Donald Trump’s Brand Loyalty Secret (And How You Can Steal It)

Emotion inspires deep brand loyalty. It’s so strong that die-hard supporters are willing to follow a political candidate even after he’s clashed with military families, former POWs, and made comments and gaffes that would have ended any other presidential candidate’s campaign.

But…why?

And more importantly:

How can we tap into the power of emotions to build brand???

I’m going to give you the whys and the hows of emotion-based branding. And I promise I’ll keep politics out of it.

Let’s take a deeper look at what’s going on inside the heads of Trump’s supporters.

When most people think of how we make important decisions, we tend to imagine a rational activity.

It doesn’t matter if you’re choosing shaving cream, or a Presidential candidate. We gather facts. We think through the costs and the benefits. We look at the arguments about the topic and consider the pros and cons. Only once we have all this ‘data,’ do we make a decision.

There’s more to it than that. Research shows that decision making is often a nonconscious activity.

Nonconscious. As in: I do not consciously think about breathing, walking, blinking, swallowing. All these are activities I don’t give a single conscious thought.

An example of this kind of decision making was demonstrated in 2008. Neuroscience and cognitive scientists teamed up to track a simple decision:
Did test participants want to press a button with their left or right hand?

Researchers watched brain activity, and were able to predict which hand someone would use to press the button. They knew this 7 seconds before the participants reported consciously making their choice.

A few years ago, neuroscientist Antonio Damasio made an amazing discovery. He studied people with brain damage that inhibited their ability to feel emotions.

The brain trauma patients had something else in common, too: they couldn’t make decisions.

They could tell you what they should, logically, do in a situation.

But making even a simple decision, like what day to schedule a meeting, was difficult. Test subjects were confronted with a decision where both options have pros and cons. Something as simple as: should I eat chicken or turkey for lunch?

Once upon a time, a neuroscientist named Paul Zak conducted a study. He invited participants to watch a short animated video. In it a father told the story of his three-year-old son, Ben, who was dying of cancer.

Some of the participants were moved to tears. Most found the story to be heartbreaking and it made them want to do something to help. After watching the story, nearly all of the participants donated a portion of their earnings from the experiment to a childhood cancer charity.

But the point of the study wasn’t fundraising: it was to see how stories change the human brain.

The participants also watched another video: Ben at the zoo with no narrative context. Scientists observed that their oxytocin levels were higher when they watched the video talking about how Ben was dying of cancer. It was only when oxytocin was triggered that participants chose to donate to the cancer fund.

Oxytocin is one of the messengers that travels from the rational mind to the emotional mind. It’s the hormone that triggers emotions like love, trust, and empathy. It makes it possible to walk in someone else’s shoes, or to see oneself in an imagined situation.

In a separate study, scientists observed that when we listen to language that evokes the senses, our brains react as though we are actually experiencing what the language is describing.

So when we hear “he pounded his fists against the cold concrete wall,” we feel our own hands clench into fists, we feel the chilliness and hardness of the wall.

It’s the same reason we grimace or startle when we see an actor getting physically hurt in a movie. Our rational mind knows it’s fake, but the visual narrative triggers empathy for the character’s pain. Our reptile brain reacts to the perception of a physical threat by sending a message: “bear your teeth” and “tense your muscles.”

Which brings me to the narrative Donald Trump has carefully crafted and to which his millions of supporters relate: the story of America Under Threat.

The structure of Trump’s story follows a classic sales letter formula: Problem-Agitation-Solution.

Let me walk you through it:

In all Trump’s speeches, including the one he gave at the Republican National Convention, the common theme is the notion that America was once a powerful nation but has been weakened by job loss, an increase in crime, and global terrorism. On top of all this – the system is corrupt and rigged against you. These are topics he knows are guaranteed to grab his audience’s attention, and about which they have strong feelings and opinions.

This is “the problem.” His audience already has opinions about the state of the nation – and this part of the sales letter story is all about reflecting their problem. Identifying it, and confirming that it exists. In fact, as with all great sales letters, you have to do more than that.

In classic sales letter fashion, you have to agitate the problem – make it as bad as you possibly can. If you have grass stains in your kid’s jeans, they have to be the kind that nothing manages to take out and now you have to go buy a new pair of jeans and “have you seen how much those cost now?!?” The problem was dirty jeans – but now, well now I have a personal finances issue.

Agitiate.

Once you’ve done this – and only once you’ve done this – can you offer the solution to all these problems.

