Emotional Marketing: Capture The Hearts of Your Consumers

Emotional Marketing: Capture The Hearts of Your Consumers

You will have a greater effect on your consumer if your marketing strategies focus on abstract emotional values rather than objective selling points. People establish brand value based on personal experiences and feelings, rather than brand characteristics, features and facts. Psychology Today reports that advertising research shows that emotional responses have a greater influence on intent to buy than ad content.

When customers evaluate a brand, the brain’s emotional centers are the parts that activate and create a neural response. The Advertising Research Foundation found that emotionally relevant content drives attention, involvement, memory, desire and purchase intent. Here are some of the most common emotions expressed in ads and examples of companies that have successfully used this advertising technique:

Friendship

Social media marketing is an effective technique because it fosters a community and encourages brand involvement. The emotional draw of friendship makes consumers feel more personally connected with a brand. A company can create an inclusive environment for their customer network through social media interaction and collaboration with other companies. LifeLock, for example, creates a community feel through their Facebook page. They advertise to their customers on a familiar and personal platform, which makes customers feel like they’re part of the company’s community.

Sadness

Fast Company coined the term “sadvertising” as a new emotional tactic that companies use. In the past, ads refrained from any negative emotional connection, as they thought it would depreciate brand likeability. However, companies have explored the power of sadness and how it expands the public’s perception of a company’s emotional depth. Sad content speaks to human empathy and utilizes a PSA-style tone. Within the sadness, there is a tone of inspiration and a sense of hope that the customer can relate with. Powerade used the true story of a boy named Nico, who was born with one leg. They showed home videos of his struggle, followed by his continual success in his athletic pursuits. The conclusion of the ad shows Nico’s consumption of a Powerade drink and displays the statement, “There’s Power In Every Game.”

Confidence

Confidence is a popular emotion that companies build their brand on. For example, Dove creates ad campaigns that celebrate every shape, size and the diverse features of real-life women. One ad includes a street survey, where they ask women what they love about their body. They’ve created a whole campaign called, “Choose Beautiful”, which aims for the empowerment of women and increased self esteem.

Wonder

Some ads show the profound moments in life that define humanity as a form of emotional advertising. This emotion is one that connects with humans from all backgrounds and cultures, as it speaks to a greater human, universal truth. This sort of ad celebrates the inexplicable.

Unilever created a video campaign about the beauty of having a child. It asks an honest and universal question, “Why bring a child into this world?” It shows all the destructive things in the world, followed by videos of the beautiful elements of life and the hope that lies within children and the next generation.