Lovemarks Campus

There are many brands in female sports apparel, but few that distinguish themselves as Lovemarks. Lululemon Athletica is an example of a company that has moved from being a brand to dominating Lovemarks territory in its market. Let’s look at some ways in which it’s won Respect and used Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy to create a brand that is irresistible.

This year, Lovemarks Campus hopes to have earned your Respect as a resource for interesting journal articles, papers, exercises and workshops, case stories and insights on Lovemarks, emotional marketing and consumer learning. Our challenge next year is to grow our engagement with you and move into the Love quadrant.

Tire brands like Michelin, Goodyear and Dunlop may be familiar to us, but what is the emotional equity of these brands? Let’s look at some examples of how tire brands are harnessing Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy to lead them on the journey towards Lovemarks.

A brand must deliver on Performance, Trust and Reputation in addition to the more creative elements of Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy if it is to develop lasting and meaningful relationships with consumers. Without Respect, a brand is just a Fad or Commodity on the Love / Respect Axis.

Like in all great journeys, this exercise is about storytelling. By describing where a brand is in its journey towards being Irresistible by writing it in the form of a postcard, new perspectives can be gained on where the brand has been, where it is now, and where it is going.

Do expensive wines really taste better? According to a study (2008) by the California Institute of Technology and Stanford University, wine tastes better if people think it’s expensive. Hugh Johnson, a wine writer for The Sunday Times said that the same type of reaction is common for people viewing designer label clothing.

Commodities are products that receive Low Love and Low Respect. Products people need but don’t desire, or even like a lot. So how does a commodity make the transition from being taken for granted to being relentlessly loved? From being irreplaceable to being irresistible? To trace the journey from commodity to Lovemark let’s take a look a product like flour. Can flour be loved?

This paper explores Respect and its relevance to marketing relationships. Care, acceptance, equality, responsibility and achievement emerge as themes, and respect is found to be “an indispensable lynchpin to relationships”.

This paper tests the Lovemarks theory and develops a tool to help convert brands into Lovemarks. Emotional factors of Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy are shown to have the strongest effect on buying decisions and a stronger customer-brand bond is best achieved through Intimacy.