Let’s look at how Trump’s sales letter story does this:

1) Trump starts with four of his audience’s “problems”:

•  job loss,
• an increase in crime,
• global terrorism,
• a ‘broken’ political system.

2) As these are established he goes on to agitate with the story. It’s about a country that doesn’t “have victories” anymore, a country taken advantage of by other countries, a country run by people who have led it into failure.

In his own words: “We don’t have victories anymore. We used to have victories, but we don’t have them.”

Now the problems of the country become larger, more personal problems:

• People coming into this country either illegally or as refuges are taking YOUR jobs
• YOUR neighborhood isn’t safe to walk in without fear of being shot
• Terror is spreading across the globe and YOU are no longer safe from the threat of terrorism
• Worst of all, these are happening because YOUR country doesn’t win anymore.

This is a picture that people can step right into – in fact, it mirrors many fears and thoughts of his audience. Abstract issues and problems are made personal and tangible in a way that the audience can FEEL.

At this point the audience is desperate for relief from these problems. They are right there, in the moment, in pain: “Yes, yes yes!” they say. “This is terrible! But what can be done?”

Once the problem is defined and agitated, the sales letter story goes to the next step: presenting a solution.

3) The sales letter story continues: political corruption and ineffective government policies are to blame for this mess. So there’s no finding help in government. The only possible solution is through an unsullied outsider – someone with no tolerance for dishonesty, politics-as-usual, or weakness.

And Donald Trump is that outsider.

“I alone can fix it.”

His words.

That’s a pretty powerful story, isn’t it?

Let’s examine the elements of Trump’s sales storytelling genius and why they work (Hillary, if you’re out there reading this, pay attention):

First of all, the story of America Under Threat triggers big feelings that appeal to instinctive behavior.

• fear
• anger
• powerlessness

These emotions are at the core of our survival mechanisms: when we feel afraid, our brain fires off a shot of glutamate deep into the base of the brain: that’s what makes us freeze or involuntarily jump.

It also signals the hypothalamus and triggers our autonomic nervous system the crank up our heart rate and flood our bodies with adrenaline.

That burst of adrenaline is behind the ‘fight-or-flight’ reaction: when we feel afraid, it gives us the energy to run. When that fear turns to anger, we use that energy to fight.
Not every powerful story has to trigger negative emotions or aggressive actions.

For example, Disney’s story of The Magic Kingdom inspires feelings of hope, wonder, friendship and excitement.

In Trump’s story, the main character– or brand protagonist, in marketing-speak, is America. America is characterized as a no-nonsense, hard-working gal or guy who takes no – well, you know. In other words, Trump’s America acts a surrogate for each of his supporters.

Then again, Trump’s America is a very different character than Hillary Clinton’s America in terms of looks, worldview, and core beliefs. And your vote all depends on which America you relate to the most.

An example of a more universally relatable brand protagonist is Coca-Cola’s hippy girl. In the 1970’s during the height of civil unrest, Coke offered a protagonist who just wanted peace, comfort and togetherness.

She wanted to buy the world a Coke, you guys.

In every bit of content Trump creates, whether it’s a speech or a tweet, his message is consistent:

“Political correctness, weakness, and political corruption have ruined our country. You have every reason to feel angry and fearful and powerless. And I know what to do about it:

I’m going to Make America Great Again.”

“Make America Great Again” is a phrase that offers the opposite of fear, anger, and weakness.

It offers power.

That promise of power is what connects millions of people in our country to the Donald Trump brand.

It’s what gets him through the rough spots: he may say things that are inappropriate for a candidate for President, but everything he says is perfectly in line with his brand.

And he does this step-by-step in a manner that speaks to his audience’s emotional “decision-maker.”

1. He bypasses facts and figures and instead connects emotionally.
2. He aligns with and associates himself with, his audience’s beliefs.
3. He tells stories, and uses a Problem-Agitate-Solution structure to communicate his message, to provide his ‘proof points’ and ultimately lead his audience to the conclusion that what he is selling: President Trump, is the only solution to their problem. The only thing that will make them feel good.

It’s not about Trump’s brand – it’s about how his brand makes his audience feel about themselves. By supporting Trump, his supporters feel powerful.

Because the brands we create are the emotions we sell.

Donald Trump sells power.

Disney sells wonder.

Coke sells comfort.

Apple sells optimism.

What emotion do you want to sell?