ATTENTION  Now you can learn what you really need to know about successfully leveraging emotion in all your marketing efforts! ...

"How to Combine Emotion and Logic to Build Outrageously Strong Brand Loyalty and Steal Market Share from Competitors...

... especially if you think that emotion plays NO role in your market!"

(Which of these 5 critical emotional marketing
mistakes does your company make?)

Emotional Marketing Mistake #1
THE EMPTY PROMISE

“Don’t Build Your Dream House On a Shaky Foundation!”
Sure, sell them a dream.  But make sure it’s
based on REAL features and benefits.

      buy for emotional reasons, and then justify their purchase with logic. 

     So when we make an emotional promise, we need to back it up with real features and benefits. 

     Otherwise you only get impulse purchasing.  (At best).

     Without real, rational promises, your customer is left with no real reason to repeat their purchase.   When the emotional impact of your ad wears off (and it will!) … there’s nothing for them to sink their teeth into, … no concrete reasons to justify an ongoing relationship with your brand.

      So, while “emotional marketing tricks” to create ‘love at first sight’ certainly DO exist, I strongly recommend against using them without a real brand promise. 

      The infatuation inevitably wears off, and strong brands aren’t built on a string of one night stands.

     The conventional marketing wisdom “Sell the sizzle, not the steak” is a little off base.  You see, without the steak, there’s really nothing to sell!  (Sell the sizzle and the steak instead!)

Why “Empty Emotional Promises” Are So Common:

     Most advertisers know that to grab attention and generate interest, you need to make an emotional connection with the prospect.  (Even marketers who target physicians, engineers, or accountants need to emotionally connect with their prospects before they can present their factual messages and points of difference.  That’s the entire reason that drug reps exist in the pharmaceutical industry!)

     But the emotional connection is only HALF the battle. 

     The key to moving people from an emotionally excited state to actual purchase lies in connecting the emotional promise to real features and benefits of your offering.   It’s not enough to grab their emotional attention … you need to lead them step by step to the sale with real, rational reasons to purchase!

How to Avoid “Empty Emotional Promises”:

     Before you release your message, ask yourself “What will people remember about my product after the emotional reaction wears off?  Have I given them a real reason to purchase?”

     Let’s talk about some examples.  (By the way – so my lawyer doesn’t shoot me –these are very well considered opinions, not objective facts).

Empty Emotional Promise Example #1 – “Ford Trucks”:

Description of Ad: 

A thirty-something man is driving in the desert with his family.  They’re in a car (clearly NOT a Ford Truck).  

Enter the action music, and a large gang of bikers overtakes and surrounds them.

“Oh No!” says the wife, as she urges him to pull over. 

The man says something like “Relax - that’s the last thing we should do! I know how to handle this.”

He pulls into a restaurant parking lot where you see about 15 jet black Ford Trucks lined up in the same way one might see motorcycles lined up at a biker bar.

The bikers pause and look frightened before going in.  Eventually one of them says “I’m not going in there”, and another says “the salad bar is better up the road!”  (This implies that Hells Angels become wimpy salad eaters instead of brawling beer drinkers in the face of Ford Truck owners.)

Then the announcer says something like “We don’t just make our Trucks tough, we make YOU tough!”

Why It’s an “Empty Emotional Promise”:

     Ford presents an intriguing premise here – buy a tough truck and it makes you ‘tougher’ by association.  The emotional part of the premise is executed extremely well.  (It’s attention getting, entertaining, and you can’t help but laugh).

     Further, I’m pretty sure that Ford has done enough homework to know that ‘Feeling Tough’ IS a very desirable emotional benefit in their market.

     But here’s the problem, in my considered opinion.

• What makes Ford trucks tough?  Is it a stronger suspension?  The ability to weather all kinds of roads?  Hauling capacity?  Horsepower? 
   

• What does “Tough” actually mean in terms of benefits for the consumer? 
   

• Does Ford actually offer a unique point of difference above and beyond its competitors that makes it tougher than they are?

     There’s no way for the viewer to LOGICALLY CONNECT their desire to ‘Feel Tough’ to Ford Trucks. 

     So after the emotional excitement wears off, the consumer is left to themselves to determine what tough means, and only has an inkling that Ford might deliver.    

     (Another big mistake Ford makes is directly telling the viewer about the emotional benefit “We Don’t Just Make Trucks Tough, We Make You Tough”, instead of implying it – more on that later – see Emotional Marketing Mistake #5 “Show Them, Don’t Tell Them!”)

Empty Emotional Promise Example #2 – “Tulsa Transit”:

Description of Ad:  (Courtesy of USRadioWorks.com)

A very ditsy, valley girl talks about reading a book which says you can either “get energy” or “have energy sucked out of you” in the universe.    

And if there’s so much energy out there in the universe, how come she doesn’t have any of it?  

She comes to realize that driving her car in traffic is what’s ‘sucking all the energy’ out of her, and realizes that if she took the bus that she’d escape this energy sucking madness. 

It’s an ad for Tulsa Transit.

Why It’s an “Empty Emotional Promise”:

     The listener is presented with a caricature of what people feel like when they’re fighting the madness of traffic.  (“Drained and Unable to Think Clearly”).  This part of the ad is extremely attention getting, funny, and involving.

     Further, a good attempt was made to connect the target behavior (taking the bus) to the resolution of the above mental problems.

