How are you feeling? Understanding emotions

Understanding emotions that affect purchasing behaviours is a key to ensuring brands succeed with their marketing budgets. Lets look at an example. Kmarts ‘Bom Bom Bom’ campaign and the discount ‘everyday low price’ strategy.

Kmart worked to change consumer’s attitudes to the brand using the ‘Bom Bom Bom’ and on the emotions that drive consumption behaviour.

Those nine emotions are:

1. Surprise
2. Happiness
3. Love
4. Contentment
5. Pride
6. Shame
7. Anxiety
8. Sadness
9. Anger

These emotions affect different categories, different segments, different communication strategies differently,but we are not 100% emotional in how we choose brand ‘a’ over brand ‘b’, it’s a mix and it depends on time, circumstance, category. The way to use those emotions also changes depending on whether the brand’s marketing team is out to attract or retain customers.

Brands should not be afraid of the emotions on the negative end of the scale.
Anger is known to activate impulsive behaviour, which could be key in switching behaviours.

Ideas worth sharing:

• Understand the rational and emotional drivers of consumption in your category first and foremost.
• Understand where your brand strength lies on the rational, and if you own the important rational drivers therein lays your value proposition. Not in what your executives want it to be, but in what your market is telling you is important to them and you are doing well at.
• Understand which emotions your brand activates and ask, are they the right ones to drive consumption in your category?