Emotional branding targets consumers’ inner drives, developing a brand personality and shared commitments to social causes to create an emotional need for a product or service. It often uses engaging spokespersons to appeal to customers’ desires.
Emotional branding is a concentrated effort to develop a company’s or product’s advertising in a way that appeals to consumers emotionally. Instead of purely intellectual factors, such as a product’s price or efficiency, the deep inner drives of consumers are targeted by this type of advertising. Therefore, most campaigns don’t simply seek to elicit an emotional response, but rather to convince a customer that the product will satisfy her emotional needs.
Often, the first step in emotional branding is developing a brand personality. Consumers, by and large, don’t link to a company logo or tagline. However, they do respond to the representation of human personality traits. Using a spokesperson, for example, can often personalize a company. Whether this rep is thoughtful or empathetic, these traits are often attributed to the organization as well.
Another way to develop emotional branding is through shared commitments to social causes. When a company demonstrates that it supports a cause, a potential consumer who supports that cause is more likely to buy from that company. Close attention is usually paid to these types of marketing techniques to avoid the appearance of tributes or insincerity. Therefore, charitable contributions are usually accompanied by voluntary service from company employees. In cases where a company wishes to appear more environmentally friendly, energy conservation and recycling programs can be instituted within the organization.
Once an organization has developed a likeable personality and created a shared interest with its customer base, it must create an emotional need for its product or service. In general, this is accomplished by inclusion. For example, if a company has developed its emotional branding to include the personality trait of generosity, a person who does business with this company is also assumed to be charitable. Therefore, individuals who feel an emotional need for kindness are more likely to purchase from this organization.
The need to be physically attractive is a common emotional desire that is often addressed by the emotional brand. Using an engaging spokesperson is a powerful tool here. Advertising for products such as weight loss aids and cosmetics often assumes that the customer attributes the spokesperson’s attractiveness to the use of the advertised product. In theory, these individuals will buy the product with the assumption that it will also make them more attractive.
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