In order to be successful in business, you have to be able to effectively market your products and services to your target market. While it may seem like appealing to your ideal customer’s reasoning or sense of logic would be a great way to do that, you may actually get further ahead by appealing to their emotions instead.
Why Emotions Matter In Marketing
In a post published on Psychology Today’s website, Dr. Peter Noel Murray explains that many studies have found that emotions are often the primary driving forces when it comes to making buying decisions.
As an example, he points out how brain imaging has revealed that consumers use the part of their brain associated with emotion most when considering product brand. He also discusses different pieces of research which have found 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.”
Dr. Murray isn’t the only one sold on the fact that emotions are required to sell your goods and services either. In an article published in Innovative Marketing, researchers looked at several different studies involving both marketing and emotion and concluded that “our experiences with brands, whether in terms of actual use or simply an understanding of them, will have emotional associations linked to them in memory.”
This essentially means that creating that association by use of emotion then is a great way to always hold a place in your consumer’s mind. This would seemingly increase the likelihood that you’re the one they think of when they have a need for your specific product or service.
To help you better understand emotions and marketing, perhaps it would be best to go over some of the most effective uses of emotional marketing by a couple of companies that are household names.
Examples of Effective Uses of Emotional Marketing
One simply cannot discuss emotional marketing without at least bringing up the ads created by Anheuser-Busch for their Budweiser line of beer. Every year they release new, tear-jerking commercials, usually involving their famous Clydesdales, that tug at the heart strings of many. Even people that don’t drink are sharing them on social media, enabling the company to make contact with a higher number of people, simply by appealing to the emotions of their viewers.
And what about Hallmark? They’ve created an entire line of greeting cards and other products that rely solely on making an emotional connection with their customer base. I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent my fair share of time trying to pick out the perfect card or gift for someone I care about, and Hallmark usually offers the greatest selection of options.
This enables me to say exactly what I want to say, exactly how I want to say it, without having to come up with the words myself. (I know; I’m a writer, but it’s still sometimes difficult regardless.)
Want To Learn More About Emotions In Marketing?
If you’re interested in learning more about emotions and the impact they have on your consumers, Coursera offers an online course called An Introduction to Consumer Neuroscience & Neuromarketing. It’s offered on behalf of Copenhagen Business School and is a quick, 6-week class that teaches you about the role emotions play for consumers looking to make a purchase, as well as other valuable information you could likely use in your marketing plan. Most of their courses are free, but this one doesn’t say, so don’t hold me to that.
I’m always interested in learning other small business owners’ thoughts on relevant topics and issues, so if you have a comment or unique article idea, feel free to contact me at [email protected] (put “Businessing Magazine” in the subject line, please). If I use it, it’s a free link to your website!
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