This site should be interesting to wide variety of people with varying interests. However, it should be very meaningful and interesting, even helpful, for web entrepreneurs and marketers of all ilks (whatever an ilk is). Size of business does not matter--a major brand or a new company or anything in between. It's about how you can use a model of 29 emotion-based families to improve marketing communications, positioning, brand development, all forms of research, new products and services while strengthening your customer relationships at the same time. No, it's not a magic trick or a hyped-up super balloon, it is just more detail and structure applied to the effective use of emotions at the strategic level of your business, as well as tactically throughout.
This post is intended to wrap up the introduction, so we can get into the specific core emotions, more examples from the market place, dealing with your questions and comments (and a few I've gotten by telephone before things were working smoothly). These may seem like loose ends, but they are all needed to form a good foundation:
1. On the Emotives® projects I've performed in the past, they were done in several different ways: a senior client team with brainstorming; a 2 step qualitative research process; an emotion-clue data analysis from past brand research; also personal interviews of C-level targets for one B2B company and a web-survey for yet another.
2. I see emotions every day in the marketplace. For example, in the building materials business: Lowe’s says “Improving Home Improvement” while Home Depot says “You can do it. We can help” --I see these two statements as being significantly different because one is emotion-based and the other is not. In my opinion, the latter has the greatest potential for leverage inside and outside of the company. (Both might be very successful, by the way. I’m commenting only from an academic and Emotives perspective. I was involved in neither one. It is probably clear that while both may be successful, one might have more potential than the other.--if hidden strengths are tapped.) I just comment because clearly one is very rational and the other is very emotional--in fact, there are two emotions in that second phrase (Fiero, which is quiet pride and Gratitude). Having 2 emotions in the positioning expression at the same time is not always a good idea, but in this case that seems to work).
3, So all of this is already happening in the marketplace, except that there is remarkably little science being applied to the use of emotions, the structure or understanding of when, how, why, which, etc. This, of course, limits the use and the power of emotions overall. With Emotives, there is science, structure and multiple application processes.
4. Developing the Emotives Model also involved Ron Beasley of ABM Research in Canada, and today he uses the output in some of his work. As a consultant, I want to see Emotives utilized at a higher and broader level in the organization, in addition to research, where it tends to be thought of as a research tool, which it is, but it's more than that. This is because if Emotives starts out at a higher level, then there is at least a chance that emotion could exist at the strategic level of marketing overall, or even at the leadership level of the brand or company, where it can do the most good. (Researchers with whom we have worked very satisfactorily and others with whom we have talked, tell us all this pretty consistently.)
5. Frankly, after working on such a wide array of situations, it's hard to avoid thinking that it will not be very long before some Fortune 100 companies elevate a specific emotion to a strategic level, as being the precise feelings they want to create for their customers at every touchpoint. That’s a lot more than satisfaction or happiness. It’s also more integrating among all the marketing functions, between marketing and other key departments and divisions. We're seeing this happen with some of the smaller companies and it's seems to be a natural fit.
6. I already work with clients in many diverse industries and I hope to continue doing so. However, I’m particularly fascinated by those who are really succeeding on the web, often without that strategic foundation that pulls things together and magnifies the impact of, yes, operational, tactical and policy moves as well as marketing-oriented decisions.
7. Thinking about starting this blog has caused me to take a closer look at much of what's going on in the marketing and branding industry: I feel there is a significant need existing and therefore an opportunity to work with web entrepreneurs. That’s because there seems to be a very tactical orientation to marketing on the web. Not really a sales focus, but a site focus. I view the site as the store or office. The isolation of content as being the real key component. I view this focus on content as the analog for what used to be called "merchandising" in the old as well as current retail model.
8. With that said, without the right kind of brand strategy, it is very difficult to sort out the best tactics that make the most sense--strategically. Also, without a strategy, it’s difficult to know how you should control messaging for widely diverse options--without a strong strategic foundation (or umbrella--for when it rains). Just like it would be in a store or office. Also, it focuses and controls the content and the new products and services that are needed to enrich it.
9. After all, what people want, crave, dream about, enjoy, fear the absence of, laugh about, nod quietly with self-satisfaction--all these things, and more, are emotions that messaging and positioning should--and now really can--leverage in a structured way. I’m focusing all of my time on this part of the business, so we’ll see what happens. I find it refreshing and challenging, as it is new turf to play on. And, Emotives makes a huge impact at the strategic level.
10. So based on this and the prior post, I want to complete the Introduction. You see there is science involved in identifying and characterizing the core-emotions. You realize there is a model of 29 of these core-emotions. You see what I mean about emotion-based positioning. I wonder if Home Depot knows they have both Fiero and Gratitutde in their positioning statement. Emotives provides that type of information, which then opens the door to greater leverage. Now, with all that, a senior management team can look at emotion as a strategic decision and place it in a sufficiently high enough level in the organization to drive strategic and therefore tactical action. Today, emotion is a Creative Director's idea and choice. If he or she wins, a new campaign is built around the "feeling" they saw in a phrase or a situation that could be repeated. But when the campaign gets tired, and they all do, what happens is that whatever emotion was involved, is very often thrown out--the old baby and the bath water is what happens. With emotions, a new campaign can be built around the same emotion, if you know what it is and know how it works, how it is expressed, etc. It will be new and fresh, but will still be strategically bang-on. And, that's a good thing.
Next time, we’ll get into more about the Model itself and what Emotion-Based Families really are and how they work.
Leave a note if you have a thought or a question. I’d like you to post it on this location where it says "Comments" at the end of any post.
Are you using emotion? What examples have you seen on the web? Have you noticed the "empty space" or "gap" between research (what you're hearing from your customers, for example) and the communications or product output? Do you know what that gap is? Let me know.
ASK
Offline, I've been asked by several web entrepreneurs about building a stronger brand for their main site, product or business. Since branding is such an important part of any kind of marketing, I'm wondering if there are others that have an interest in that subject matter. Please add a comment and let me know. Thanks.
Posted by: arthur Katz | January 04, 2006 at 09:10 AM