EMOTIONS AND MARKETING
Appeal To Emotions
Not Logic
By CPA Nicholas Gachara
Its no doubt a very difficult and
unprecedented period that we are
all facing not only in Kenya but
globally. Following this pandemic, the
global economy is expected to enter into
a recession according to the International
Monetary Fund (IMF). They forecast there
will be a sharp contraction of 3% this year.
Domestically, the Central Bank of Kenya
painted a gloomy picture by downgrading
its forecast for Kenya economic growth
to 3.4% down from 6.2%. This could be
worse as the year progresses.
Despite this environment, businesses
should and must continue. Tonny Ichangai,
a marketing trainer and consultant,
always challenges his clients by asking:
‘Who has got my money?’. To him, the
right prospects need to be identified and
converted in any economic situation.
You must therefore keep engaging your
prospects on a regular basis to offer them
your products or services consistently.
Any marketing and sales involves
connection with another human being. At
the heart of this connection are the basic
human emotions. It’s always said that we
make our decisions based on emotions and
justify with logical thinking. The logical
thinking part always comes much later.
It’s why impulsive shopping is rampant.
To improve the conversion factor from
prospect to a successful sale, marketers
must incorporate at least one of these
basic human emotions:
Happiness: Everyone wants to have that
pleasant emotional state of contentment,
joy, gratification, satisfaction, and wellbeing.
It is what we strive to have
most in our lives. Some brands have
really utilized this inert feeling in their
marketing persona so much so that they
have become synonymous with that
feeling. When we think of global giants
like Coca Cola, we immediately think of
happy times with our loved ones or the
feeling of celebration. We want to share
with our family and friends their products
because we want to make them feel happy
and show them that we appreciate them.
Products that have this emotional aspect
tend to be classical and timeless and
perform well in any economic climate.
Sadness: Sadness is the evil twin of
happiness in that it has the contrary
effect of happiness. We want to avoid it
all costs but inevitably we experience it.
Sadness brings about pain which causes
discomfort. We actively seek for any
solution that can take away the sadness to
bring delight. Pharmaceutical companies
have really taken advantage of this
emotion by attacking the pain points that
brings about sorrow. Their solution brings
relief to the pain that patients suffer and
usually can exploit this to the detriment
of the latter.
Fear: This is our primal emotion of
survival which we experience when
we face imminent danger. We face the
decision of either fight or flight. It’s very
agonizing. Muscles become tense, the
heart rate and respiration increase, and
the mind becomes more alert. Insurance
companies have taken this aspect of
emotion to market their products and
is very effective for them. Theirs is the
solution of protecting you against a risk
that you may experience such as loss of
life, loss of income amongst others. This
appeal gives comfort to their clients that
if premiums are paid they should not
panic when a risk occurs.
Fear can also be invoked by scarcity. When
a critical resource is about to become
scarce, people will usually buy in bulk to
keep reserves to protect themselves when
shortage bites. Scarcity can be evoked
effectively by limited time, limited units
and special low price. Limited time aims
at making the customers to act now lest
they lack the product after the time has
elapsed. Limited units is aimed at making
the customers get the product in sufficient
quantity. Special low price aims at making
the customers take advantage of the low
price before they have to pay more later
when it’s more expensive.
Anger: This is a very strong emotion of
annoyance, displeasure or hostility. You
should tread carefully if you want to use
this emotion in your marketing as often it
can backfire on your brand. Mostly used
in a negative connotation to attack a rival
brand and to lure their clients to be in your
clientele. Political campaigns have used
this successfully to remove an incumbent
through dissuading their voters to crossing
the bridge to theirs. They constantly raise
issues which were promised to be solved
but haven’t been addressed. Startup
companies can evoke this emotion in
the existing customers of established
companies. The angle of attack is that the
established companies have become too
big and ignore many customer complaints
or take them for granted.
Conclusion: If you want to have
successful marketing campaigns and sales,
you must appeal to the emotions and not
logic. Showcasing a products features is
appealing to logic. Instead show how the
features would make the customers feel.
For instance, marketing a car by showing
its dapper leather interior would not be as
effective as demonstrating the prestige of
driving that car. Emotional memory lasts
longer than other memory and that’s why
we remember how people make us feel
longer than we remember their names.
You would be able to charge a premium
for the car by connecting emotionally with
the client.
CPA Nicholas Gachara is a Tax
and Accounting Consultant. You
can commune with him on this
or related matters via email at:
[email protected].
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MAL36/20 ISSUE