There has been an uptick in interest about emotions in marketing. Not surprising, since brands are built on emotions and the desire to purchase, own, use, wear, drink, drive, go to, etc., are all emotion driven. It is not rationale that makes someone pay $80,000 for a car or $1.5 million for a house. That individual does not need a car to drive or a place to sleep. And if they do, there are certainly some less expensive options. It's obviously more than that.
Everybody, deep down, knows that. When I bought my first so called luxury car (that was 8 years old at the time), what I enjoyed most about it was looking back at it, after I parked it in a parking lot!
A lot of academic and scientific work has always been done on emotions, since the days of Freud and even way beyond that, but little of it ended up in the field of marketing. During the early years, there was very little published about positive emotions: Happiness, Gratitude, etc.--the focus was on the negative ones: Fear, Anger, etc. The reason for this is that the research on emotions was to support the clinical practice of psychology and psychiatry, for people as well as corporate environments. industrial relations, is not always "getting employees to do what they don't want to do." It is, or should be, about removing negative emotions from their relationship.
People were suffering from the negative emotions. The science focused on the negatives, because the practitioners needed the information to help people live happier lives. In later years the field has learned that many negative emotions can be driven away, at least temporarily, through positive emotions.
I remember making a condolence call on a friend that lost his father. His Mom was there, crying and talking. When her young grand daughter was brought into the room, she first smiled, but was soon laughing and enjoying the deep happiness that had, temporarily or not, driven away the deep sadness she was experiencing. At times of great sadness, I remember that my own Mom was always crying and laughing at the same time--she would be sad at the loss, but would laugh from discussion of the qualities of the one who had passed away--always focusing on the fun and the happiness that she associated with them.
Again, everybody knows that, they just don't know how easily positive emotions can be utilized, for the consumer's, employee's and customer's benefit. While it's not quite the same thing, the avoidance of a negative emotion is also very powerful. Avoiding Fear is does not have to be Happiness, but it can be close. Sometimes the avoidance of fear creates a new family of emotions of it's own--that of relief from a very negative expectation.
Advertising frequently uses emotions, like laughter and excitement. Budweiser, for example, does a great job every year, and nearly every year comes up with a true home run for their Bud Light brand. "Whassup?" and other memorable funny commercials are part of this foundation.
Well, there really has not been a method to this madness, because their was no structure, allowing marketers to look at emotions and being able to name and focus on one particular emotion and understand its attributes. Also, in regard to the expression of the emotion, a unique expression for the time being, with new expressions being very helpful to bring the emotion to life over time and to keep it relevant might be right for a while, but needs change at some point. With a structural emotion-based underpinning, a new expression can be developed--as part of the same emotion, instead of "throwing the baby out with the bath water." Budweiser has done this with campaign after campaign, with different funny approaches, all providing pleasure and heightening the feeling that it's Bud Light, for the really great times.
Many of the following questions have been virtually impossible for clients, marketers or creative people to answer. Many professional psychological and medical people would also have a problem with the full list:
What are emotions? Is every feeling an emotion? Are all emotions of equal power? What is a family of emotions? Is every emotion useful in marketing? Do people experience emotions in different ways or the same way? Do people in the U.S. feel, react, enjoy or avoid emotions such as Fear or Sadness the same was as they do in Canada or Russia or an island in the Marianas? How many emotions are there? What is a core emotion? How can they be utilized? Are rational benefits in a marketing message more important than emotion-based motives? Which type of emotions give people unique personal reasons and urges to buy or experience new things? Which type stimulates reasons not to buy or not to experience new things--or at least, stimulates many reasons why not to do something, as opposed to reasons why they should?
My work the last 4 years has been in, first of all, defining the above questions and then searching for the answers. Today, we've formed a structure and foundation for concise, useful answers to each of the above questions, developed with the assistance of the leading emotion researcher in the U.S., and also with the many articles and writings of a host of other emotion-focused academics and professionals in the field.
Some professionals and laymen may agree, some may disagree, but few can argue that our approach and the processes we've developed to use them, are anything outside of the track the evidence and the science supports. We're not recommending anything for psychological help or practice, nor anything medical. However, you will soon be able to see all of this in a different light, as a useful tool and process that takes the already low to moderate effectiveness of even generalized feelings and turns them into powerful motives, through the structure we're providing.
By the way, the word "benefit" and the word "motive" are used carefully in this work. We believe that a benefit is a rational benefit, like health insurance with a great job. The motive is something that literally drives the person. People don't perform serious crimes for simple benefits. They do so only when strong motives exist. That's the potential level that positionings based on motives reach.
We are consultants in marketing. Our work focuses on brand and product positioning, as one part of creating a powerful Brand Strategy. Emotion is the key focus, but all of the detailed learning from Consumer Packaged Goods practice are included. In fact, many have stated that they feel this program is the missing link between dry rational benefits and an alternative, powerful feelings associated with such brands, products and experiences. However in this work, we're wanting to provide information on what we've done and how it can be used. We're focusing on transferring information even excitement to this subject. We believe in any advertisement, for any product in any category to any target, can be powerfully improved through the appropriate use of the right emotion. With these tools that is more possible than it ever has been before.
If you have any comments on any of this, please add a comment below. If you are interested in having a business discussion regarding your site, your business, your brand(s) or your product(s), feel free to ask your key question in the comments, and indicate you would like me to contact you or you contact me.
My next post, in a few days, will answer all of the above questions in brief form--and their very brevity is a signal that we know what they are and we know how to use them. For many, answering questions like the above, really is a lot of arm waving, stuttering, repetition and frustration. We hope to end that for those of you who have been there before (which certainly included me)!
Recent Comments