In an industry as competitive as FMCG, there is an undeniable need for brands to ensure a strong emotional connection between brand and consumer. This ensures brands are top of mind, as emotional connections can drive basic awareness and stronger associations with what the brand offers.
Although brands may be generally liked or trusted, some can fail to align themselves with the emotions that drive their customers' most profitable behaviours. With the increased costs of living meaning that purchasing behaviour has become even more price orientated, along with ever growing options from more affordable supermarket own brands, the need to establish consumer-brand linkages at the emotional level is extremely important to help a brand to be distinctive, perhaps now more than ever.
Emotions can be characterised into two key dimensions:
- Valence: refers to whether an emotion is positive or negative.
- Arousal: refers to the level of energy produced by the emotion.
The valence and arousal of an emotion interact and act as a source of information that helps consumers to decide how they should proceed with the stimuli in front of them. High arousal emotions have shown to facilitate impulse purchases because consumers are primed to take action. Alternatively, low arousal emotions can facilitate greater thinking. In terms of valence, consumers are more likely to identify with a brand if they associate it with positive emotions and experiences. More importantly, emotionally attached consumers purchase substantially more than regular consumers, which frees companies from having to rely on promotions and discounts to keep them buying the brand. Although, it has been found that, more than striving to feel good, consumers avoid feeling bad. Consumers weigh negative experiences more strongly than positive experiences and are even more likely to talk with others about a negative experience than a positive one. It is extremely important for brand developers to understand consumers, especially in regards to negative emotions.
When making a decision, there are two “types” of emotion we might feel: incidental and integral. Incidental emotions come from other sources, separate to the decision, that we carry with us. Integral emotions are directly related to the decision itself and are triggered by the parameters of the decision or its implications. Each emotion is associated with a profile of cognitive evaluations called ‘appraisals’. These appraisals can influence purchasing behaviours in two ways:
- Marketing (such as advertising of the brand / category) can elicit integral emotions that can influence consumers’ decision-making processes via cognitive appraisals of the object or the event. For example, marketing stimuli that triggers emotions like belongingness and nostalgia can drive purchasing decisions.
- Unrelated environmental factors, such as prior events, or the consumer's personality might elicit emotions known as incidental emotions. Even incidental emotions can influence how a consumer might respond to a particular brand / product. These emotions can affect perception, brand choice, information processing and risk taking.
Our brains are able to process emotional responses much faster than rational thought. Therefore, an advertisement that triggers a significant emotional response can impact consumers before they even begin to evaluate the product itself. The primary purpose of advertising is to craft cues designed to elicit the desired emotional response from potential consumers. A key example of a brand that does this well is McCains, whose TV adverts often portray a family enjoying a meal together, with the McCains' product as a centre point to the portrayed scene of warmth, love and belonging. Such emotional triggers tap into the consumers desire for similar familial connections and subtly steers them towards their product.
Such advertisements can also play a vital role in brand recall and loyalty. Byron Sharp's theory of mental availability refers to the amount of "brain space" a brand takes up in a consumer's head. Sharp argues that, in order to be successful, a brand must be memorable and easily recalled. More brain space = easier to recall during a buying situation. The success of larger brands is often attributed to them having greater mental availability.
"We can very easily screen out the brands we don't know".
Brands that are able to develop more emotionally engaging advertisements are more likely to be liked and remembered by consumers. In a study comparing advertisements for Dove and Pears soap, respondents were found to prefer Dove because participants were significantly more likely to remember the emotional advertisement of Dove than that of Pears. Hence, emotional advertisements can generate a liking bias towards that brand. Brands that have built solid brand loyalty today are often those that have historically been able to establish some level of an emotional bond with their customers. By building an emotional attachment, brands can build trust with their consumers. This way, brands are able to create a strong, recognisable image whereby consumers develop a set of expectations about their products.
One brand which demonstrated this well was Cadbury's, with their iconic advert depicting a gorilla playing the drums to Phil Collins' hit "In the Air Tonight". The music, humour and surprise element of this advert enhanced the emotional impact on consumers, making them more likely to remember and prefer Cadbury products, in turn building brand loyalty. The Cadbury Gorilla brand campaign became culturally significant and led to a double-digit percentage growth for the brand. This campaign demonstrates the effectiveness of emotional marketing in driving consumer purchases. Emotional marketing stimuli can be highly important to influence consumer behaviour across all stages of the buying process:
- The awareness stage - an emotional advertisement can capture the buyers attention more effectively than a straightforward product display
- The consideration stage- an emotional connection can help differentiate a product from any competing brands
- The decision stage- emotional connections can serve as the final push that leads to a purchase
Conclusion
Emotions are central in influencing our actions in all areas of life, one of these being our purchasing behaviours. Consumers make almost all of their decisions subconsciously, far from conscious reasoning. Brands are capable of generating strong emotional reactions, whether these are positive or negative. As such, brands should pay close attention to the emotions they aim to elicit for potential customers, as this will influence how consumers identify and interact with the brand.