     The problem is that the listener isn’t left with enough concrete reasons for taking the bus.  To complete this emotional promise, they might have included a few of the following benefits ..

• You get there faster because the bus is allowed to use express lanes
   

• You save money on gas and the wear and tear of your car
   

• You get there safer because public transit has fewer accidents than individual drivers
   

• Comfortable seating, etc.
   

• (To be fair, having the time to read and socialize with peers riding the bus were mentioned).

     After the energy joke wears off, how will the consumer justify taking the bus instead of driving?

  “Let Us March On Phillip!”:

     Before I leave the section on Empty Emotional Promises, I want to reference one more story from Olgilvy’s book.   (Can you tell that Olgilvy inspired me to write this letter?) 

     Olgilvy tells the story of two Ancient Greek orators, Aeschines, and Demosthenes.

     After the audience heard Aeschines speak, they all “oohed” and “aahed” and said something like “How well he speaks!”.  They were happy, and they wanted to hear him speak again.

     But when Demosthenes spoke the audience said “Let us march on Phillip!”

     Aeschines entertained and impressed his prospects.

     Demosthenes inspired them to action.

     The purpose of marketing communications is to sell, isn’t it Or am I mistaken, and it’s just to entertain?  My clients want to see results for their efforts.

     Empty Emotional Promises don’t sell, … they entertain. (Sometimes, they also win advertising awards).

     And sometimes the entertainment in an empty promise isn’t even well attached to the brand.  (We all remember the funny Super Bowl commercial with the monkeys … but can you tell me what company it was for, top of mind?  Hmmmm?)

Emotional Marketing Mistake #2
THE EMOTIONAL MISMATCH

 “People may buy for emotional reasons,
but they need to rationalize their purchase
with features and benefits that are logically consistent
with the emotional promise you’ve made.”

Click here to Request An Emotional
Marketing Audit for YOUR Brand

     This should be self evident, but just turn on the TV for an hour and you’ll see millions of dollars wasted on emotional advertising that makes absolutely no sense when you consider what the product actually has to offer. 

     An Emotional Mismatch  is when the link between the emotional benefit and its rational feature doesn’t quite make sense. 

     An example (from the Super Bowl 2005 again) is the Godaddy.com “broken strap” commercial, obviously designed to mock the Janet Jackson incident from Super Bowl 2004).

Example –of a Emotional Mismatch -  “GoDaddy.com”: 

The GoDaddy.com pitch girl can’t keep her strap on during a long legal proceeding in which she’s discussing her intention to be in the Godaddy.com commercial.

There’s a brief mention of the fact that GoDaddy is a website where you can buy domain names for only $8.95, and then she proceeds to do all sorts of sexy gyrations, revealing her breasts, and charging up the viewers.

GoDaddy.com is printed across her flimsy t-shirt.

Then she turns around and wiggles her butt (where GoDaddy.com is printed again on her jeans).

There’s commotion amongst the judges on the bench, and an older judge is seen reaching for his oxygen mask.

The titles at the end show the tagline “See More Coverage at GoDaddy.com”.

     What did GoDaddy.com do right?

     They got your attention, entertained you, and gained name recognition.

     But, does the primary feature/benefit (domain names for only $8.95) make you feel sexy? 

      Have they taken the emotional excitation created by the scantily clad woman, and used it to drive home a reason to “March on Phillip?” (To go directly to your computer and buy a domain name?)

     In fact, the titillation in this ad might be so distracting that people won’t get to the message at all.  (Sex doesn’t always sell – sometimes it un-sells!  See the interview I did for Entrepreneur Magazine – enclosed.)

     By the way <$firstname$>, I’m married to a loyal GoDaddy.com user who won’t let me buy domains anywhere else.   (Glenn’s a direct response marketer who specializes in internet media).

     Glenn purchases all his domains from GoDaddy, not just for the $8.95 domain names, but more so because the easy to use interface provides access to a variety of useful features such as domain locking, forwarding, easy web site set up – and much more.  

     He says these features make him Feel Powerful, Smart, and Free because they let him ignore the technical aspects of internet marketing, and concentrate on higher dollar activities.

      So in my opinion GoDaddy.com missed the boat with the 2005 Super Bowl ad. 

     Now, on the other hand… truly excellent advertising delivers an emotional punch that is fully consistent with (and supportive of) your most desirable product features. 

     Let’s turn to an ad that does it right.

An Example of Matching Emotions to Features Correctly! – “Dee’s Restaurant”

(This radio ad, courtesy of USRadioWorks.com).

A conversation is heard between a woman and her ex-husband. 
“Harry – don’t you remember me?” says the woman, …

“Should I?” he says – and he clearly doesn’t.

“Harry” continues the women, and then proceeds to remind him of how they went together all through college, … how after graduation they took a trip to Greece, got on the wrong boat and wound up in a Turkish prison, … and after they escaped they got married on a sky tram in the Swiss Alps.  But back home they felt differently and decided to get a divorce.  They worked out the settlement over dinner at Dees.

“Dees?!” exclaims the man brightly?  “Dees?  YES!  Now I remember!  I had the Halibut Steak!”

He then exuberantly describes how it was perfectly broiled and complimented with steamed vegetables, came with a tangy tartar sauce, delicious rice pilaf, soup and a salad, etc.

“Harry, 8 years with me are a blank, but you remember our dinner at Dees?!” she says …

“Well, mostly I remember that Halibut!”

