The Heart of Your Business: Why Having a Soulful Brand is Essential For Startup Success

Photo: appshunter.io/Unsplash

There’s no question about it, if you grew up in the United States, and your childhood was anything like mine, at some particular phase of your life, your most absolute cherished product in the world was a Sony PlayStation (or an Xbox, that’s if you just wanted to be different).

Perhaps more so than any single product you’ve possessed (besides maybe your smartphone), the affinity you once had for your Sony PlayStation (whichever installment it was) was something like a love you’ve never experienced before or since towards one particular product.

But have you ever noticed that for as great of a fondness that you once had for your PlayStation console, you never had those same feelings towards the Sony brand? That’s because Sony is one of the few brands that has had such unique products—and a massive advertising budget—they could succeed by being an emotionless brand. 

Brands like Sony, with enormous advertising budgets and nearly inimitable products, could successfully get away with having a brand that isn’t soulful. As for the 98% of brands in the world that do not have that luxury—that certainly isn’t the case.

What makes a brand soulful?

Merriam-Webster defines soulful as: full of or expressing feeling or emotion. Brands that are soulful not only exemplify a particular emotion—they also evoke an array of emotions within their target audience. Soulful brands don’t touch their target audience emotionally just by happenstance, they do it intentionally at every marketing touchpoint. 

Through their commitment to touch the human mind, heart, and spirit, soulful brands market their brand in ways which connect with consumers’ hearts—and position their products as an extension of what their brand ideally represents. 

Examples of soulful brands

It is important to emphasize that brands that fall into the soulful category aren’t brands that lead with the specifications of their items or products. But rather instead, soulful brands set out to position their actual products as a byproduct of the strength of their respective brands.

That’s not to say that soulful brands do not advertise how great their products are; they just strategically market those products as a byproduct of what their brand stands for. 

Here’s a list of brands with plenty of soul that you’re probably familiar with:

• Apple

• Bud Light

• Doritos

• DoorDash

• Nike 

• Uber Eats

From their television advertisements, to their social media posts, and every other facet of marketing communications with their target audience—all of the abovementioned brands focus on connecting with consumers emotionally—and as a result—consumers are far more inclined to purchase their products or services as a reflection of the brand.

Why your brand should be soulful 

All great brands have unique personalities. And those personalities typically derive from their brand’s worldview. Unfortunately, in today’s ultra fast-paced and technology-driven startup landscape, startups often feel inclined to lead their marketing presentations with the performance of their products.

That’s not to say that conveying the benefits of your startup’s products or services in your marketing communications isn’t important (especially during its initial stages); but far too many startups have made the mistake of totally focusing their marketing activities towards selling their products. 

As opposed to aiming to connect with consumers emotionally. 

The reason why your startup will be more successful by becoming a soulful brand is because consumers connect most with brands that have personalities they could relate to. 

Albeit through aspiration, benevolence, humor, motivation, or any other quality that touches an audience emotionally—soulful brands stand out from their competitors by exuding a particular personality that resonates most and connects with the people they aim to attract emotionally. Which in turn, impels those consumers to make a purchase. 

Final thoughts 

Let’s keep it real, if your startup has products that are so uniquely beneficial to a viable audience (like the PlayStation), then your brand doesn’t have to have any type of personality and could remain a faceless, bland, and unexciting brand like the vast majority of startups that go on to fail. 

However, if your startup does not fall into that 2% of brands that have a massive advertising budget, and products that are so unique they cannot be replicated—you might want to prioritize branding it in a way that connects with its core audience on an emotional level. 

If you’d like to help increase the odds of your startup’s success by branding it in a way that connects with its target audience emotionally, contact us today to schedule a complimentary client consultation!