Emotional Branding creates feelings of trust, nostalgia, gives inspiration, and relatability to many human emotions. Trust enhances safety and reliability for a brand and higher engagement with the brand increases its alignment with the brand, at a cognitive level. Emotions, thus, refer to subjective experiences accompanied by physiological and behavioural changes. Adaptive thought or action often arises from integration of effective emotional and cognitive variables, combining both with already learned skills. They create a connection that goes beyond functional benefits of a brand.
The message connection : Nike’s ‘Just Do It’, message is an inspirational, 3- word connection with the human mind to wake up and move forth, fight the day's battles, with joy. It doesn’t sell Nike shoes, it shares the spirit of the brand to lift life and give it a fillip! Such emotional connections build brand loyalty that stays in the heart for a long time. Once a person feels this way about any brand, he is likely to recall it faster, talk about it with friends, recommend it to others and be less price sensitive to such changes or towards competitors of the brand.
Do you love a brand? Have you been using any particular brand for more than a decade! Then, it has found a space in your life and any other No 2, will not do! This means that emotions related to that brand, in conjunction with cognitive factors related to the brand, have in unison, affected your decision making and resulted in product purchase, time and again.
Emotional connect can be at various levels:
Unconnected → satisfied → distinctive → fully connected
Unconnected - no brand awareness; satisfied - content with the product but lacks deep interest; distinctive - customer recognises your brand from other brands but is not fully engaged; fully connected - customer is strongly associated with your brand.
Cultural variables, technological developments, product innovations all help in building the brand and its acceptance by the market. Cultural variables define our existence with ourselves, society and the world at large.
They are very close to our heart and provide a sense of belongingness. A brand that celebrates our festivals, moods, occasions, recognises and shares our emotions will always connect well.
A survey was carried out on 400 respondents; in 5 different cities to get a first-hand connect of consumers on emotional bonding. The respondents were selected using stratified random sampling methods. The attitude measurement scaling technique like Likert and Semantic Differential technique were used to draw out responses.
Across India, namely, Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi NCR and Rajasthan 45% of the people said emotions affect their product purchase. And the fact that emotional factors can impact purchase at any stage of product consideration. Trust is the most impactful emotion.
Excitement and pride, nostalgia and exclusivity follow next in line. Emotional branding played a pivotal role in the product categories such as Fintech Apps, Smartphones, shoes probably through lifestyle and aspirational messaging. In the case of tea category for example, storytelling appeals such as nurturing humanness, care and comfort,
social awakening, empowerment, security have ranked the higher than other messages. In Uttar Pradesh, Red Label ranked 32.7% in nurturing relationships. In Delhi NCR, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan, Taj Tea was ranked 41-44% w.r.t social status and premium feel.
Similarly in the Smartphones category, emotions played upto 25% - 35% importance in their purchase, in the five cities studied. Also, Apple messages exemplified status symbol, Samsung touched upon social awakening, One Plus emphasised comfort. These themes highlighted the importance of lifestyle focussed advertising for high involvement categories, like smartphones.
Similarly, in the fintech category, Paytm scored 65% , its tune paytm karo becoming a generic tune… even roadside children sing the tune. This depicts the closeness and high relatability with the brand in relationship building.
Several insights were derived during the research. Strong emotional resonance builds brand recall and then loyalty,
that which touches the heart. Emotional branding becomes relevant in high involvement product such as smartphones and shoes where the products reflect personal identity and values. Emotionally resonant experiences, at every touch point of the consumer purchase journey create lasting brand impressions, leading to product purchase. However, at the end, nothing
lasts forever. Brand loyalty through emotions has to be continuously rejuvenated, keeping in mind the fact that the consumer is becoming more discerning, and knowledgeable about the glitter and glamour in the markets. India has a large younger generation; their tastes are not as long lasting. They like to try new things, experiment and form their own opinions.
So, gear up marketers, while the heart beats, is sensitive and touchy towards things close to ones’ inner self, everything else will need trials and tests before consumption sets in.
For the next generation, friendship with brands will play a critical role through continuous brand innovation and engagements.
On your marks, get set, keep going!
(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication)
