Emotional Branding — You Think You’re in Control, But You Aren’t.
Did you know that 95% of our buying decisions are based on emotions? This means that majority of the time we’ve had to make a purchase, our subconscious did, not intentions. We as humans are not as logical as we seem. Most of the times we are driven by emotions. A typical example of this is the bandwagon effect.
Deductively, since all humans are not logical as they seem, one can easily influence them with just appealing to their subconscious. This is where emotional branding comes to the scene.
Emotional branding is that aspect of branding that creates a human out of your product to have an emotional bond with your customers. It appeals to the subconscious (happiness, joy, anger, revenge, attachment, love, hate, lifestyle, social status, etc.) of your customers through presenting of emotional stories and public figures in an attempt to influence their bias in your favour.
Big brands like Apple, Coca-Cola, Ford, Honda, etc, all use emotional branding. For example, a beer addict wouldn’t mind taking a can of Pepsi because he sees Lionel Messi taking a few sips of it in a 30 seconds infomercial. Messi is soccer star perceived by many soccer lovers as a deity and would want to identify with him anywhere and by any means.
To create a perfect emotional branding, you need to understand the psychographics of your customers and tailor your story to elicit the right emotions. Why do you keep going to that superstore for your groceries? Why would you pay 100 bucks just to go meet your hairstylist while there is one opposite your home? When you’re able to figure this out, then you’d understand the compelling power in emotional branding.
