here’s how to do it.
1. Don’t hesitate to create dedicated campaigns
Let your recipients know that your approach isn’t always commercial. Like Clarins, feel free to create dedicated campaigns to:
- Review the actions you’ve taken and the progress you’ve made
- Share what they have contributed to through their support for your brand
- Thank them for their contribution and loyalty
2. Embed your brand values and commitments in all your emails
Your commitment should be ongoing, and your values are meant to endure. Prove it by designing dedicated modules to insert within each of your campaigns to highlight your values and commitments in your emails.
Similar to Quitoque, the use of icons and column modules is often very useful to create a concise and visually striking summary.
Take this opportunity to highlight the quality of your products and services and provide assurances about your production and quality control processes.
3. Tell your story and your actions
Storytelling is crucial in these campaigns and it’s perhaps one of the settings where your audience will dedicate more time to reading your emails.
As in Club Med’s emails, don’t hesitate to expand your narrative:
- It ensures the authenticity of your commitment
- It allows your customers to learn more about you and your actions
Finally, don’t forget to incorporate testimonials: they tug at the emotional strings and are the most formidable tools for persuasion and alignment!
4. Encourage your recipients to take action
According to a study by the Kea Tilt firm, not only are brands expected to commit, but they are also considered to have an impact on consumer behavior and the ability to contribute to changing the world.
Take advantage of your emails to give prominence to the associations and actions you support. Offer your customers the opportunity to share your commitments and support the causes that matter to you.
5. Make your emails tools for education, awareness, and evangelization
Your emails can be a fabulous tool for raising awareness and educating your audience. The proof is in these emails from La Roche-Posay about pediatric cancers and eczema.
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