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How brands leverage emotions in marketing
Where does emotional marketing come from? We often think that, being rational people, we make decisions through logic. But the truth is that we are guided by emotions and thanks to them we manage to make our daily decisions.
The first to discover this phenomenon was Antonio Damasio while working with some patients who had suffered brain damage in the part of the brain predisposed to generate emotions.
In this way he discovered that although the patients seemed healthy, in reality they were incapable of making any kind of decision, even the simplest one.
This makes us understand how important emotions are when we make decisions: from what to eat for lunch to which product to buy at the supermarket or the brand we are most fond of.
What is the definition of emotional marketing?
Emotional marketing refers to all those marketing strategies that are based on the emotional processes of consumers to make their experience memorable and make them become attached to the brand.
It began to establish itself around the 2000s with the development of neuromarketing, the discipline that applies neuroscience to marketing strategies.
Emotional marketing arises from the need of brands to offer their customers new memorable experiences, no longer through traditional communication but by aiming straight at their emotions!
The first who theorized this approach to consumers was Bernd Herbert Schmitt, a professor at Columbia University, who described emotional marketing as follows:
“A memorable experience that the customer must experience, such as to exceed his expectations”
But what are these emotions and how do brands use them?
How brands use emotional marketing
Dan Hill, author of the book “ Emotionomics: Leveraging emotions for business success ” has identified 6 key emotions that influence our decisions :
- Happiness
- Surprise
- Anger
- Disgust
- Sadness
- Fear
But let's see them in more detail!
Happiness
Among the emotions most used by brands is happiness . For example, according to a study by the New York Times, positive articles are the ones that are shared the most.
Happiness stimulates the release of dopamine , a chemical that motivates us and drives us to take action.
A local example that exploited happiness in one of its commercials is FIAT!
In the commercial “Because I'm Happy” in fact, he shows people suddenly becoming happy and starting to dance as their car passes. And the icing on the cake is the song "Happy" by Pharrell Williams playing in the background.
Surprise
Surprise is surely the emotion that attracts the most attention , how?
Breaking the mould!
An example of this is this commercial by Kenzo World in which it breaks away from the classic style of perfume commercials full of testosterone and sensuality.
An advertisement that you probably do not expect and that you will remember for a long time.
Fear
It is often used in awareness campaigns because it grabs viewers' attention and makes it easier to process and remember the message.
As explained by Drew Eric Whitman in the book “ Cashvertising ”:
“Fear causes stress that drives people to go to great lengths to relieve it”
An example of fear marketing is that of the Dutch insurance company VrijVerzekerd.
In this Guerrilla Marketing strategy, stickers were placed on the sides of the cars to make it appear, from afar, that there was a huge scratch on the side. Only to find out that it was actually a sticker and what appear to be minor scratches were nothing more than the contact details of the company!
Sadness
Another emotion that brands exploit is sadness!
An example of this is this Adidas commercial in which we are shown a former runner, now elderly, who tries in every way to get back to running despite the obstacles.
Thanks also to an excellent use of storytelling, the commercial immediately makes us empathize with the protagonist , sharing with him his sadness at not being able to run anymore!
Anger and disgust
Arousing anger or disgust is another way brands use emotional marketing.
It is used less frequently as anger is very difficult to control , but the Portuguese Human Rights Commission does it perfectly.
Created on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this commercial uses anger to attract the user's attention and then "compensate" by offering a sense of satisfaction.
Why does emotional marketing work?
Gerald Zaltman in his book “ How customer think ” states that 95% of customers make their purchases unconsciously and emotionally.
This theory was also confirmed by the experiment conducted by professors Kirsten and Stapel, " The Secret Life of Emotion ", in which they subjected 100 students to visual stimuli (flashes of light) in which they had to decide which side of the screen the stimulus.
In reality, those beams of light showed, for a fraction of a second, images capable of influencing the emotions of the students.
When at the end of the experiment, the students were asked to complete sequences of words, it was seen that the chosen words changed according to the type of emotions aroused by the images shown previously.
Another study demonstrating the effectiveness of emotional marketing is the Psychology Today analysis , which states that consumers respond more positively when their emotional part is stimulated.
But why and how do emotions influence our purchasing decisions?
Returning to Antonio Damasio's studies, when we experience positive sensations, such as joy, we are unconsciously led to get closer to the source of this emotion ; on the contrary, when we experience negative sensations such as fear or shame, we are led to move away from the source that causes us those emotions.
Emotions therefore act as a guide for our decisions.
For this reason, when we have to decide which product to buy, we will buy from brands that have made us feel positive emotions, building loyalty, and we will avoid those brands that have made us feel negative emotions.
And brands know this well!
According to the theories of the psychologist Richard Lazarus, who introduced the concept of " marriage between emotion and thought ", he divides the manifestation of emotions in this way, creating a sort of "funnel of emotions":
- Cognitive evaluation: that is, the moment in which the subject evaluates the event in a cognitive way;
- Physiological changes: Cognitive assessment triggers biological changes that may manifest as increased heart rate or a hormonal response;
- Action: here we pass from perception to feeling the emotion, choosing the best way to act.
In the book “ Neurobranding ” Mariano Diotto takes these theories and applies them to the consumer customer journey:
- We come into contact with a commercial (cognitive evaluation);
- The brand excited us (physiological change);
- We buy the product (action).
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