Have you ever watched a commercial on television that absolutely captivated your emotional senses? I mean something so strong that you felt the need to laugh, cry, or even scream at the television? This is what emotional marketing is all about – tapping into the senses of true human behavior to gain market share.
Emotional marketing is a highly influential technique to hook users. It is a consumer-centric approach driven by stories to build a relationship between consumers and a brand. Take the crown jewel of emotional marketing – Apple. They have done an amazing job tapping into how their products make people feel. Every detail is carefully scripted to pull you in, and for billions of people, it has worked…I know, because I’m one of them.
Good brands understand what drives their customer behaviors. It may include extensive research and analyzing data to get to the root cause, so long as the brand always puts people at the center of the nucleus.
Whether you’re marketing a tiny widget or a multi-million-dollar architecture plan, the same instruments apply when using emotional marketing to gain brand loyalty:
1. Consistent customer journey
Consistency is king and delivering a personalized experience for consumers across all channels is crucial. Within the customer journey lies great opportunity to develop an emotional connection that improves brand loyalty and lifetime value.
What this means is that every aspect of the customer interaction with the company must reflect a consistent messaging framework, and mining for moments of authenticity and that personal touch at every turn helps instill trust in the brand.
Take Cadillac for example. Known for their classy luxury and smooth style, this sense of luxury must be used in every aspect of the customer’s journey. If that consistent feeling of care and detail are provided throughout the buyer’s experience, they have now connected emotionally and have started to make a brand loyalist.
2. Understanding the ‘why’
Understanding the why is important to emotional marketing because there are nuances that influence buying decisions. Take for example, why people choose to buy new tires. Things like vehicle safety, fuel efficiency, and likely cost are factors that will resonate with different consumers and align with certain emotions. I know I get a headache when I drop $900 on a new set of tires, but its part of the game! Point being – the best marketers understand these nuances and activate campaigns that speak directly to these different motivators.
Accurately connecting data to help pull out the ‘why’ consumers do what they do yields very targeted messaging. Since data is so rich nowadays, as you peel those layers back, it will help tell the true story of the why and how they pertain to consumer behavior. With the tire example, if a person is looking for tires simply based on price, then reinforcing those feelings with rock bottom pricing will equate to more revenue.
The connection between marketing and emotions can be complex, but when it provides an opportunity to create value for the brand and the consumer, it’s a must. Understanding and exploiting emotional motivators are vital in marketing today, because creating authentic connections attached to authentic experiences yields trust, loyalty and a mutually beneficial revenue stream.
