{"id":46271,"date":"2021-08-25T14:11:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-25T18:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=46271"},"modified":"2021-08-25T17:20:51","modified_gmt":"2021-08-25T21:20:51","slug":"emotional-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/emotional-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"Emotional Marketing: Why It’s So Effective"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is emotional marketing? How does it work? What types of emotions should you target?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emotional marketing involves appealing to the emotions of customers, specifically targeting strong feelings like anger, anxiety, awe, amusement, and excitement. Triggering these strong emotions will make people want to talk about your product and will therefore increase sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn how emotional marketing works below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Emotional Marketing, Explained<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The third attribute of contagious products and ideas is that they generate an emotional response<\/strong>. When people experience strong emotions, they often like to talk to others about how they\u2019re feeling. For instance, someone who\u2019s had a bad day at work will want to go home and vent their anger to their family. Someone who\u2019s just gotten promoted will want to share their excitement with their loved ones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When people do this, they inevitably share all the details about what made them so emotional in the first place. So, if you can make your product or idea generate an emotional response in people, it may get them talking not only about their feelings but also about your product or idea itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which Emotions Should You Generate?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

An important caveat when understanding emotional marketing is that not all emotions are equally effective at getting people to discuss your product or idea<\/strong>. Berger\u2019s research found that only emotions that generate high amounts of physiological arousal push people to talk about how they\u2019re feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Physiological arousal is, in simple terms, your body being \u201cactivated\u201d\u2014being readied for action. Signs of physiological arousal include a racing heart, tensed muscles, sweaty palms, and a general feeling of your senses being heightened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early days of the human race, physiological arousal readied us for the body\u2019s fight-or-flight response<\/a>. It prepared us to either run from predators or attack prey. These days, the responses that physiological arousal triggers are somewhat less life-or-death. When people are highly physiologically aroused, they may jump up and down on the spot, pace back and forth, or fidget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crucially, highly physiologically aroused people also tend to rush to tell others about the source of their arousal<\/strong>\u2014the thing that\u2019s got them so fired up. Therefore, if you can make your product or idea a source of high physiological arousal, you\u2019ll get people talking about it and generate word of mouth<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, which emotions generate high physiological arousal, and which don\u2019t? According to Jonah Berger, the five main high-arousal emotions are anger, anxiety, awe, amusement, and excitement. These are the emotions to incorporate into your emotional marketing plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, low-arousal emotions include sadness and contentment. These emotions discourage action rather than drive it. For instance, sadness tends to de-energize the body. It makes people want to stay put on the couch and wallow, not rush about telling people about the source of their sadness. Likewise, contentment has a relaxing effect on the body. It makes people\u2019s blood pressure go down and their heart rate decrease. People often want to relish this feeling of relaxation, not cut it short by snapping into action again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding the difference between high and low arousal emotions is key to marketing feelings successfully. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marketing Feelings: How to Do It<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve learned which emotions will drive people to discuss your product or idea. Now, it\u2019s time to explore how you can make your product or idea inspire these high-arousal emotions. The key to doing this is devising an emotional marketing strategy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of marketing strategies focus too much on information: on telling the consumer everything they need to know about the product or idea. Unfortunately, hearing lots of dry details about a product or concept is unlikely to inspire high-arousal emotions. It\u2019s probably just going to bore people. Therefore, instead of bombarding consumers with information, give them the bare basics about your product or idea and focus the rest of your efforts on making them feel a high-arousal emotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, you could try to make people feel angry, which is a common tactic when trying to generate word of mouth around a charitable, social, or political cause. Another possibility is to focus on adding humor to your brand\u2019s slogan, TV ads, or radio spots. This will help you generate amusement in your potential customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding the Right Emotion to Use<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

What if you\u2019re not sure which emotion to use in your emotional marketing materials, or which emotion will be the most effective at generating interest in your product? How can you decide which emotion to use?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When answering this question, Jonah Berger takes his lead from Chip and Dan Heath and their work Made to Stick<\/a><\/em>. The Heath brothers advise repeatedly asking yourself why people might want to use your product or adopt your idea<\/strong>. The first answer will likely be practical and related to the product or idea\u2019s obvious purpose. But, keep digging deeper and deeper until you find the reason that\u2019s emotion-driven. This will show you which feeling the product or idea ultimately relates to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: For more on finding the right emotion to use in your marketing campaign<\/a>, see our summary of Chip and Dan Heath\u2019s Made to Stick<\/em>.<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitalizing on Existing Physiological Arousal<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re really struggling to link your product or idea to a high-arousal emotion, consider trying to capitalize on existing physiological arousal instead.<\/strong> Make sure people see your product or hear about your idea when they\u2019re already <\/em>physically aroused. It doesn\u2019t matter if your product or idea isn\u2019t the source of the person\u2019s arousal. When they\u2019re already in the aroused state, they\u2019ll rush to talk about any product or idea that\u2019s presented to them. For example, you could place ads near a gym, as exercise is very effective at generating physiological arousal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try This Exercise: Emotional Marketing<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Learn how to get people talking about a product or idea by making them feel a high-arousal emotion: <\/p>\n\n\n\n