Enhance your brand experience by getting emotional

By July 13, 2015General

How can you make your brand experience better? Many marketers think that consumers make their buying decisions based purely on rational thought – by analysing things like features, cost and value for money. But this is not the case. Today, it’s all about the brand experience and how you make people feel.

A brand that resonates with people emotionally is a brand that they will remain loyal to. Without that emotional bond, customers can be easily swayed to try a competitor’s product.

Emotional triggers

We all have different emotional triggers, but studies have shown that there are three main emotions that are most likely to lead to enhance a brand experience and lead to brand success: Empathy, desire and excitement.

Let’s look at them in a little more detail:

Empathy

Empathy is about putting yourself in the position of others, and feeling what they’re feeling. It’s that feeling of happiness and pride you get when you see an ad like P&G’s ‘Thank You, Mom’ video from the London Olympics, or Google’s ‘Dear Sophie’ ad. It’s easy to forget that these ads are actually selling something. The brand experience is such that it doesn’t feel like we’re being peddled anything.

As the millions of views for both adverts have demonstrated, empathy works. In P&G’s spot, we feel what those proud moms are feeling because we see the Olympics through their eyes. At play is cognitive empathy – we see the world through the viewpoint of another.

Desire

The feeling of desire can be used in a variety of ways to strengthen the brand experience for consumers. One of the most common is the desire to be trendy and cool. Brands in many categories tap into people’s desires to keep up with the latest fads, or aim to be interesting, relevant, and timely, such as this Lynx ad, which poked fun at Britney Spears’ 24 hour marriage in

Luxury brands leverage feelings of desire in a different way. Take this ad from Rolex for example. The suggestion is that that with a Rolex watch, you can achieve anything you want. The ad encourages us to “live for greatness”.

Rolex (and most other luxury products) are marketed as superior and exclusive, which builds desire and competition amongst consumers.

Excitement

Excitement is the third emotion essential for making many brand experiences valuable. It is especially evident in ads for video games, films, auto, travel and even FMCG. Think of the adrenaline and thrill of Red Bull events, or Pepsi Max events featuring Jeff Gordon.

In experiences like these, thrill is combined with ‘edge of your seat’ risk.

Hotcow is a non-traditional creative agency that specialises in experiential marketing that goes viral. Our campaigns generate buzz through crowd participation, PR and content sharing. Contact us on 0207 5030442 or email us on info@hotcow.co.uk.