How to become a brand your customers can't live without

Spotify, Flo, Google, Microsoft 365 – what do these brands have in common?

Aside from being uber-successful multi-billion-dollar businesses, that is.

The answer, which is also largely the reason behind such success, is the way these brands have seamlessly integrated themselves into our daily lives.

We hardly give a second thought to when we use them, as they facilitate our daily routines.

I like to think about brands like this as if they were contact lenses. They improve the quality of my life so much that now I literally couldn’t live without them.

Because of this, products like this are generally called 'facilitators', but brands can also position themselves to do the same. How? By facilitating valuable experiences and becoming a habitual part of your customers lives.

When make your brand a habit, you create a level of customer loyalty that can last a lifetime.

Because the thing with habits, is they’re notoriously hard to break.

But how do we even begin to think about creating this level of connection?

To be a habit-forming brand, your product or service needs to solve a daily need or pain point.

Products and services that enhance convenience or meet daily needs are, of course, more likely to become habitual.

And that daily problem you solve needs to become a main part of your brand's messaging.

Problem-solving messaging focuses on the customer’s challenges instead of talking about product features. When your messaging underlines the problems you solve, you stop being another company/business/vendor. Instead, you become a valuable habit your customers can’t replace.

In a crowded market, be the brand that directly addresses problems and cuts through the sea of similar sales pitches.

Create triggers for repeated use.

Think about how you can tie your business to specific routines, like a morning cup of coffee, a workout, or lunchtime. This will encourage your customers to use your product or service at the same time each day.

Barry Davret via Medium explains how triggers influence much of our behaviour behind the scenes. And while the formula for creating triggers is simple, the execution is not so much.

The formula goes as follows:

Senses + Emotion + Brand + Repetition = Trigger

And here’s how he breaks them down:

Senses — Anything that touches the senses. It could be the sight of a physical object, a sound, a smell, taste or feeling.

Emotion — The stronger the emotion, the more likely we will remember the experience. Two weeks from today, I will have forgotten what I ate for dinner last night. But if my family and I had all gotten food poisoning from it, you can bet I would remember it for a long time.

Brand — Brand refers to you, your product or service, or your idea.

Repetition — Repetition refers to repeating the process. If the emotion is super powerful, like the food poisoning example, you don’t need repetition. In the real world, marketers intrude on the lives of their prospects. Nobody invites you in. Repetition helps you penetrate the barriers they put in front of you.

As an example, let's think about these triggers in the context of a local cupcake business:

Senses — Potential customers eat a freshly baked cupcake at a party.

Emotion — They associate this experience with pleasure, fun, friendship, and celebration.

Brand — They notice a sticker on the wrapper that says, ‘Linda’s Cupcake Shop.’

Repetition — Linda continues to bake cupcakes for events in her local area, increasing brand awareness.

Trigger — Locals begin to think, 'I’m throwing a party. I need to call Linda for cupcakes.'

Obviously, this is easier said than done. Creating a trigger for your product is a prized accomplishment for any business. If you can pull it off successfully, you’re all set.

Subscriptions and loyalty programs also contribute to habitual positioning.

Why? Because these programs reward your customers for their loyalty to your services. They keep them engaged without you having to think about doing so. And they incentivise repeated use.

Habit formation comes from small, repeatable, actions that eventually become embedded.

The meditation app Headspace does this well, encouraging users to meditate daily by sending reminders. The app offers short, accessible sessions that are easy to integrate into a routine.

Think about how you can gently nudge people to return to you daily by using reminders, challenges or streaks that reward continued use.

Combine this with a subscription and you’ve basically married your customer.

The goal is to create touchpoints that naturally fit into customers' daily lives. This makes your product indispensable over time, creating a relationship that lasts a lifetime.

Start by asking yourself:

• How can I make my product or service a part of a daily routine?

• How does my product improve lives?

• Does it make it more enjoyable? More convenient?

And most importantly: Is this clear in your messaging?

Being a brand is one thing. Being a routine in your own right is something else entirely.

-Sophie, Writer