“Goodbye Harry” she says in disgust.

“Goodbye, uh … what was your name?” …

Then the announcer comes on and says “Try our delicious Halibut dinner for a limited time, only $4.95.  Dee’s - an experience you’ll never forget!”

     What emotional benefits does the consumer gain from an unforgettable dining experience at a low price?

• They can ‘Feel In Control’ of giving themselves pleasure, … and overcome the frustrations of seeking it from their loved ones. 
   

• They “Feel Independent”. Even if other people are unreliable, the delicious food at Dee’s is always there.
   

• They ‘Feel a Sense of Adventure’ – more so than say, going to Greece, getting thrown in a Turkish prison and getting married on a sky tram in the Swiss Alps.
   

• They ‘Enjoy Humor’ vis a vis the vicarious expression of anger at people who don’t come through for them (especially their spouses).

• As an aside, the successful use of humor is only possible when you intimately understand your prospect’s emotional needs.  (There’s a longer discussion of the use of humor in advertising on the CD).

     But what I really want you to see in this example is that all of the emotional benefits are clearly linked to a long list of desirable, concrete features.  And these features are ‘brought to life’ in a very specific (and well described) meal offering.

    After packing a strong emotional punch, Dee’s leads the listener to the sale by ‘painting a sensorial picture’ of the Halibut dinner …

• The tender Halibut steak perfectly broiled and complimented with steamed vegetables.  (This excites both the visual and olfactory sense and suggests the aromas of char-broiling)
   

• Tangy tartar sauce (makes the mouth water)
   

• Rice Pilaf (or a potato – provides texture)
   

• Soup and a Salad (for complete satisfaction and satiation)
   

• The availability of different choices (despite focusing on the specific dinner)
   

• Only $4.95 for a limited time

     The right emotions linked to the right features.  There you go!  (Hey, no fair - now I’m hungry!)

     OK, now that we’re on the same page about the two most important emotional marketing principles (One – emotional connections need to be backed up by real product features and benefits; Two – these product benefits need to be logically consistent with the emotional promise), let’s move to …

Emotional Marketing Mistake #3
EMOTIONAL PSYCHO-BABBLE

 “Don’t Let Marketing ‘Gurus’ Blind You
with Unusable Emotional Jargon!”

Click here to Request An Emotional
Marketing Audit for YOUR Brand

     Frankly, I get a little angry when I hear all the “emotional” jargon bandied about in our circles.  Everyone acts like you’re supposed to know exactly what an “emotional benefit” really is as it applies to marketing, and much more importantly, how to translate this into something our brand teams and agencies can actually use. 

“You Won’t Find Powerful ‘Emotional Marketing
Insights’ If You Use Garbled and Confused
Emotional Marketing Terms!”

      If you want to have meaningful coversations about emotional marketing with your team (instead of watching people politely pretend to know what everyone else is talking about), then you’ll be thrilled with the definitions below.  They represent a simple, yet incredibly powerful set of emotional marketing terms that I’ve arrived at after 21+ years of research. 

     Let’s start by clarifying exactly what an ‘emotional benefit’ really is.

 The Difference Between “Emotions”
and “Emotional End Benefits”

     It’s critical to know the difference between an “Emotion” and an “Emotional End Benefit”.  This is perhaps the greatest source of confusion in emotional marketing circles.

     There are only FOUR emotions   Mad, Sad, Scared, and Glad.

     The first three (Mad, Sad, & Scared) are unpleasant, so people usually want to get rid of them, or avoid them entirely. 

     Our goal in marketing is to convince people that buying from us will do that.

     Marketing means we move Mad, Sad, or Scared à Glad.   

     No fancy words or rocket science so far, right?

     The bottom line is that we want people to feel good when they give us money.

     Thankfully, there are many different “Shades of Glad” we can use like the notes on an emotional piano to play our marketing song. 

     Emotional Benefits are the “Shades of Glad” that are connected to the purchase and use of our product. 

     They are “Nice things I feel, or which I can say about myself, … because I use your brand.” 

     Some examples of emotional benefits are …

• “Feeling Free”

• “Feeling in Control”

• “Feeling Adventurous”

• “Feeling Intelligent”

• “Feeling A Sense of Belonging”

     (Note: I have a special list of 21 emotional benefits I use in my research.  Call or write if you want more info.)

 “Self Esteem” and “Confidence”
Are NOT Emotional Benefits in Marketing

     While “Self Esteem” and “Self Confidence” are the results of associating emotional satisfaction with our brand, they are NOT emotional benefits in and of themselves.

     The user feels enhanced self esteem because our product empowers them to reliably bring back a distinct and desired emotional state.  

     To gain marketing power in a given category, we need to know what that emotional state is … the one that gives rise to ‘self esteem’ and ‘self confidence’.   Self esteem and self confidence are the markers (end-result) of successful emotional marketing, but not a description of what makes them successful.

     As such, they give us little help in creating our message, in and of themselves.

     For example, I love to hike, and I feel better about myself when I buy a new pair of hiking boots.  (My self esteem rises).

     But that’s because the hiking boots make me Feel Safe about indulging my Adventurous Spirit.   (These feelings are linked to very specific and concrete features of the boots which I’ll show you momentarily).

     Isn’t a hiking boot manufacturer much better off knowing that I want boots to make me Feel Safe and Adventurous?   (As compared to wanting them to raise my self esteem?) 

