I Second That Emotion

Those of us in the branding business spend countless hours explaining to clients why they need to communicate with their heart not their head. It's vital to relate on an emotional level before trying to sell them with stats and features.

Inspire them. Horrify them. Make them question their current situation/experience. Make them laugh. Make them cry. Ultimately, motivate them to interact with your brand.

If you're selling a Honda DN-01 motorcycle, you don't strictly focus on its "infinitely variable hydraulic mechanical transmission." You focus on its unique road comfort and the feeling of barreling down a runway at 100 mph like Tom Cruise in Top Gun.

A recent article from Neuromarketing features a study by the UK-based Institute of Practitioners in Advertising that finally gives us concrete proof that emotional campaigns are more effective than rational ones.

"Campaigns with purely emotional content performed about twice
as well (31% vs. 16%) with only rational content, and those that were purely emotional did a little better (31% vs 26%) those that mixed emotional and rational content."

The study is featured in the Pringle and Field book Brand Immortality, in which they also explain that emotional persuasion is more successful because of the brain's ability to "powerfully record emotional stimuli" and "process emotional input without cognitive processing."

If I could give this study a hug, I would. Read more here.