3 Ways to Get Your Customers Psychologically Hooked on Your Brand

It's 1987. Dietrich Mateschitz, an Austrian-born entrepreneur, has just landed in Thailand for a meeting with his associates, and he's jet lagged. The 20+ hour trip is getting harder each time he has to make the trek, but this time he feels especially exhausted.

So after debarking the plane, Mateschitz makes his way through the maze of travelers, searching for a coffee shop, market, or something to help alleviate his symptoms.

Little did Mateschitz know, he was about to encounter a product that would change both the direction of his career, and brand building as we know it.

The Rise of Red Bull

Red Bull might have had a humble beginning, but it has grown into a brand behemoth, worth well over $18 billion dollars today. After discovering the Thai energy drink in the airport that fateful day, Mateschitz was able to rebrand and distribute the product to the Western market with unmatched success.

But unlike traditional soft drink companies, whose primary focus was on sweet-tasting, "thirst quenching" drinks, Red Bull's product had a lot of controversy around the taste...which is a big deal if you're selling something that has to be consumed to be enjoyed.

Red Bull had 3 major problems:

1. Customers weren't sold on the product because they hated the flavor.
2. Customers had no stake in the brand, and no connection to its product.
3. The brand was so new that nobody cared about them yet...

If you can't get customers to overlook the flavor of your products and your lack of notoriety, how will they ever experience the benefits your product provides?

The Genius of Red Bull

To overcome these obstacles, Red Bull did something no other beverage brand had attempted to do:

First, they turned a physical negative into a psychological positive.

Instead of changing their ingredients to increase flavor profile (which would have altered the energy benefits of the product), Red Bull decided to focus their entire marketing strategy on the psychological benefits of their product instead of the physical ones...which was actually really smart.

Ignoring the flavor helped people overlook it.

⭐️ Pro tip: When customers can't figure out whether they like something, it's best to either assign a psychological reason for that negative feature to exist, or ignore it completely. Minimizing the nasty flavor by pretending it didn't exist was a smart move on their part. Taste is subjective, after all...

Even today, some customers still can't figure out whether they like the taste, but it doesn't matter because they do like the psychological benefits the product provides, which is enough to get them hooked.

Second, they provided another psychological incentive...in the form of humor.

Red Bull then set about providing their customers with an additional psychological incentive by increasing the reach of their most important asset: humor.

In the early days, every ad Red Bull created was crafted as a stand alone cartoon, complete with funny characters and slap-stick humor. The cartoons were so unique in the space, they were easily recognizable by both customers and non-customers alike...which gave Red Bull the advantage.

⭐️ Pro tip: When breaking into a new market, it pays to creep on what your competitors are doing so you can do the exact opposite. 😅 Most brands don't realize how easily influenced they are by other brands in the space. Over time, advertising congeals, ads start to look the same, and the consumer's perspective of each individual company blends together.

Coming at the problem from an entirely new, visually interesting angle is the best way to become the favorite.

Finally, Red Bull hacked their growth by advertising backwards.

Once Red Bull had their product in place and ads up and running, they went straight for big brand status by running a full roster of large scale, super cool, adrenaline-pumping events. This put them in their own category and helped customers attach themselves to something other than the product..

Customers started to buy-in to the core emotion of Red Bull: exhilaration.

⭐️ Pro tip: in today's crowded markets, it pays to "go big or go home." Putting your brand in its own category by providing something other than your products will help customers get attached to what you stand for, not just what you're selling.

Instead of trying to get a ton of brand deals with TV shows or agencies, Red Bull put their entire marketing budget towards generating hype - and it worked.

They continue to be one of the biggest and strongest brands on the market to this day.

TLDR; If you can create a psychological positive out of your product's physical negatives, give customers a psychological incentive to help them "buy in", and create your own category by generating your own hype, you'll be the stand alone brand at the end of the day.

How to Do This for Your Brand

1. Turn your negatives into mental positives. If you've identified something your customers consistently complain about, don't try and get rid of it. Turn it into a positive by either assigning a reason for that thing to exist, or ignore it entirely and promote a larger, more valuable benefit instead.
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2. Create more psychological incentives. Humans need inspiration to thrive. Give your customers something more to grasp onto than just your product or service - create an environment where they can come to escape, get educated, be entertained, or simply relate to someone. The more you can do this, the better.
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3. Generate your own hype. Don't wait for customers to get excited about your product...that's the slow game. Generate your own hype by creating a party, industry event, after hours show, cartoon, community or humorous series. Get customers excited about being around you before you start selling to them. Reciprocation goes a long way.