How Does Emotional Marketing Work?

What can an entrepreneur introducing a new product or service to a highly competitive market do? How can they break through to potential customers' awareness and be remembered in the long term? How can they skillfully get to know the needs and expectations of their target audience in order to win its attention and trust? The answer to all these questions may turn out to be emotional marketing, which marketers can choose to employ. What does it involve and what activities are used within its framework?

What Is Emotional Marketing?

Emotional marketing is primarily based on the assumption that a customer making decisions in a store or service outlet is guided above all by their emotions and impulsiveness, and only after completing a purchase transaction do they rationalize their choice and explain it logically to themselves.

- Our global research shows that two-thirds of decisions made by consumers take place at the point of sale or service. At the same time, more than 50 percent of consumers declare that they are willing to stay longer in a store whose atmosphere suits them. This shows how important customer emotions are in the purchasing process – says Aleksandra Potrykus-Wincza, Country Manager Poland & Baltics at Mood Media.

How to Build a Bond with the Customer?

Skillful management of emotional marketing activities is strongly correlated with the appropriate use of various tools to build an emotional connection between the customer and the brand. Nowadays, along with a specific product or service, defined impressions and experiences desired by a particular group of consumers – the target group of a given brand's customers – are being sold.

Emotional marketing aims to enhance the customer's sense of happiness and to show them exceptional care, so that they feel looked after by the brand. It works in a very similar way to classic sensory marketing, which is based on stimulating the customer's senses, putting them in a mood desired by marketers. Through the use of skillfully selected images, sounds, scents, tastes and touch, it should evoke positive sensations.

Emotions in Christmas Advertisements

Emotions in Christmas Advertisements

Memorable emotions can be evoked, for example, through a moving advertisement that refers to ideas, values, aspirations or memories important to the target group. Many such messages appear precisely before the holidays. Advertisements focus more on situations or phenomena, and the brand or product itself is merely a subtle background, but through such a technique it is often better remembered in a positive context. During Christmas advertisements, the characters and situations that influence the emotions of the message's recipients often appear in the foreground. For example, a smiling family sharing a meal at the Christmas table, Santa Claus coming down the chimney with presents, or happy neighbors helping one another.

A strong emotional impulse to buy, pushing rational purchases and real needs aside, is also largely triggered by all kinds of price reductions, especially those that are short-lived – perceived as limited. No additional persuasion of customers is often needed. A large number of customers will be willing to put something into their basket in a physical store and online that they didn't need or plan to buy just a moment ago, simply because they found what they consider an extremely attractive price deal. This type of shopping evokes satisfaction and puts the customer in a positive mood, if only because they seemingly saved money.

The Importance of Emotions for Loyalty

Emotional marketing requires skillfully identifying the needs and desires of the target group of customers. This allows determining how best to combine them with the features of the product or service. Brands that accurately assess their strengths and characteristics and effectively carry out this process can build a long-term relationship with loyal customers.

- Emotional marketing allows establishing exceptionally deep bonds with customers. As a result of positive experiences, a person who bought a product once will probably want to do so again in the future. Nowadays, consumers can be reached in many ways and relationships with them can be nurtured through many available channels, including those that enable almost instant interaction. However, in an era of such strong competition, it is difficult to operate effectively while omitting emotions in one's marketing communication – adds Aleksandra Potrykus-Wincza.

Summary

Emotional marketing is based on the assumption that customers make purchasing decisions impulsively and only later rationalize their choices. Effective activities in this area require identifying the needs of the target group and combining them with the features of the product, which allows building long-term relationships with customers. Short-term price reductions also trigger an exceptionally strong emotional impulse, encouraging purchases of items that were not previously planned.

Aleksandra Potrykus-Wincza from Mood Media emphasizes that two-thirds of consumer decisions are made at the point of sale, and more than half of customers declare a willingness to stay longer in a store with an atmosphere that suits them. This shows how significant a role emotions play in the purchasing process.