     When people think that Self Esteem or Self Confidence are actual emotional benefits in marketing, they have nothing to ‘grab on to’ to give their agencies creative direction.   

     And when you’ve got no real creative direction to give your agency, the directors turn to more ‘universal’ emotional needs.  Things like sex and violence (the need to release frustrated aggression).

     Not surprisingly, sex and violence then get overemphasized to arouse attention,  without a viable way to connect them to the brand’s features or unique points of difference.  You wind up with Empty Emotional Promises and Emotional Mismatches.

     To avoid this trap, start with very clear definitions of your emotional marketing terms.  How you define these terms dictates the goals you’ll seek, and that leads squarely to the results you get!

 “Here Are The Only Emotional Marketing
Definitions You’ll Ever Need”

     I’ll use my fictitious brand “Eagle’s Nest Hiking Boots” to illustrate:

• A FEATURE is an actual element of your product, or a description of something it does. For example:
   

  • Eagle’s Nest hiking boots ..
     

    • Have a rubber sole with new micro-fiber super-grip beads
       

    • Have water-proofing that goes all the way up to the ankles
       

    • Rise two inches higher than the average boot, almost to your calf muscle.
       

    • Have winter insulation made from pure Royal Baby Alpaca fibers
       

• A RATIONAL BENEFIT (also sometimes called a ‘functional benefit’ or a ‘function’)  is the concrete, logical reason which explains the prospect’s desire for a feature”.   It’s what the feature does. For example …
   

  • The micro-fiber rubber sole makes you (1) less likely to slip and (2) gives you more traction so you can move faster on the mountain.  (The micro-fiber rubber sole has two rational benefits)
     

  • The water-proofing that goes all the way up to the ankles makes it possible for you to cross high rising streams even after a strong rain.
     

  • The extra two inches of rise material prevents you from twisting and turning injuries.
     

  • The pure Royal Baby Alpaca fiber insulation keeps your feet warm and prevents frostbite of the toes to temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
     

• AN EMOTIONAL BENEFIT is  “Something nice I feel, or can say about myself because I buy your brand.”    Emotional benefits are the underlying human need which are the deepest reason for purchasing, and, in marketing, are always connected to one or more rational benefits.  For example …

• “I Feel Safe” because the super-grip rubber sole won’t let me slip, and the high-rise boots protect me from twisting my ankle.
   

• “I Feel Adventurous” because the water proofing will let me cross virtually any stream, and the royal baby alpaca fiber insulation means I can hike all winter long.
   

• “I Feel Spiritual” because when I combine traction and ankle protection with the ability to cross any stream and face any weather, I can conquer any mountain.  This gives me a ‘higher perspective’ that lets me rise above the more mundane views I’m surrounded by in my day to day life.

• A BRAND is a concept or an icon which has come to be associated, through repeated exposure, with a particular constellation of features, rational benefits, and emotional benefits.  (IMPORTANT NOTE: Because a brand IS a constellation of rational and emotional benefits,  if you don’t understand exactly how features and rational benefits connect to the underlying emotional needs  in your category, you can’t fully understand and leverage your brand’s power!)
   

  • For example, the Eagle’s Nest brand name (in my fictitious hiking boot example above), in and of itself comes to stand for the manufacture of hiking products that make one feel safe and adventurous through solid features that prevent accidents, and empower the user to overcome all the obstacles they might find on the mountain.
     

• BRAND IMAGERY refers to the total brand experience.  Although “Imagery” connotes a purely visual experience, in practice I’ve found it useful to include the sights, sounds, scents, feel, taste, and texture that users most typically associate with your brand under this term. 
   

  • For example, “Eagle’s Nest” might conjure up glorious vistas from safe atop an eagle’s airie, the smell of fresh pine and a burning campfire, and the sound of a running stream. 
     

• BRAND PERSONALITY means what the user imagines your brand might be like if it were to come to life as a person.
   

  • As an important aside (and a topic worthy of more detailed treatment in another essay), brand personalities can be categorized into many well known “archetypes”.  Archetypes are shortcuts for understanding what a brand means to its audiences on the deepest level. 
     

    • Is it a Guardian/Protector as might be the case with our Eagle’s Nest Hiking Boots? 
       

    • Or is it a Magician like Enzyte that magically transforms, … uhm, men’s … uhm .. privates.  (You gotta love that guy). 
       

    • Or is it an Aspirational Character like Emeril’s pasta sauce, which allows the user to become a celebrity chef in her own kitchen?
       

  • Understanding brand personality and its associated archetype tells you how the user needs to relate to your brand, and this is invaluable input for the creative mood and tone of your message: 
     

    • In the first two instances above -- Eagle's Nest as a Guardian or Protector, and Enzyte as the Male Enhancement Magician, ... the brand supports the user to be what (s)he wants to be -- an adventurer in the first case, and a stud in the second.
       

    • Emeril, on the other hand, is an Aspirational Model -- the user identifies with this brand archetype as a badge.
       

• USER IMAGERY or USER PERSONALITY: is what your prospect imagines the average loyal purchaser of your brand would be like.  (This is strongly influenced by the emotional benefits associated with your brand).

