Admittedly, you've successfully designed, marketed, and produced your latest innovation, and that's a solid foundation. But offering a good product (or service) that meets a real customer need won't necessarily guarantee that they won't ultimately choose a competitor. Nope. Because beyond the practical use they might get from your product or service, your customer has a Holy Grail, a quest (sometimes conscious, sometimes not) that is essential to keep in mind to convince and retain them.
Through their act of consumption, they actually want, or even need, what you offer to be consistent with their identity: this is what we call "identity congruence" (yes, it's an ugly term, we'll grant you that, but it's the official one). However, our identity is complex, fluid, and depends on multiple factors that we inherit or choose. While some are quite stable and objective ("city dweller," "European"...), others are more malleable and subjective ("athlete," "Mac user"...). In addition to being multi-categorical, our identity evolves with context or the passage of time: we rarely aspire to the same things at 20 and 40 (although at forty, we sometimes miss being twenty – but that's not the point). And to make matters worse, we can even feel like we belong to several categories at once.
In short, you get the idea: your customers' multi-dimensional identity inevitably influences their purchasing behavior. Because they don't just focus on the utilitarian aspect of your product or service: they are looking for a way to express their identity, to give meaning to their act of consumption, to create a favorable self-image, especially if they are sensitive to what others think of them. Hence the importance of offering a product, brand, or experience whose symbolism, personality, values, or attributes are in line with your customers' current identity, or their ideal identity (yes, because there's sometimes a "gap" between the categories they resemble and those they aspire to, otherwise, it would be a bit too simple).
Identity congruence is therefore a decisive factor in brand loyalty and recommendation; this is why brands associated with identity concerns are more likely to have a loyal customer base. Let's take Apple as an example, of course, which, with its powerful advertising and its "Think different" slogan, has made its name synonymous with " the outsiders and enthusiasts who see the world differently and dare to shake it up, to move it forward and make it better " (as a certain Steve J. put it). Apple doesn't just offer a product but a vision, a philosophy, a mindset that its community members identify with.
Identity congruence is therefore a decisive factor in brand loyalty and recommendation; this is why brands associated with identity concerns are more likely to have a loyal customer base. Let's take Apple as an example, of course, which, with its powerful advertising and its "Think different" slogan, has made its name synonymous with " the outsiders and enthusiasts who see the world differently and dare to shake it up, to move it forward and make it better " (as a certain Steve J. put it). Apple doesn't just offer a product but a vision, a philosophy, a mindset that its community members identify with.
To summarize and send you off on your way, with our daily tip in hand: the more your brand allows a customer to define and maintain a positive self-image, and the more you are able to offer them a product aligned with their identity, the stronger their emotional attachment to your brand will be. And to do this, all that's left is to clearly define your customers' expectations and needs ;)
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