Key Takeaways:
- In the use of emotions in marketing, consumers make a purchase decision because of what they feel and not necessarily what they think.
- The right emotions should be portrayed and are valuable for marketing. The emotions used should not hurt the audience, instead, be such that they connect well with the audience on a human level.
- A company/ business should be careful and wise enough to establish its personality by evoking the right emotions.
What is Emotional Marketing and How it works?
We all have witnessed numerous emotions like a feeling of uncontrollable crying, laughter, pain, etc. at some point in our life. These are a few more examples of emotions that we experience towards an individual surrounding that drives a subsequent behaviour. This acts as an establishment on which emotional marketing is fabricated.
Feeling any emotion is powerful and incredible from numerous points of view since it’s anything but a choice and an urge by individuals to act. These emotions are an effective way of marketing and persuading people to take the necessary steps towards a product or service. This in turn helps a business to reach its goal of successfully maximizing the profits.
Marketers need to have an engaging conversation to create concrete and meaningful human connections with the consumers. Deliberate use of persuasive messages helps in creating a stronger connection with the audience to achieve the result. There are multiple emotions like fear, joy, anger, etc. but often one emotion appeals to the audience and influences them to make a decision or urges them to take an action.
A brand can be humanized, and a deeper relationship can be set in an oversaturated market. Correct marketing steps will leave a lasting impression and help the brand/business in the long run.
Powerful Hooks of Emotional Marketing with Example:
1. Fear:
The emotion “Fear” is one of the best marketing techniques used to make people understand the situation, urging them to make a wise decision and bring a sense of responsibility, loyalty towards a brand, product, or service.
Fear makes people think differently and carefully, and warns them of the danger of losing something if the right measures or the steps are not taken at the right time. This emotion can help in preventing and making people understand problems that arise from drugs, alcohol, climatic changes, etc.
Example: WWF India has rolled out a film titled ‘#TheUltimateVaccine’ that urges the audience to make a stronger and healthy relationship with the environment.
This ad campaign has been conceptualized by McCann Worldgroup India. It shows different clips of the environment that have been damaged, along with audio of news anchors that are related to the vaccine of COVID-19.
This ad campaign depicts the increasing pressure we have put on nature that happens from deforestation and wildlife trade which has disrupted the ecosystem completely. If not taken care of, there will be a risk of new zoonotic diseases and future pandemics that will destroy the environment. The ad also depicts that the ultimate vaccine is nature, the world needs to be more responsible and allow it to be restored.
Link: WWF India – #TheUltimateVaccine [https://youtu.be/f71EpPKLBlY]
2. Happiness:
Almost all companies want their brands to be associated with a happy, joyful, smiling audience. The emotion “Happiness” evokes positivity, energy, and interest in people. This emotional marketing helps in increasing engagement, more attention, and re-shares.
When a business is creating ads and running emotional marketing, they must keep in mind whether the brand is associated with a positive feeling when advertised. This would help in connecting well with the audience.
Example: Coca-Cola’s “Choose Happiness” promotion is a powerful example that encourages consumers to share their happy moments and experiences.
This ad campaign was by Ogilvy & Mather Amsterdam, which features energetic people, from glamorous types to misfits, newborn babies, a couple of fighting, etc. The campaign “choose happiness” is to grab it tightly with both hands and discover happiness.
Link: Coca-Cola Happiness advertising campaign “Choose Happiness” – produced by AG Films [https://youtu.be/JBg_sJzyycg]
3. Anger:
The use of “Anger” in emotional marketing can make the audience upset, annoyed, triggered if the topic is about politics, environmental issues, gender issues, etc. This emotion evokes a negative feeling and can also lead to negative associations. While a lot of companies refrain from angering their customers.
This emotion has a powerful impact if used in the right way. This emotion can shake people and make them take action. Brands make use of anger emotion to stimulate the audience to solve important issues and reconsider the perspective.
An overview of the situation is highlighted and how our activities can bring positivity for a better situation. If an audience sees injustice done to a kid or nature, this emotion gives rise to do something about it.
Example:
Source: Google.
This campaign was about gender stereotypes that are so ingrained in our culture since the start. The expression ‘like a girl, is used in a derogatory manner and is like an insult to tease and show someone as weak, fragile, and in order to demonstrate and send a message across the audience. A social experiment was also conducted by holding a fake casting call with young women and men, boys, girls, and was asked to do things ‘like a girl. A lot of them behaved in a self-deprecating manner. But girls reacted completely differently. A lot of girls ran and fought hard with confidence and self-belief. They were not influenced by the rules that define womanhood.
This ad campaign had a powerful message that resonated universally and was then released on the video, to maximize views and reach a wider audience. The use of social media channels was done with paid ads posts. The video received 90 million+ views; it reached number two globally. The response received was positive.
4. Greed:
Greed is often simple and a common emotion that makes one feel that they are getting more than what they are paying for. This leaves a customer delighted and satisfied. This emotion is common and makes us want to get more. Marketers use strategies like “ Buy one, get one”, “Limited offer”, “Limited stock”, “50% off on your second purchase”, “Last few hours left, hurry!” etc to entice the customers.