     But the most important definition combines all of the above, and defines the ‘Holy Grail’ of what we are after in emotional marketing! …

• AN EMOTIONAL MARKETING INSIGHT is an in-depth understanding of your category as a whole.  It simultaneously describes what consumers want, why they want it, and how to push their emotional hot buttons with features & benefits that are logically consistent with the emotional punch.  It entails an intimate knowledge of …
   

  • The most desired FEATURES and RATIONAL BENEFITS that drive purchase in your market.  (What people say they want). 
     

  • The EMOTIONAL BENEFITS or human needs which are satisfied by providing the above.  (Why they want it!)  

  • How FEATURES and RATIONAL benefits are connected to EMOTIONAL BENEFITS (Which features push which emotional hot buttons!).  (This is important to know because, as you’ll see in Mistake #5, we can’t blurt out the emotional benefit to the consumer … rather we have to imply it with a focus on the right features in the context of a creative mood and tone consistent with the emotional need served.)

• What BRAND & USER IMAGERY is most consistent with all of the above (So you can set the right creative mood and tone for all of your marketing communications, choose the best actors and actresses, and develop the right characters and dialogue for your ads.)
   

• How effectively the various brands in the category are delivering the desired features, and rational & emotional benefits.  (How to optimally position your brand)

     For example, the EMOTIONAL MARKETING INSIGHT for my fictitious Eagle’s Nest brand of hiking boots might be:

Hikers want boots that make them feel safe enough to enjoy all the adventure and splendor that the mountains have to offer. 

Practically, this means a super-grip rubber sole embedded with micro-fiber beads so they won’t slip on the ledges, high rise boots to protect them from twisting their ankles, complete water proofing to allow them to cross any stream, and winterizing with royal baby alpaca fiber so even the toughest winter won’t stop them!  

Hiking boots are much more than the leather and rubber they are made of … they are a kind of spiritual fuel that makes it possible for the user to transcend the mundane world and reach a higher, more inspired level of being with a peaceful perspective on life.

     I hope you can see how the definitions above will help you avoid making Empty Emotional Promises and Emotional Mismatches.

     But there are two more major pitfalls which can stop you from delivering truly powerful emotional advertising …

(1) Using the Wrong Type of Research to get at Emotional Marketing Insights (or no research at all!)

(2) Translating Good Emotional Marketing Insights into Poor Advertising: Executing poorly is the final error.

   Let’s talk first about Emotional Marketing Research.

Emotional Marketing Mistake #4
USING THE WRONG TYPE OF
EMOTIONAL MARKETING RESEARCH
(Or no research at all).

“People won’t reveal their souls to help you
sell them products just because you ask. 
Emotional Insight Mining
requires special research techniques.”

Click here to Request An Emotional
Marketing Audit for YOUR Brand

     People like to think of themselves as ‘smart shoppers’, and hate to think they might make emotional decisions with their money.   So they hide their emotional motivation from themselves.  (That’s why they look for logical reasons to justify their purchases.)

     Second, many emotional reasons for purchase are socially undesirable (greed, status, lust, envy, etc.) … so when the consumer IS aware of emotional motivation, they’re very reluctant to tell other people.     

     Third, because of the above, connections between emotional benefits and their features are largely beyond the consumer’s awareness. 

     And finally, many consumers fear that if we really knew what would make them fall in love with our brand, we’d sell them things they don’t want or need. 

    The upshot?

    You can’t just ask people things like “Do you use your American Express card because it gives you Status?”  or “Do you buy Right Guard because it makes you Feel Powerful?”

     They usually don’t know, and can’t or won’t tell you if they do.

     So you have two choices if you want to unearth Emotional Marketing Insights.

     The first is to decide that Emotional Marketing Insights are part of some kind of ‘Creative Advertising Genius’, and not even try to uncover them through consumer research. In this case, you just let your agency, (and the intuition of your brand team) be your emotional marketing guide. 

      Now, don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying that your brand team and your agency can’t provide extremely valuable Emotional Marketing Insights for your category.  And, so this doesn’t seem entirely self serving, let me admit that I have seen many successful ads developed without the benefit of emotional marketing research.

     But I’ve seen many more go down the wrong path entirely, despite the best of intentions, and brilliant people working on the campaign.  (I also have to wonder how much more successful these ads would have been with the right kind of research).

     Alex Mandossian says “The Only Marketing Genius is the Customer!”, and I tend to agree.

     So how do you actually conduct emotional marketing research given all the obstacles above?

 “Projective Techniques Reveal
Powerful Emotional Marketing Insights!”

     A handful of researchers (including, of course, yours truly) have borrowed techniques from psychology called "projectives" in order to overcome all the above obstacles and get at powerful emotional marketing insights.  

     A technique is ‘projective’ when it indirectly encourages the expression of emotional motivation beyond the awareness of the respondent.

    Most projectives do this by presenting the question so that the consumer believes her response is part of a game - a response which could not possibly reflect on her personality.

     Projectives allow research participants to sit back, relax, and to view their responses as if they were watching a movie screen, unaware, for the moment, that they wrote the film and that they hold the projector!

     Let’s go back to the example of the soda can.  Suppose that instead of simply asking "If this soda can were a person, what kind of person would it be?", we instead positioned the question as an experience.

    We would tell respondents that they were about to engage in a fun exercise, and use a relaxation technique (guided imagery). 

     We’d help them imagine the soda can in their minds (as opposed to looking at the real thing) and then say something like "Imagine you see a hand reaching for the Diet Sunkist . . . what does the hand look like? Describe it in detail. What about the rest of the arm?  The person it belongs to?  Their occupation, family life, etc? "

     While on the surface, this series of questions may seem similar to the non-projective question “if this soda can were a person, what kind of person would it be?”, there are some critical differences in the way it was presented.

