Charm Appeal: The latest big brand strategy

Do you have an established brand, but you can't figure out how to re-engage your target audiences without feeling like you are raking over old ground? Are you seeing a rise in competitors and you want to stand out from the crowd? Then turn on your brand's charm and re-engage your customers.

Anyone who has worked on a rebrand knows how challenging it can be. However, if you’ve been churning out similar messages, images and campaigns for a while with little-to-no effect – the temptation to refresh your business’s image can be strong.

Your audience might be getting tired of your brand. Three-quarters of consumers believed all the brands in a sector were the same and most of them felt some inertia towards a brand they supported. So, whilst customers may still be buying from you, it doesn’t mean they’re shouting about your brand or that they will stay loyal if a more inspiring competitor comes along.

Established brands are embracing charm appeal to reinvigorate existing customers and capture new audiences. This article explores the reasons why brands are making this change and outlines how they are doing it effectively.

What is brand charm appeal?

Brand charm appeal is when a business leverages its best characteristics to make its brand more personable and engaging to the target audience. To do this, a business needs to understand its key attributes, values and differentiators alongside customer needs and expectations.

Then, they focus on promoting these details through the brand, forging more authentic and effective relationships with their customers.

The most charming brands aren’t superficial, suave or silver-tongued. Instead, they genuinely hold qualities shared by their audience. This approach helps build trust and loyalty between the customer and the brand.

What are the benefits of brand charm appeal?

Brands that focus on increasing their charm appeal are already discovering great advantages, including:

– Re-engaging current customers by reminding them why they started buying from them in the first place

– Creating an authentic brand that differentiates them in a crowded market, building recognition and making a business more memorable to new audiences

– Becoming more customer-focused, making customers feel part of the conversation around their pain points or requirements and increasing their loyalty to the brand

In short, by working on being warmer and more empathetic to customers, brands with charm increase their conversions and improve their conversion and retention rates.

How are brands turning on the charm appeal?

Many established brands are leveraging charm appeal to re-engage customers and increase their appeal to new audiences. Here’s how they’re doing it.

Reframing and expanding the GoCompare world

Despite being the price comparison market leader and having 97% brand recognition, the GoCompare team felt the business wasn’t persuading enough customers to choose them over competitors. The brand re-evaluated and focused on making itself the charming champion of choice.

By creating a whole new illustrative world that emphasised the brand’s most recognisable features (such as the mascot Gio Compario), supported with a relatable and conversational tone of voice.

GoCompare has evolved its brand to be even more friendly and approachable, creating stronger emotional connections with customers by inviting them into their personable and conversational world – making them more likely to choose the service, increasing the likelihood of conversions.

Uncovering Trivago’s spirit

To define its proposition more clearly and reintroduce its unique spirit, hotel price comparison and booking site Trivago refreshed its logo and tone of voice. The development of the brand focused on enhancing the business’ ‘witty and relatable’ spirit.

The new tone of voice also empowers customers to take control of their holiday booking, putting customer experience at the centre of the brand. The brand voice is supported with a calming and pleasant illustration style. This fine balance of charm appeal reassures customers that holiday booking doesn’t have to be a stressful experience and that Trivago can help them find the right option without feeling overwhelmed.

Part of this new visual identity included a shorthand symbol. This combined a checkmark to emphasise the brand’s ‘search savvy’ and a smile, which reflects the ‘super’ feeling of travellers that use their service. A new illustrative visual style and messages packed with personality have helped differentiate the brand and inspire customers to re-engage.

Reaffirming the RSPCA mission

When the RSPCA decided to do their first rebrand in 50 years, it needed to carefully consider how it injected charm appeal into a brand that was already well-known to its audience. To realign the brand with their clear business mission of ‘building a better world for animals’, the team injected energy and optimism into the brand identity.

By harnessing a bolder, more impactful graphic style and colour palette, supported with a friendly, fun and welcoming tone of voice, the brand has become more assertive, engaging and attention-grabbing.

With plenty of charm appeal, the new brand embraces the positive values of the business, making it more appealing to a wider target audience. It also inspires people to get involved and donate, rather than scaring or shocking them into action.

Want to embrace your brand's charm appeal?

If you're starting to feel your business has brand fatigue and you want to stand out in an overcrowded market to re-engage existing and new customers – turning on the charm can be an effective strategy.

To find out how we can help you embrace your brand’s charming side, call us on 01926 754038 or alternatively, drop us an email at hello@designmc.org and one of our team will be in touch.