What is Emotional Marketing?
Emotional marketing refers to the practice of appealing to human emotions in advertising for the purpose of eliciting specific responses in order to sell products and promote brands. The underlying goal of marketers using this tool is to make connections with consumers at deep levels of feeling. Such an approach can be used to convince and persuade buyers, while at the same time creating an experience of bonding that makes them more inclined toward brand loyalty. A 2016 Nielsen study of 100 ads, across 25 brands, demonstrated that the ads eliciting an above-average emotional consumer response resulted in a 23% increase in sales. (https://www.nielsen.com). There is little doubt that this percentage has increased since that study. The proliferation of social media platforms, and the intensely emotional content generated on them, has taken emotional marketing techniques to even greater heights of efficacy. Whenever people can be directed to buy with their hearts, the outcome will prove to be greater than when they buy with their minds.
Although consumers make purchasing decisions using rational thinking, campaigns that evoke emotional responses tend to assert more powerful levels of influence on them. According to analyst, Liraz Margalit, “There is an illusion of being in charge, stemming from the awareness of frequent aggressive marketing — consumers believe they are thinking independently, but in reality, urges and emotions play a much more significant role in our purchasing decisions.” (https://www.psychologytoday.com). No matter how convinced people may be that their buying practices are based solely on logic, brain scans (fMRIs) confirm the fact that purchasing relies much more on the way consumers feel about products and brands than the way they think about them. Emotions ignite powerful drives in everyone. Successful marketers are quick to harness that energy.
How Emotions Sell Products
Since it involves tapping into human primal forces, such as happiness, sadness, fear and anger, emotional marketing should be conducted in as conscious and ethical a manner as possible. As entrepreneur, Neil Patel, points out, “When you make an emotional connection with your audience, it’s incredibly easy to steer them to the desired outcome. You’ve formed an emotional bond, however brief and fleeting, that makes them open to ideas and suggestions. It creates a certain level of trust that’s virtually impossible to artificially manifest.” (https://neilpatel.com). Since emotions undeniably sell products, companies are always interested in which emotions have the greatest likelihood of engaging consumers. Buzzsumo conducted a survey that investigated the 10,000 posts most shared on social media, analyzing them in terms of their emotional content. It turned out that “awe” was the most prevalent, at 25%, followed by “laughter” at 17%. (https://buzzsumo.com). That is not to say that emotions commonly considered to be negative ones will not sell products. Sadness, for example, can bring up responses of empathy and connection that can lead to a desire for action. An example of this can be found in Patagonia’s “climate crisis” ad campaign, which referenced teens speaking out about climate change. (https://www.patagonia.com). Marketers also have been known to use anger as a type of provocation, as in the Always “Like a Girl” campaign, where the insult of “throwing like a girl” was turned around to great effect. (https://always.com).
It has been demonstrated that emotional marketing prompts consumers to make purchases. Marketers have also learned that igniting emotional responses can result in other forms of consumer behavior beneficial to companies. Since a feeling of happiness encourages people to share with others, positive advertising increases this tendency. When people feel sad, they are more likely to experience empathy, which can lead to more of a willingness to take action by connecting. Feelings of fear often push people in the direction of seeking comfort in what is familiar to them, which can increase their loyalty to brands. Fear can also be used to create a sense of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), often exploited by means of time-limited offers. This is also the case with feelings of greed, addressed in BOGO (Buy One Get One) opportunities, and by stressing the scarcity of products to create a sense of urgency. And angry responses are likely to mobilize people to action, which can lead to an increased sharing of content, even to the point of an advertising campaign going viral.
(This modern adaptation of Robert Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotion, illustrated by CopyPress, shows the range under eight primary emotions: joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, and anticipation.)
Emotional Marketing Strategies
In order for emotional marketing to be successful, companies must learn as much as possible about their target audiences, on personal and emotional levels. This means that advertising content needs to rely heavily on data, employing all available means of consumer research in order to come up with relevant psychological profiles. This can include surveys, questionnaires, and focus groups, as well as the creation of customer personas that include psychological profiles. Once a company has thorough knowledge of what makes its audience respond, it can then develop focused strategies designed to reach them emotionally. One such strategy is storytelling, which has proven time and again to be an effective way to achieve a feeling of connection between a company and its potential consumers. This technique can encourage bonding with people, and can also be used to inspire them to fulfil dreams. Nostalgic content has also been used to build a sense of connection with a brand. This is demonstrated in a Nintendo commercial that shows two young brothers playing video games together, evoking warm feelings in audiences about the product and how it represents a loving shared moment from their childhoods. (https://blog.hubspot.com).
There are other factors, aside from the use of highly charged emotional content, that can produce responses in consumers, as well. Color, for example, is one way of evoking strong feelings in people. Not only do certain colors cause specific emotional responses, but color can also be used as a nonverbal associative cue. This can be seen in the red of the Coca Cola logo, the green of Starbuck’s, and the yellow arches of McDonald’s. Marketers need to amp up their understanding of what provokes people to respond on a feeling level, and then apply this knowledge to their entire repertoire of advertising strategies. As marketer, Steve Harvey observes, “When used correctly, emotional marketing strategies help companies to differentiate themselves in a challenging environment, bringing passion and focus to a corporate entity. (https://fabrikbrands.com).