(1) there is no expectation that the respondent will have a ‘right answer’;

(2) the respondent is much more relaxed when the question is posed, and because her eyes are closed, she’s not focused on the interviewer’s reaction.

     Properly presented, projectives are experienced like a game -- like playing make-believe as a child. (People know that we don’t ask children to explain their fantasy games, so they feel much less pressured and ‘on the spot’).

     This is markedly different from the direct question "If this soda were a person, what type of person would it be?" To answer that question, most respondents feel they need a rationale to support their conclusions, which severely restricts their ability to respond.

     Removing this ‘school room’ mentality makes it much easier to elicit potent imagery, emotional motivation, and connections between emotional benefits and their rational features.

      It’s much easier to do it this way because the respondent doesn’t attribute the answers to herself.  (It’s kind of like using anesthesia while you’re doing exploratory surgery.)

     I’ll illustrate with an old “Shrink Joke”. 

A psychologist is giving the ink blot test (Rorschach) to a new patient.

She holds up the first ink blot and says “What might this be?”

The patient instantaneously blurts out “Sex!  That’s a picture of sex for sure!”

Then she holds up the 2^nd ink blot, and before she can even ask, the patient says “Sex sex sex!  That’s another picture of people having sex!”

This continues through all ten cards, when the psychologist becomes certain she can offer an interpretation without the customary time that’s usually necessary to study the answers.

“Well …”, says the doctor, “it’s clear to me that you are a sexually obsessed person”…

“Me!” the patient abruptly interrupts … “But YOU’RE the one with all the dirty pictures!”

      Projective techniques make it possible for respondents to ‘project’ their deep emotional motivations for purchase while disclaiming responsibility for them.  You get emotional marketing insights with the obstacles of social desirability and rational purchasing consciousness removed.

     (NOTE: the example above is over-simplified for illustration)

     Now … before I leave you, let’s talk about the last of the Big 5 emotional marketing mistakes, and one which unfortunately can ruin your campaign, even if you do everything else right.

Emotional Marketing Mistake #5
BLURTING OUT THE EMOTIONAL BENEFIT!

 “Emotional Marketing Insights are for
Marketers to Know and Consumers
to Experience, …SO SHOW THEM,
DON’T TELL THEM!”

Click here to Request An Emotional
Marketing Audit for YOUR Brand

     During our discussion of emotional marketing research, I emphasized the need to use indirect questioning techniques (projectives) because (1)  the consumer thinks of herself as a purely rational decision maker (‘smart shopper’); (2) emotional motivation is hard to admit when it’s not socially desirable (greed, lust, envy, etc); (3) emotional motivation often works beyond the consumer’s awareness; & (4) your prospect is scared that if you know what really makes her tick, you’ll sell her things she doesn’t want or need.

     Now, all of the reasons that make it necessary to be indirect in our research methods   count double when it comes to execution!

     I hope you can see that it’s a serious mistake to take an Emotional Marketing Insight and ‘blurt it out’ to the prospect.  (I think Ford did this in their “Tough Trucks” ad – “We don’t just make our trucks tough, we make YOU tough!”) 

     Rather, … and I know it sounds strange … the consumer needs protection from their own emotional motivation.  This is accomplished by using characters and actors with whom the prospect can identify (or project onto), and by SHOWING these characters obtaining the emotional benefits, rather than TELLING the user that they got them.

     Think about it … if you asked the average Ford truck buyer “Did you buy a Ford Truck in order to Feel Tougher?”  … would most freely admit it?  No!  

     People buy for emotional reasons and then justify with logic.  The purpose of emotion in the ad is to stimulate desire.   But if you call too much attention to the emotional benefit, you’re throwing water on the fire.  Show them, don’t tell them.

     An Example of Blurting Out The Emotional Benefit: “Yeast Infections”

     A long time ago, I did a very large study for a yeast infection treatment medication.  We were deep-diving into the benefit of a one day, one dose remedy. 

     The emotional benefit of this one-day, one-dose remedy was a ‘sense of freedom’ and ‘victory’ over the condition.  Some people in our research actually used a peace sign or “V” for victory sign to illustrate how it made them feel (‘free and victorious’). 

     Anyway, when the company tested having actresses make a “V” sign in the actual advertising execution, the prospects just kind of laughed and felt insulted,  They didn’t want people to know how enslaved and involved they were with their vaginal yeast.  (Even though they were). 

     What would have worked better would have been emphasizing the one dose solution (which clearly was a benefit to people at the time) and supporting it with a more subtly victorious emotional mood and tone.  For example, they could have IMPLIED victory by SHOWING people ‘back to normal’ … just going about their daily life – not by TELLING woman that the medication would provide victory over yeast infections.

      As an aside … after the research I was asked to record (on video tape) a caricature of what motivated the ‘typical’ yeast infection sufferer, … to give a kind of Dramatic Portrayal of the Emotional Marketing Insight we discovered in this market.  (I’ve done this several times – it’s a great way for a moderator to convey the depth of understanding she gains in a category after an emotional deep dive!)

      Anyway, I had thought that the video would only be seen by the research team and one or two internal marketing clients.  Little did I know it would be circulated around the whole company!  

