Instilling emotions via campaigns in building brands

Marketing is about more than selling; it's about understanding consumers and creating emotional connections.

Marketing is often misconstrued as only about selling a product. What goes unnoticed is the fact that marketers go through a whole process of learning about their consumers, interests, like, and dislikes. All of it to make sense of their problem and then offer a solution to them in the form of a product. The process eventually also teaches them how to talk to their consumers, all in the form of a marketing campaign, hoping to garner interest in consumers and make them a loyal customer. Safe to say that marketing and reaching out to consumers has evolved in the last two decades. It's gone from basic infographic elements, necessary for a consumer to make up their mind to buy the product or not, to leveraging the insights and aiming to create a lasting bond.

It All Starts with a Bit of Storytelling

Storytelling is an art. Especially when you are time, attention, and focus restrained. It's about crafting a coherent narrative, that flows well, and has a punchline. All these traits are definitely what a marketer strives to achieve in a campaign. It is also one of the hardest to master! Campaigns that evoke emotion and build memories are 99% routed toward the storytelling approach. Marketers have also always taught the art of “empathy”. If you don't empathize with your consumers, you will never understand the problem they are facing or the solution they are looking for. This is true even when it comes to emotions. We are all more giving and forgiving around Ramazan. More fearless during any sporting event in which our country is participating. Vulnerable when talking about family etc. The challenge is to bring these emotions to life through an eye of empathy and connect it to how and what it has to do with the brand. In Marketing, it's called insight mining which involves a rigorous understanding of the target group and sifting through large amounts of data. This is the art. It then results in lasting character-building, nostalgic stories, and arousing emotions which can ultimately lead a consumer feeling and think that the brand is genuine and relatable.

Marketing with Emotions

Instilling emotions is the primary reason why a brand chooses a more difficult path to engage its consumers. It converts the audience from passive to active recipients of the message. Brands strive to craft a narrative that moves past the transactional interaction and adds a more human-like persona to a brand. That in turn triggers a bond and a voice that consumers are willing to hear and listen to. Research shows that Gen Z relates more to a brand that has a voice, and a purpose, and is willing to listen to what its consumers are saying. Hence this is the perfect era to indulge in creating a lasting bond by triggering the emotions that Gen Z cares about. This is not just to relate with the target audience but to also create brand presence, noticeability, and eventually loyalty and advocacy.

Example of Brands Instilling Lasting Emotions

Globally there are numerous examples of brands doing fabulous storytelling. The concept is not new but not many brands have mastered it even now. Dove and Coke are prime examples of brands that not only embedded storytelling in their narrative but it also used it to create its purpose. Dove stands for “real beauty” and through the years it has shown real-life examples of what real beauty means and why girls should be confident in who they are. The campaign has addressed multiple cultural norms, beliefs, and points of view in its narrative. It has stayed true to the “right” thing. It also challenged the common idea of altered beauty as real beauty. Whether it was an age-old concept of photoshopping models for that perfect image for an outdoor key visual or relying on filters in its recent campaign of “Turn your back”, it has always stood for reflecting the most vulnerable side of women as the most beautiful. No wonder the brand is the strongest personal care globally in terms of equity and market leadership.

Coke on the other hand has always stood for “Happiness”. It has harnessed the message through multiple distinctive brand assets that have stayed consistent over time, countries, and cultures. Whether it is bringing families together over a meal or reflecting a strong bond in terms of friendship, it has stayed true to the shared feeling of happiness. “Share a Coke” was the prime example of such a campaign where it brought the essence of the brand to life across regions.

Safe to say all these campaigns led to some great brand recognition, memorability, and sales for the brand. All this along with having a solid brand equity that it enjoys. Only because the insight was captured well enough to make the brand look and sound more human.

The Verdict: Emotions Cannot be Exploited

Even though we all enjoy and long for well-thought-through commercials. A tear here and there won't matter but it should lean on giving some kind of message, addressing societal taboos, bringing people closer together, etc. What we as marketers eventually forget that we are still talking to humans, with real emotions who might be impacted more seriously. Some emotions trigger a memory that people are not fond of, it might create a sense of uneasiness that people do not want to see in their perfect world, and it might also go on to make some people feel guilty. While it is debatable what the intent and extent of the brand is to arouse emotions, it might still adversely impact consumers. Hence storytelling done tastefully and empathetically is always the best one.