Connecting with Customers Emotionally

Sometimes (by that we mean ‘very often’) marketing misses something very important.

If we’re going to be completely honest, which we always are, World Motorbike Tours landed on our doorstep about 80% complete. That’s to say there was a brand identity, a passion, a vocation, a perfectly functional website and plans-galore. However, the client came to us because something was missing – a spark.

The company set up motorbike tours around the world. Think Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman circumnavigating the globe in various directions, but boil it down to ‘big holiday’ levels of 2-3 weeks at a time (as not everyone is a multi-millionaire actor). World Motorbike Tours took on the role of the planning company and guide; sorting all the itineraries, paperwork, logistics and everything in-between. Exciting stuff.

On their website you could peruse routes, see photos and videos and contact the company to ask all the questions you wanted before booking. Job done? Close, but not quite. Something big was missing, and that was the emotional connection.

You see, for middle-aged men (and women) to convince themselves AND their partners that they NEEDED this trip (once in a lifetime, mid-life crisis, ‘finding myself’ and so on) – they required more than just logistics. This was digging into a deeper physiological level than ‘add to basket’ prompts were accommodating. This was something quite monumental.

Our research, and sales/intent data, showed us a core demographic – and that was unsurprisingly male and of a certain age. And, despite what the research told us about motivating factors, we considered the psyche at work here. Noone was going to admit they were doing this because they saw the monotony of their life or the start of male-pattern baldness. These may be true, but they were depressing realities. What really motivated the test groups was one simple line;

Bragging Rights For Life.