Know-How Exchange : Branding

Who is your target audience? What is it you have to communicate to them? Are they denying that there is emotional appeal in advertising of branded products?

There are a number of television commercials airing today in the United States that make great use of emotional payoff to sell branded consumer goods. I can think of the Folger's coffee ads with Irish dancers, and another one with a serviceman coming home to the smell of fresh coffee. I can recall a commercial for Dove soap that draws on the emotions of women who don't think their bodies are perfect. There are many more.

So what are you trying to demonstrate and to whom? What's the purpose of your question -- the goal?

Ultimately, the answer is psychology. Why we choose a product or service comes down to the logical (the benefit) and the emotional (how it makes you feel). The key is choosing the right logical/emotional connection in your marketing.

Dear greg8799,

As far as I can tell, emotional appeal works like this: all buying decisions for big ticket, desire driven purchases are emotionally driven. We then justify the purchase—the expenditure—with logic.

Logical reasons are often disguised under the banners of investment, need, essentials, and so on. Sometimes those reasons are flimsier, so we give them names like want, whim, and impulse. But the connection is the same: purchase is driven by emotion, emotion is justified by logic.

The deeper the requirement to meet or support the emotional need, the more significance we apportion to the emotion by giving it more justification in the guise of logic.

When logic over rides the emotion—when logic slaps the face of the hysterical emotion—we experience buyer's remorse—a deeply seated expression of guilt for having spent all that money, or for having eaten all that chocolate.

The remorse is there to basically make us feel bad about ourselves, to tell us that we're not worthy. The more significance the remorse is given, or the more significance we heap upon it by worrying about it, the worse the buyer's remorse becomes and the next thing we know, we're stuffing the thing back into the box and heading back to the store.

Remorse has a tightly knit, close relation to guilt. Ever felt guilty for having bought something? That's buyer's remorse sticking its talons into you.

If the emotion gives good feelings by reinforcing positive associations and outcomes, its consequences are positive and the presumption and perception we bop around our imaginary dance floor with leave us feeling refreshed and lighter than air: this is why certain brands make us feel good.

But if the emotion gives us bad feelings because our chartered accountant of reality snaps its riding crop of logic against its jack boot of scarcity, we wind up under the thumb of the oppressive regime of buyer's remorse and we basically, beat ourselves up for being such a sucker or spend thrift.

At least, that's my theory. Can I PROVE any of this?

Alas. No, I can't. I just know it works.

The more appeal one can give something, the more sexy, alluring, desirable the thing can be made, the more it can be connected to a deeply felt need—the more significance it can be given.

And where there is significance, there is relevance, and vice versa.

Make a message more relevant and you increase its significance. Boost its significance and you increase its appeal. Increase appeal and you crank up the volume of desire. And every time the volume knob of desire clicks just a little bit farther into the red zone you increase the likelihood of a solid connection and then BAM!—you create the urge to buy.

If you want to get all mathematical, all algebraic, it looks something like this:

EpEr + IpF + MrF = CL/Lc

Elicit a positive response, Intensify the positive feelings, Manage the reactions to the feelings and you create Customer Loyalty through Logical Conclusion.

The outcome is pretty simple:

1. Get it right and you're golden.

OR

2. Screw it up and you're hosed.

There's not much middle ground; it either works in your favour or it doesn't. Your bottom line is either fat, or it's pretty darn skinny.

How do you make it fat or at the least, keep it on the rotund side?
How do you prevent buyer's remorse (or at the least, how do you slow it down or knock its edge off)? Oh that's easy! You give me a big fat retainer and I'll tell you ALL my magic theories!

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA
Follow me on www.twitter.com @GaryBloomer

After comments from Michael Goodman, Jay Hamilton-Roth and Gary Bloomer I'm a little apprehensive to say something : ) but I feel emotion works as a tool in branding/advertising when nothing else don't... like when your product is almost a commodity and there's little or no way you can differentiate it from the competition (or sometimes when you lag behind your competition and need something quick to plug the gap until you catch up)... Though there's no guarantee that it always works. I can suggest you a great article on this... https://rainscapebranding.blogspot.com/2007/12/bypass-brain-and-go-straight...

Dear Rohan,

You're right about one thing and wrong about another:

You're absolutely right when you say that emotion works as a tool in branding and advertising when nothing else will.

Guilt, shame, anger, and fear are all used to do this, and on a regular basis.

The downside here is that compassion fatigue can and does set in if marketers attempt to guilt people into taking action—particularly in marketing for charities; the balance between just the right amount of emotion and too much is a fine one.

But you've no need AT ALL to be apprehensive about expressing your opinion, REGARDLESS of who's opinions you're following.

No one on this forum puts their trousers on any differently than you do, and when you have the opportunity or the urge to express your thoughts, do so—clearly, proudly, and to the best of your ability.

Have a great day.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA
Follow me on www.twitter.com @GaryBloomer