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Emotive Branding

Updated: Oct 25, 2022



 

People ask me what is ‘Emotive Branding’? They think it’s something new. It's not. Emotive branding has been around since the dawn of organized human society. Have you ever been to the famed souk in Dubai or the open market on Rue de Buci in Paris? Have you ever strolled down the narrow isles in the Jemaa el Fna in Marrakech where a shopkeeper walks towards you with a sample of hot tea and asks you to try it, claiming that his tea is the best in all of Morocco? That shopkeeper is unknowingly attempting to establish an emotional bond with the unwitting customer to influence their decision to buy their humble product. However, beyond the souk and Euro street markets, as an enterprise driven society, we have become more sophisticated at creating an immersive personal experience designed to establish real and lasting customer retention.


According to Psychology Today...

"The influential role of emotion in consumer behavior is well documented:

fMRI neuro-imagery shows that when evaluating brands, consumers primarily use emotions (personal feelings and experiences) rather than information (brand attributes, features, and facts). Studies show that positive emotions toward a brand have far greater influence on consumer loyalty than trust and other judgments which are based on a brand’s attributes."


Consumers often claim they purchase rationally. But studies show that the factors influencing purchases are 80% emotional and 20% intellectual, even for business-to-business customers. Personalized characteristics may be used to justify decisions, but the initial motivation is almost always emotional. Emotions are required to maintain customer retention. As I like to say, making a product "sticky" is the goal. That's the sweet spot and it is where the company’s product wants to be.


A great example of contemporary emotive branding is when WestJet Airlines pulled on the heartstrings last holiday season with a video of Santa distributing Christmas gifts to 250 unsuspecting passengers. They also gave Christmas flights to a family in need if their video hit 200,000 views, which it far surpassed. The Canadian airline expected around 800,000 views but blew their competitors campaigns out of the air with more than 35 million views.

Coca-Cola's executive VP of communications and corporate affairs, Carl Ware, recently stated in the The New York Times, that "Consumer democracy is becoming more and more of an issue. Indeed, brands do not belong to corporations anymore, but to people!" I couldn't agree more.


When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion.”

~ Dale Carnegie


~ Christopher Harriman, CEO Brightside Industries Group, LLC

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