Example:
Source: Myntra Website
Myntra makes use of this emotion to sell its fashion products at discounted prices. They have clearance sales, Independence Day sales, Diwali sales, and other occasion sales that make a person take an action.
Source: Google
Many sellers on Amazon sell their products. “Limited Stock”,” Last few pieces left” etc are examples of creating a sense of scarcity and urgency that leads the customer to buy the product immediately.
5. Sadness:
Different feelings evoke different emotions in human beings. Emotion like sadness delivers a sense of empathy and compassion. It also helps the audience to create a sense of awareness and understanding towards social issues like Harassment, Violence, Inequality, Poverty, etc.
Example: L’Oreal Paris released an ad campaign Standup against street harassment. The ad campaign identifies sexual harassment as one of the most important issues faced by women and girls worldwide. This ad campaign also led them to launch a campaign to encourage women and men to intervene safely if they experience or witness street harassment.
Link: StandUp Against Street Harassment [https://youtu.be/jRB4nIKLZXI]
6. Belonging:
Each individual needs to have a place for a gathering, a local area, a family, or an informal community. The reason for having a place assists clients with fulfilling their key mental requirements. Numerous organizations utilize this feeling of belongingness, to cause clients to feel part of a specific gathering.
Broadly, it is utilized in sports. It is an extraordinary spot to show the sensation of having a place in real life. The Rapha Cycle Club (RCC), a participation association, is an extraordinarily passionate example. They offer individuals to ride with RCC individuals every week in your city and travel the world for RCC home bases and gatherings.
Emotional Marketing Strategies That Brands are Using and Mastering
Sensory Experience: This experience heightens consumers’ senses like sight, taste, feel, sound, etc. These sensory experiences respond to emotional responses that trigger vivid memories. Sensory branding/marketing tends to influence the consumer’s perceptions, judgment, responses towards a particular brand. Luxury brands, fashion retailers are providing this sensory experience in brick-and-mortar stores for their consumers. Use of interactive touch screens along with options of different sizes, colour fabrics, etc are being used.
Storytelling/ Weave a story: Another way to reach the audience emotionally is by understanding them on a personal level. The understanding of their deepest fears, strong desires, struggles, etc. This knowledge can be used to weave a story so that the audience can relate to it. Everyone loves to hear stories, feel connected, love to be heard; so that people can empathize and be inspired easily. The best way to connect with the audience is to give life to the story by following the essential elements that are character, setting, plot, conflict, and theme.
Speak about the pain points and provide a solution: Brands that understand and give solutions to customers’ pain points manage to win every time. The popular app HealthifyMe wants to help people by managing their weight loss journey by offering multiple services in its app. The brand is available on the play store for free access and also with premium access. The exclusive, personalized weight loss journey by giving the calculation of what one eats in a day to providing exercise and personal tutors, are solving the pain points of the audience.
Support a good cause: People are emotionally attached to certain social issues or a cause. They like to take care of and support them in any way possible. Brands that care and support such causes by donating money or through other programs are more likely to be attracted by the audience.
Use of Color: Colours evoke certain emotions in humans. Colours are responsible for brand identity/recognition. McDonalds, KFC’s red colour stimulates appetite and creates a sense of urgency to satiate hunger.
Celebrate Milestone: Celebrate moments like a brand’s 10th anniversary, Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day, Fathers Day etc. Such moments help customers to remember, cherish and make memorable moments.
Differentiate the Social Media use: Different social accounts reach out to different audiences. Emotional Marketing/Branding gives the opportunity to emotionally target the audience through different mediums. Example: Using unique social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc.
Product Design: An example is Apple that has an emotional branding strategy that is different from other companies. Apple has its loyal customers as it provides each and everyone an individual experience and makes a unique connection with every product purchased by allowing the user to speak, connect with Siri on Mac products and then getting a reply as it recognizes your voice.
Be Authentic: The audience wants to see authentic, raw emotions. One cannot expect that faking an emotion will work. The brand needs its core values and align them accordingly for the audience to sense it.
Conclusion:
Weaving the right emotion for the brand is a great way to attract, resonate, and encourage the audience to act upon. Emotional Marketing acts as a secret weapon for brands to connect well with the audience. To be successful and put emotion in the marketing and advertising of the brand, it is vital to understand the audience and their emotions so that it can resonate well with them. It needs to be aligned with the overall marketing goals, and this will make emotional marketing effective and efficient. The use of emotions in ads directly affects the buying process of the target audience. People look and make a purchase out of emotion and later justify it logically. Happiness, Fear, Trust, etc emotions trigger the target consumer to make a purchase or be attentive. Including the facts and information about the products is another way of building trust and emotion, thus, increasing the chance of purchase. Identifying unique ways of communication with the customer, their needs, desires and expectations will help in providing value to the brand and products.
Shikha Sinha
Content Writer
Bhumi Bhetaria
Graphic Designer
Riha Parikh
Editor