Marketing has been revolutionized by changes in digital communications revolution. But more recently, their role has been influenced by a more open, yet localized world, a trend further galvanized by rising protectionism. As a result, brands find themselves fighting for their customers, striving, and rushing to deliver as much personalized marketing content as possible.

Marketing personalization is easier said than done. It’s not merely about catering to consumers, but about connecting with them in a way that feels authentic and emotionally resonant. It requires a healthy dose of consumer psychology, an understanding of brand trust, as well as an appreciation of the customer’s culture. Let’s dive in.

 

Marketing personalization through the lens of consumer psychology

Personalization and data-driven online marketing and analysis are big steps forward to bring branding and communication to the next level. Marketing personalization is an innovative, advanced set of tactics and tools to deliver customized messages and content to individuals. Artificial intelligences even open new possibilities analyzing and using consumer psychology, behaviors and patterns to bring and create personalized content at a new level and frequency. But personalization is also facing and bringing new challenges and risks: hyper-personalization and distrust. Individualized content and personalization can be powerful, build trust, and create loyalty.

Thanks to social media and digital platforms, consumers not only get information faster, anytime from everywhere, but their online behavior delivers content more personalized and can be globally targeted. However, the side-effect can be that consumers face overstimulation and hyper-communication or finding over personalized content annoying, irrelevant, an invasion of their privacy, or untrustworthy.

And so instead of creating trust and a good relationship, brands are facing a more skeptical and questioning target group trend these days. The growing importance of online reviews and ratings is just one indicator – flanked by the human nature of being always bit skeptical. The 2023 Edelman TrustBaraometer supports this observation and points out customers' strong discerning buying decisions.

 

 

There are a variety of reasons for this development. Nevertheless, it also shows that brand authenticity and the connection to consumer trust are important, underrated drivers. Products and their performance create trust, but why are consumers buying one exact product from one company and not another? It comes down to their trust for the brand. Consumers' emotions, experiences, and biases greatly influence what/if they are buying.

The B2C sector is even more obvious than in the B2B. Every brand gives promises and can communicate convincingly, but a brand and its value proposition must be fulfilled. If it seems untrustworthy or inconsistent, it creates distrust and crumbles. Trust and fulfilled promises are key and can strengthen a brand and customer relations.

 

How brands can foster trust through marketing personalization

It’s no surprise that image, personality and story differentiate a brand from competitors and creates loyalty and trust. Trust seems intuitive, but there are important nuances. It is a soft factor and, therefore, hard to measure and easily proven, which is why it is by the management and marketers often overseen and taken as easily given. It gets often forgotten but is a main ingredient for effective marketing and branding. Trust is not old-fashioned; it is cool and trendy. Even the numbers speak for it. According to The Edelman Trust Report in 2023, 71% percent of people say that it is more important to trust the brands they buy/use today than in the past.

A brand’s actions, and the story behind them stimulate the brain in specific ways, while building positive emotions and trust. A story is not told once and remembered; it needs to be manifested and time to be seen and experienced as trusted and create an authentic brand. Having personalized solu- tions and focusing on customer-centric content is key, but overdoing can harm the effort and turn into distrust. Marketing and brand communication must also follow the "in media res" approach and focus on consumer needs and personality.

Personalized and user-generated content is good as it makes life and buying needed goods easier. Still, at the same time, marketers face ethical factors. Consumers are curious about where all this personalized information comes from and are afraid for their data privacy. Brands are experiencing a rising global data sensitivity of consumers which should not be underestimated. Furthermore, just creating content to create content and tell something will not work. Yes, we live in a world where we face much information, but to get the information to be received, it needs more; it needs relevance, authenticity and balance.

Marketers can take various actions to prevent personalization from becoming distrusted or overflowing information and becoming irrelevant and disruptive. Companies must improve their customer interactions and add relevant value to delivered content. Consumers want their needs to be understood, even if they don’t know them yet. Brands can unleash unknown wishes if they know their targetgroups and anticipate their behavior.

Loyalty programs and promotions can create a deep and long-standing relationship with consumers. But they must be simple to join and use, stay relevant, and deliver added value to the client and the company by raising awareness. If a consumer sees no benefit in such programs or the solution delivery by a product and brand there is a higher chance of departing. The same goes for an overflow of communication and hyper-personalization within loyalty programs. Not everyone wants to be a member in every program and on too many programs. Humans are lazy and want to keep it simple. It should attack their needs and give them the most and best they can get.

Personalizing content by appreciating local consumer culture

Of course, not everyone is and feels the same about personalized content, and we see the big impact of culture, learning, and the "all-time favorite" persona here. Demographics, culture, social surroundings, and preferences are all the basis for marketing and communication but are often forgotten. We can and should not do marketing and communication activities for everyone; there is not an everyone person.

Culture and what people learn during their life is formative. There are also cultural differences in consumer psychology, so why should there not be differences and actions needed for branding and communication? A global branding strategy is great but does it 100% work in every country? The answer is no; simple to understand while pointing it out like this but also underestimated. Good global branding can be the guideline and value framework but needs localization, customized to the market segments and their characteristics.

Therefore, up-to-date market intelligence reports and persona identifications, a real interest in the market, its issues and needs are key; otherwise, a brand seems e.g., cool and great, but its solutions and products will not be bought because they are irrelevant and not trusted to fit the consumers' requirements. Brands must create meaningful experiences and enjoyment, not randomly but targeted and crossing and staying on their target customer's journey. Otherwise, they will be just "another brand".

The role of emotion in personalization and brand trust

Personalizing marketing and communication activities is the new trend and seems sophisticated, but are they? The importance of "ethos" (=trustworthiness) is well known in rhetoric since Aristotle defined the rhetorical triangle. Many things changed but also stayed the same. Emotions and trust are connected to a person's decisions and desires. Still today, brand ethos is needed to gain and keep the trust of clients and the brands' significance for them. Trust is not old-school; it's the bestseller.

Trust is the engine of successful branding.

Trust in a brand, its values and commitment, how it treats consumers and, getting back to the double-edged sword, personalization. Losing trust is much easier than gaining it. Trust is creating new relationships and maintaining relation- ships. In addition, showing imperfection is an unexpected strength to build trust. A brand doesn't have to have a solution for everything; sometimes, consumers want companies to point out an issue and work on solutions (a particularly strong approach for B2B brands).

Fighting for the existing consumer is as important as acquiring a new one. Trust is linked to brand engagement and forms brand engagement. Trust is necessary for a brand to grow and must be balanced with personalization. An authentic brand is a powerful asset that adds value to a company's profitability and success. All in all, the cards holding the skills of creating brand trust need to be played well, and at the right time.

Photo by Tim Mossholder via UnSplash

References for Consumer Psychology and Marketing Personalization

Baer, J. (2021, September). The Power of Personalization: How Brands Can Build Trust and Loyalty. Forbes.

Beveridge, C. (2022, December 8). What is user-generated content? And why is it important? Hootsuite

2023 Edelmann TrustBarometer (May, 2023). Special report: The Collapse of the Purchase Funnel. Edelman.

Hollinger, P. (2022, May 24). European business leaders fear rising protectionism. Financial Times.

Paul, A. M. (2012, March 17). Your Brain on Fiction. The New York Times

The power of branding. Design Council - Design for Planet (2013, June 22