Liking

The liking principle is simple: people are more likely to say yes to someone they like. In marketing, this comes from brand personality, relatability, good design, and real human contact. Brands that are easy to like tend to win more conversions, loyalty, and referrals.

How it works

Liking has several drivers: attractiveness (clean design, good visuals), similarity (shared values, familiar language), compliments (making the customer feel seen), familiarity (repeated exposure builds comfort), and association (linking your brand to things people already like). Similarity matters most. When prospects feel “these people understand my problem,” resistance drops. This is part of why founder-led brands and personal content often outperform faceless corporate messaging.

How to do it

Define a brand voice that sounds like a real person your customer would want to talk to. Write down examples of what you say, how you say it, and what you never say.
Show the people behind the brand: founder stories, team profiles, behind-the-scenes content, and unstaged photos.
Use your customers’ own words. Pull phrases from support tickets, reviews, and sales call transcripts.
Show up consistently across channels so people see your brand often without being annoyed.
Associate your brand with things your audience likes: creators they follow, events they attend, and topics they care about.

What to measure

Brand favorability: survey your target audience on how they view your brand versus competitors.
Organic engagement rate: comments, shares, and saves divided by reach on organic content.
Net Promoter Score (NPS): ask customers how likely they are to recommend you, on a 0 to 10 scale.

Best practices

Be helpful when you are not selling. Brands that only appear when they want money are hard to like.
Keep design quality high at every touchpoint.
Reply to customers like a person, not a corporation, in support and on social media.

Common pitfalls

Being so inoffensive that the message is bland and nobody connects with it.
Posting staged “behind the scenes” content. Audiences notice.
Confusing liking with reach. A smaller audience that likes you is worth more than a large indifferent one.