The Power of Emotional Marketing: Connecting with Consumers on a Deeper Level

Brands are always seeking effective ways to connect with consumers. Whether it is by word of mouth, good reviews, or print and digital advertising, they need consumers to know about their products or services in order for them to stay in business. 

The problem that many brands face today is that the landscape for marketing products can feel oversaturated. How can they stand out in a sea of similar brands who are all advertising the same thing on the same platforms? The answer is not always that they have a better product or service. Many great companies don’t succeed and many mediocre ones do. But why is this? The answer lies in emotional marketing. 

In order for a brand to be successful, it has to impinge in some way on the prospective customer. It needs to cut through all the noise and say’ “Hey, we understand you. We can help.” In the current landscape, the best way to do this is with emotional marketing. Emotional marketing does not mean that the ads have to be overly sentimental or make statements intended to rile people up. It simply means that they have to speak to people on a deeper, more genuine level. The days when your good old “Best product on the market” spiel would produce sales are long gone. Too many companies have already been doing that for decades and the average consumer is totally numb to that type of language. Emotional marketing strips away the overly branded and somewhat pretentious language and gets right down to the actual pain points of their audience to make a real connection with them. 

Take Patagonia’s Christmas ad for their new jacket for example: 

Photo Source: MarketingWeek, 2013

It was not so much an ad for a new jacket as it was an ad for establishing brand values. The slogan “Don’t buy this jacket” was centered around the idea of overconsumption. It was meant to bring awareness to the fact that people all too often buy and discard things, to the great detriment of the environment. 

 They had strong values as a high-quality, low-waste company and knew that the customers they wanted to attract would have the same values. Instead of trying to target every possible customer they could, they stayed true to their demographic and focused on the things that really mattered to them, even if it meant turning down sales. Their advertising would continue to stay true to the company values and build a strong, trusting community around their brand and purpose. 

It seems there is no “Special magic trick" to gaining customers. It’s simpler than that, actually. The key to good advertising seems to be honesty and showing that your values as a company match the values of your audience. Customers like to feel emotionally connected to the things they put their money toward. So if you’re finding yourself struggling to market your business, ask yourself: How can you connect to your consumer? What value can you bring that would really benefit the people you want to reach, and how is it different from the value that similar companies provide? And you will be on the path to building a stronger, more successful business.