Gimme that Brand Love
We’ve all been there. Saturday night, sitting on the couch watching TV, and then that ad comes on, you know the one that makes you choke up and call your mom. When ads can conjure up emotions, stir up feelings, ring your bell—they’re working, in the very best way.
Many ads are wrought with emotion, and it’s not just so that you’ll run off and buy the product or book the service. Through tugging at your heartstrings, they’re biologically bonding you to their brands, creating brand loyalty.
Just by evoking a smile, your brain is fully engaged. As soon as that smile graces your face, it stimulates the release of neural messaging, a tide of neuropeptides that fight stress, as well as other, feel-good neurotransmitters such as dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin.
The haze of this feel-good moment is etched on your brain, aligned with whatever caused it. Think of the famous Coke ad where Mean Joe Green tosses the kid his shirt (Hey Kid, Catch). Now every time you recall this warm fuzzy moment, your good feeling extends to the soft drink.
According to Psychology Today, “Studies show that positive emotions toward a brand have a far greater influence on consumer loyalty than trust and other judgments, which are based on a brand’s attributes.”
What Exactly is Brand?
A brand is the product or service’s image. Basically, it all has to do with creating a feeling. A brand is a mental representation of how the customer actually views the product or service—essentially public perception.
Through branding, marketing seeks to build an emotional bond to forge a more solid relationship with their customer base. The more closely tied people are to the brand, then the actual brand fans become an actual thing, sometimes a group of more vocal, loyal or active fans of the brand are described as a tribe.
Emotional Branding — Affection that Stops Defection
Developing that emotional connection secures your brand in your customer’s hearts and minds. It ensures that they’ll be with you over the long haul. Once this emotional tie is established, customers will tend to choose the brand they’ve associated those warm, fuzzy feelings with over a competitor, preventing customer defection—even if the price is lower or even if it is realistically more convenient.
How Use Emotion to Build Brands
It all comes down to desires and insecurities —two powerful elements that are so deeply tied to our emotions they can propel us to action. As social beings, the want for something or the fear of something are primal motivators.
Think about these Desires:
- To belong
- For control
- To be better than
- To be first or to discover, early adopter
- To be cool, hip, trendy
- To be smarter
- Fun
- Sex, love and, romance
Think about these Insecurities:
- You don’t spend enough time with your friends and family
- You don’t help others, you’re selfish
- You’re missing out
- You’re not one of us; you don’t belong
- You’re not good enough
- You’re behind, not keeping up with the Jones’
Self-identity is tied to brands. Think about how people define themselves—from the cars they drive to the clothes they wear. You can get a gander at a person’s personality just by the channel they watch to get their news. They’re conservative if they watch Fox or more liberal if they get their news from MSNBC.
All the Feels — Some Good Examples of Emotional Branding
Why do you love the brands you do, let’s count the ways…
Happiness
As soon as you hold up a Coke, you’re probably thinking of one of their iconic campaigns—Have a Coke and a Smile, Open Happiness, Taste the Feeling. Other brands that exude that happy feeling are Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and Campbell’s Soup.
Sad and Sentimental: Used to evoke empathy to showcase social issues
Procter & Gamble’s “Thank You, Mom” Olympic commercials. This campaign showed how moms supported their kids asthey climbed to success in the Olympics and had us all passing the tissues.
Fear or Suspense: Designed to scare people, alerting them to a threat or to motivate them to engage in or deter from certain behaviors.
Allstate “Mr. Mayhem” bad things can happen so make sure you’re insured.
The World Wildlife Fund’s iconic “Stop Climate Change Before It Changes You” used a photo of a man with a fish head to scare people about how environmental abuse can ultimately physically change us.
Anger – Used for environmental issues, government policies, and political candidates.
Always’ “Like a Girl” campaign took an insult and turned it into an anthem.
Save the Children campaign with images of starving and sick children.
Disgust – Used to sell medication, gym memberships, diet plans and, remedies. Who can forget Wisk detergent’s public shaming? As taunting children would shriek, “Ring around the collar!” to point out the sweat and grime left on dirty shirt collars across America.
Emotional Marketing with Green Group Studio
Whichever way you look at it emotion is a great tool to align your brand, your message, your image with your audience. Let the experienced marketing team at Green Group Studio help you find the perfect way to win the hearts and minds of your customers by moving them emotionally with words and images that speak to their very souls.
Our dedicated team of creative professionals capable of strategizing a marketing plan that works for you now and well into the future. We strive to evolve to stay ahead of marketing trends constantly. Let us show you how we can individually tailor marketing plans by discovering works best for you and what motivates your customers.To speak with a marketing expert, call Green Group Studio today at 561-59-GREEN (47336).
