Emotional Marketing

What does emotion have to do with creating loyal, enthusiastic customers? Everything.

Here’s everything you need to know about emotional marketing, plus all other important principles and theories that can supercharge your marketing and influence people to buy your products or services.

What is emotional marketing?

Emotional marketing refers to marketing and advertising that primarily uses emotional appeals to make your customers and prospective customers notice, remember, share, and buy your company’s products or services. There are many different emotions but eight primary ones: anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, anticipation, trust, and joy.

Does emotional marketing influence what people buy?

Studies show that powerful memories come from intense emotional experiences. Marketing efforts that tap into those memories access intense emotions. Those emotions are often responsible for that pricey purchase made on a whim.

In fact, the emotional content in advertising is far more influential than its informative content. According to experts, marketing with emotional content is twice as successful as the marketing using the informative content.

Why is emotion more persuasive than information? Our brains are great at processing emotions. Brains understand and interpret emotions quickly, and the memory of those emotions persists for a long time. As for facts… we challenge you to remember the capital of each of the United States.

What are the different types of emotional appeals

Which emotions should your business use to boost the power of a marketing message?

You have a range of emotions to consider, but they can easily be broken down into two categories: positive, feel-good emotions, and negative emotions like fear and anger. You might think that positive emotions are a better choice, but that is not always the case. Positive and negative emotional appeals can be equally persuasive. Think about your business and which of the following emotional appeals would work best for your brand’s identity.

Self esteem

Appeals to self-esteem target the customer’s desire to feel good about themselves. Creating these feel-good emotions increase your customer’s positive impression of your product.

Using an emotional marketing message feels more genuine. Focus on messages that feel personal to your audience, and tap into a message that resonates with them in a positive way.

Authority and experts

Credibility and unbiased opinion can have massive sway over consumer opinion. Hearing from an expert on a subject makes a claim more believable and carries more weight with consumers. Find an expert with enough name recognition that their words carry weight, or create your own expert using a tongue-in-cheek approach.

Happiness

Campaigns that conjure up good feelings, joy, and happiness are powerful ways to connect with consumers. That's because enthusiasm is contagious. It’s one one reason, for example, why positive business taglines create stronger brand identities, compared to negative taglines.

Try to incorporate positive language into your marketing: fun, success, achievement, joy ... This will give consumers a positive and pleasurable association with your brand. And then, they’ll share the love.

Sadness

Marketing that makes people feel sad is powerful.

You might wonder why any company would intentionally break the hearts of their audience. It's because in marketing, creating sadness can persuade people to act. Show consumers a problem and demonstrate how sad and difficult it is. Then provide them with the solution, and move them from sadness to empowerment.

Fear

Fear is a primal emotion that marketers use to motivate a change. Fear appeals are impactful, but they need to be used carefully. Appeals that are too intense or harshly presented can sometimes backfire.

One reason for this is that people tend to avoid unpleasant or upsetting imagery. But fear is motivating because we are biologically programmed to run from scary situations. Our bodies and minds compel us to act when we are faced with fear-inducing things. In marketing, you can illustrate a vivid threat – like lung cancer to smokers – and then offer viewers the way to escape it.

Anger and disgust

Anger and disgust are negative emotions, but they can still provoke a positive reaction if used properly in a campaign. Always’ 'Like a Girl' campaign took a demeaning, anger-inducing phrase and transformed it into a positive and memorable experience.

Many companies will also use anger, but they will put aim that anger toward their competitors. When Dollar Shave Club illustrated the frustration of buying commercial brand razors, they tapped into a common problem. Then they offered their solution. Using anger toward your competitors is a great strategy to encourage your customers to try out your brand instead.

What are the core principles of marketing psychology?

There are many important principles, theories, and concepts used in marketing psychology. These include:

the principle of reciprocity
information-gap theory
scarcity
social proof theory
and loss aversion marketing

You can research each of these principles, plus dozens of other key principles of marketing psychology, via the links below.

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