      So now, every time I visit this client, just about everyone stops me in the hall and says “Uh … Sharon, … how’s that yeast infection!?”

      OK, enough said!

      Now that you know the 5 principles of emotional marketing excellence in, let’s talk about how to make sure you’ll actually use them after you finish reading this letter.

“Here’s How You Can Systematically Eliminate Emotional Marketing Mistakes and Use Emotional Marketing Power To Create An Irresistible Brand™”

Click here to Request An Emotional
Marketing Audit for YOUR Brand

By now, I hope I have convinced you that …

• People may buy for emotional reasons, but need to justify their purchase with logic.  Therefore …

  • It’s a big mistake to try selling on attitude alone! (Empty Emotional Promises).  Instead …
     

  • Emotional promises work best when they are logically consistent with the real features and benefits of your offering (otherwise you’ve made an “Emotional Mismatch”).   In order to create clear and logical emotional marketing messages, you first need to …
     

  • Eliminate “Emotional Psychobabble”, and use a clearly defined set of Emotional Marketing Terms … and then you need to …
     

  • Use special research techniques to reveal Emotional Marketing Insights.  People like to think of themselves as smart shoppers, so they aren’t likely to admit to you (or themselves) their emotional reasons for purchase (especially if they’re not socially desirable – lust, greet, envy, etc). 

    • Projective techniques remove these obstacles and reveal more deeply held emotional purchase motivations (and reveal which specific features of your brand they are best linked to!).    But even the most brilliantly researched emotional marketing insight won’t motivate purchase if you fail to realize that …
       

• Emotional Marketing Insights are for marketers to know, and consumers to experience.  SHOW THEM, DON’T TELL THEM!  

      Now, in my experience, most people see the logic of these 5 principles.  Many get very excited, their heads bursting with ideas about how to use them to power up their brand (and their marketing research efforts).

     But, there’s always a gap between knowing what to do, and doing what you know, isn’t there!? 

     As a practical matter, it’s very difficult to take an exciting new set of principles, and integrate them into your organization so that you can actually experience the benefits you know they can produce.

     That’s why I developed the “Emotional Marketing Audit”. 

THE EMOTIONAL MARKETING AUDIT
“Discover Exactly Where Your Brand Stands
on the Emotional Marketing Spectrum, … and
See How to Achieve Maximum Emotional Impact!”

     The Emotional Marketing Audit is an exciting process which represents the best of my thinking, not only about emotional marketing, but about how to install these principles permanently into your marketing and marketing research efforts.

“See, Once and For All,
Exactly Where You Stand on the
Emotional Landscape that
Drives Purchase in Your Category!”

(And discover what you can own, too!)
 

     We’ll delve deep into the heart of your category, examine your current marketing communications (and knowledge base) to:

• Identify what is known about the wants, needs, aspirations, and personalities of each of your target audiences!
   

• Discover how your targets view your brand in terms of its:

  • Unique Selling Proposition

  • Emotional Benefits (tied to features and functional benefits)

  • Features and Functional Benefits

  • Brand Imagery and archetypes

  • User Imagery

  • Reasons to believe

• Determine your brand’s strengths and weaknesses on the functional-emotional landscape!

• See how the COMPETITION stacks up on all above!  (Identify ‘ownable’ emotional gaps in the market)

• Find out how ALL your brand activity is perceived on the emotional spectrum!

• Discover how all of your individual marketing applications reflect the IDEAL emotional positioning for your market …

  • Name?

  • Form?

  • Delivery system?

  • Packaging?

  • Advertising?

  • Promotions?

• Assess your Emotional Marketing Intelligence systems!  (Evaluate how you know what you know, and identify any gaps).

• Summarize the most powerful Emotional Marketing Insights from all above!

• Make action step recommendations.

      Forgive me for being immodest, but I’ve been specializing in this so long that with enough input, I’m extremely confident that I can find ways to push powerful emotional hot buttons for you … emotional buttons you never thought of before, or even knew existed in your category!

    When we’re done, I know you’re going to tell me that you’ve found the “missing link” that’s been eluding your marketing efforts for all this time.

     I know you’ve been searching for it.  You’ve used all the standard marketing research tools.  But you haven’t quite found the ‘magic bullet’ that puts it all together, have you?

     Look, I don’t mean to suggest that I have the only company that knows how to get at emotional drivers in your market.  There are some very talented people out there.

     But I know precious few companies (or even people), who can connect these emotional drivers with the right features and functions of your brand, and put it all together with the right imagery (and creative mood and tone) so that you can identify and execute a powerful emotional branding strategy.

    People may buy for emotional reasons, but they justify their purchases with logic – so you NEED to tie it all together.

    That’s our unique talent.    

 “What Would It Be Worth To Have
ALL Your Brand’s Marketing Communications
Perfectly Aligned With Your Customers'
 Most Powerful Emotional Needs?”

     Of course, these are rhetorical questions, and the answer is nothing short of a fortune. 

     Emotional marketing confusion is a real headache for most Fortune 500 companies. 

     So there’s a real opportunity here for you to bring in the right solution.

    But don’t worry, even though it’s worth a fortune, I won’t charge you a fortune to get started …
 

For A Limited Time, The Emotional Marketing Audit Is Available For Just a Bit More Than The Cost of One Focus Group!

    Listen, we both know that the reason I’m offering this much value at such a low price point is because a small percentage of the companies who go through the Emotional Marketing Audit will continue on to do more in-depth emotional research with us. 

