More and more often we hear about emotional marketing , or emotional marketing , but what exactly is it?
The very word “emotional” makes it clear that this way of marketing leverages people’s emotions , with the aim of making them feel certain feelings and needs , aimed at carrying out a very specific action . It has been demonstrated that emotions play an extremely important role in the path that leads to the purchase of a good or a service. In fact, it is estimated that 95% of successful operations have seen a fundamental role played by the feelings experienced by the user and not by real need.
In fact, the emotional system is not controllable, but it is something that leads to an immediate and quick reaction to a trigger. On the contrary, rationality is that part of the brain that tends to carefully analyze everything, control reactions, elaborate decisions in compliance with the timing.
Emotional marketing focuses precisely on this factor, that is to trigger the right emotions to start the decision-making process linked to the emotional sphere and able to lead the user to make a purchase, fill out a contact form leaving their data or simply starting to follow a social account.
Strategic Experiental Modules: here’s how to convey emotions to the user
When it comes to emotional marketing, different situations and experiences are examined that could be experienced by the user within the mental journey oriented to the purchase of a good and service. These can be summarized in 5 categories, defined as Strategic Experiential Modules :
- Sense Experience , those in which the 5 senses of the person are pulled in between, sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste are involved with contents capable of teasing every element. How? Through images, detailed descriptions and inserted within a storytelling that allows the user a complete identification and the consequent desire to also experience a certain situation
- Feel Experience , in this case the feelings actually experienced by the person, emotional situations and conditions capable of triggering a direct connection to a specific product are stirred up.
- Think Experience , when the creative and cognitive sphere is triggered. Here the result will be longer-term and will lead the user to re-enter the circle of loyal customers
- Act Experience , in which both the physical and mental spheres are involved, leading to different actions than the usual ones. Persuasive and motivational messages, used to change the user’s lifestyle
- Relate Experience , based on relationships between individuals, on getting in touch with others, creating a sense of belonging to a group and affirming one’s social status.
What are the emotions that cause the greatest emotional trigger?
Scholars have highlighted how there are some emotions that are more capable of involving users . Here’s what they are:
- Fear , considered by far the most powerful emotion. In a marketing strategy it can be used both to offer the customer the solution to a problem, but also by leveraging any deadlines or deadlines, hurrying the conclusion of a negotiation or a purchase.
- Sense of guilt , the one often used to sell items and services capable of reviving the fortunes in an apparently negative situation. The typical example is that of products and advice to get back in shape, where one relies on the sense of guilt arising, for example, after eating too many sweets or for binging during the holidays in order to propose phantom slimming products and diets
- Trust , the one usually implemented by energy and service distributors, telephone companies and TV subscriptions, which aim to offer advantageous conditions in the long term to entice a circle of eligible customers
- Necessity of belonging , where, following the proposal of an article, dedicated forums, communities and groups are created in which to involve the user, making him feel an integral and important part for the manufacturer
- Instant gratification , a typical example could be Amazon Prime. In this context, we leverage the possibility of having what you want, with a simple click, in a few hours and directly at home
- Value , that is to trigger in the user the feeling that a certain good or service has a certain value, important and exclusive
- Desire to appear and competition , a typical example of communication by famous testimonials and influencers who aim to entice the user to own something they have or wear
- Desire to be a leader , arousing the desire to achieve something first compared to others to whom then to show the conquest made
- Lack of time , where the creators of a certain campaign try to leverage the fact that the frenzy of today’s life leads to neglect themselves, their family and friends.
Emotional marketing: from theory to practice. Here are the useful tools
Having said this, it seems simple to understand the mechanism by which emotional marketing works, but not so much the path to implement it within a strategy. To do this it is in fact necessary to involve the user , whether through an article, a video, a post published on a social network, an image, it is necessary to trigger positive feelings. With the content it is essential to be able to create a bond with those who view it , develop unconscious desires, lead them to believe that they need to have that sponsored product or service.
The first tool to obtain this result is to invest in an effective storytelling , able to give life to persuasive stories, able to lead the user to identify himself , becoming the protagonist himself, and thus making him feel emotions so strong to the point that it brings him. to perform a certain action. Once this emotional reaction has been aroused , the solution will be proposed , that is the product or service offered by the brand, which will represent the lifeline for the user, what they need immediately, the one that will inevitably be linked to a specific condition.
Therefore , it is essential to choose the right language to use, which must be able to involve the five senses, speak to people and their hearts, not to soulless search engines. The need is to create a compelling story, capable of arousing real feelings in those who view the content, leading them to identify with it and become the protagonist in the first person.
Finally, the last aspect not to be underestimated is that linked to the choice of images to be associated , as well as any background music when it comes to videos. These contentsQue must trigger an immediate reaction, as it is estimated that in less than 5 seconds a person’s mind develops a positive or negative judgment. In the first case it will continue in the vision or reading, letting itself be transported into a parallel dimension, in the second it will immediately remove from one’s mind what has been seen and read.
Conclusions on emotional marketing
To summarize what is defined in this article in which we have deepened the topic of Emotional Marketing, we can define the great power of this communication tool . The undisputed importance of feelings and the ability to arouse them in the user as a key weapon capable of transforming a simple campaign into a successful one .
In fact, when it is possible to emotionally involve the user, relying on specific emotions and with the right communication means, both from a textual and visual point of view, there will be a much higher percentage of success than that obtained through the traditional marketing. Therefore, in the era where social networks, blogs, visual communication and the web enter people’s lives, studying campaigns focused on people’s emotions will represent the real key to success , capable in a few minutes of conquering and realizing the sale of products and services.