    And of course, in most cases (unless your emotional marketing intelligence systems are already well tuned), I certainly will make such recommendations. 

    But there are two very important things I want you to know about how I do business:

• First, I strongly believe one has to GIVE before they receive, so it’s perfectly OK if only a very small percentage of those who get the audit actually do more business with my company. 
   

  • So, just like I’ve poured out my best thinking in this letter (so much so, that many readers will actually take the information and run with it on their own), … I will also pour my heart and soul into your Emotional Marketing Audit.  (And I’ll be sure my team does the same).
     

• Second, the Emotional Marketing Audit is designed to provide tremendous value as a stand alone product.  Although I’ll allow you to deduct the cost of the audit from any future research you do with my firm (for up to 3 years), and I’ll be hoping we will continue on to forge a mutually profitable relationship, you’re under absolutely NO obligation to do so.  (In fact, you can take the results of the audit and feed them to other preferred vendors if you want.)
   

“Because I Head Up Each Emotional Marketing Audit Personally, I Can Only Accommodate 3 Each Month”

     I hope it’s obvious that this is a major initiative for me and my company.  It represents my best efforts to tell my clients and most important prospects about the power of emotional marketing (and the need for well executed emotional marketing research).

     But because it’s so important to me that this initiative goes right, for the time being, I’m going to head up all of the Emotional Marketing Audits myself!  (I DO have several highly trained psychologists and moderators working for me who have come from my long established and well reviewed ‘emotional deep dive’ moderator training courses – but for the first dozen audits I’m going to do it all personally).

    The down side of this is that I can only take 3 per month and still manage to service my clients’ other work.

    So if you’re interested, please contact me now to schedule!

To Discuss The Possibility of An Emotional Marketing Audit For Your Brand (Or For Any Other Emotional Marketing Consultation),  Please Fill Out The Form Below Today!:
 

All my best,

Sharon Livingston, Ph.D.
The Livingston Group for Marketing, Inc.
22 Grandview Road
Windham, NH 03087
sharonl@tlgonline.com

PS -- I'm not just any old marketing consultant who wrote a letter about emotional marketing.  I've been a 7 figure brand consultant for the past 21 years.  I've done work for ALL of the following companies! ... Click here to Request An Emotional Marketing Audit for YOUR Brand

Click here to Request An Emotional Marketing Audit for YOUR Brand

"I've been working with Sharon Livingston since the early 1990s, and we've done many projects together. I like the creative approaches. They allow the consumer to bring forth more and richer information from an unconscious level that they probably couldn't do in a more conventional, rational way. I also appreciate the expertise in the advertising area. It's that expertise which makes them so valuable early on, when you're trying to sort through different approaches and campaigns. Their work has been instrumental in some of our major decisions. Speaking for the company in general, [it] is extremely professional, and everyone who works there is very hard-working and responsive to whatever the client's needs are."

Mara Rastovsky,
Director of Marketing Research, Johnson & Johnson

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"The first time I took [the Livingston's training] was back in the 1980's when I was head of research at AT&T. I didn't have a thorough qualitative marketing research background and needed to learn as much as I could. I had seen Sharon moderate focus groups and do team building work for my organization at AT&T and was very impressed, so when I found out they were offering [training], I took it. It was a significant learning experience. The course gave me additional skills I needed to run a market research organization and a greater appreciation of qualitative research.  I was so impressed, I had them design a customized version for my staff at AT&T. Subsequently, I also took the advanced course. And, I have recommended it to many others.

I was impressed with Sharon’s ability to understand the telecom business and with her competence.  At first, Sharon may seem a little unorthodox in her approaches, but an hour into the research, you realize her ability to elicit and interpret the emotional subconscious is exceptional!”

Joel Raphael
President, ViewPower, New York City
Former Director of Market Research, AT&T

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"When I hire a research vendor, I’m looking for someone who has the ability to dive deeper into insights, for the top fruit, in such a way that is doesn’t feel like they are pulling teeth out of people.  They have to be flexible and adaptable because the research is constantly shifting.  As the project goes on things change and they need to be able to handle it.  My biggest fear is that the moderator won’t be able to get the participants to speak openly about a sensitive subject.

Sharon has an innate ability to get respondents to relax and feel at ease and talk about sensitive subjects.  Her training in psychology allows her to connect with respondents on a personal level so that they can share the most intimate details in their life." 

Scott von Lutken
Associate Director of Marketing Research
Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Click here to Request An Emotional Marketing Audit for YOUR Brand

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"When you work with The Livingston Group, Sharon's vast background and experience put you way up the learning curve. Chances are, whatever your industry, she's familiar with it and already worked with a company in that field. "

Liz Crawford, Group Director, Cosmetic Lenses CIBA Vision

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“When I hire a new research vendor, category experience is most important to me.  I want someone who has depth and breadth of experience with the category and has worked with consumers in a variety of fields.

I am most nervous about their level of understanding about the current research and its nuances.  The longer you are associated with a brand, the more complex the communication becomes.  It is difficult to capture the nuances that only experience can give you.  A really good moderator sometimes can intuitively pick up on those nuances.  

Sharon was fantastic!  She brings such a rich background and such a curious mind to our research that she definitely bridges the gap between a long association with a brand and quick familiarity with the nuances we are looking for.  She is fantastic.  I would give her a 10 out of 10!”