Boost Your Emotional Marketing Potential
Why do people buy your product? If you stack up enough benefits
to outweigh the costs of purchasing it, do you automatically
close the deal? It doesn't always happen, does it? Consumers are
not calculating machines. They are soft, warm, breathing humans
with emotions that assign meaning and personal significance to
your products.
How do potential customers evaluate your products (or services)?
How do they trade off various factors before deciding? How are
their emotions involved in the process? Consumers--whether they
realize it or not--use up to six categories of emotional
criteria when they decide to purchase your product.
Technical criteria
Technical criteria relate to what your product does. Every
product performs a function. It may also perform additional
functions or have features that make it easier to operate or
use. If your type of product has been around for a while,
everyone assumes it will perform its basic function. Marketing
battles are fought on the ground of extra features and ease of
use.
Does your product perform its core function better, faster, or
more smoothly than your competitors' products? Have you enriched
your product with additional features? Is your product easier to
buy and simpler to operate?
Economic/sacrifice criteria
Economic/sacrifice criteria relate to price. Consumers live in
an approach/avoidance world. Your product's benefits are in a
tug of war with its price and the effort it takes to purchase
it. For most consumers, the psychological cost of paying for
your product reduces their enjoyment of it. Several emotionally
significant factors influence the maximum price you can charge
for your product.
How closely does your product relate to the buyer's needs? How
unique is your product? Do you charge a "fair" price? Is paying
the asking price socially acceptable for your customers?
Legalistic criteria
Consumers are also guided by what others demand or want. Some
potential buyers must obey legal requirements and this loss of
control may be frustrating. Consumers also feel obliged to
consider the needs and desires of others, like their spouse or
children.
Does your product help your customer comply with any legal
requirements? Can your product be made more appealing to your
customer's children or spouse?
Integrative criteria
How does your product or service fit with your potential
customer's social group or personal identity? Consumers belong
to social groups. They face potential embarrassment if they
don't conform. So they constantly try to strike a balance
between group membership versus visibility and self-esteem. Any
product or service that increases their self-esteem is
emotionally satisfying.
Does your product help your customer express their identity? Can
your product be described as "upscale" or "exclusive"?
Adaptive criteria
Consumers want to minimize any risk that they will regret their
purchase later. The easiest solution is to avoid responsibility
completely and trust the advice of others, preferably an expert.
Consumers also lower their risk of future regret by imitating
the buying habits of others that they assume are "in the know,"
by looking for guarantees, or by basing their decision on your
reputation.
Are you able to offer endorsements from recognized experts? Do
you have testimonials from satisfied customers? Do you offer a
strong guarantee? Is it possible to offer a free trial or sample?
Intrinsic criteria
Intrinsic criteria relate to your product's basic nature--how
much the consumer "likes" your product. Appeal to your
customer's senses. How does your product look, feel, taste,
smell or sound?
Curiosity is another intrinsic criterion. Consumers are always
looking for something new and different. Familiar products are
reassuring, but they are also boring. The trick is to not go too
far. Every consumer has an optimal level of novelty and
complexity that maximizes their curiosity and their desire to
satisfy it. If you push beyond the optimal point, they will
return to the familiar.
Is your product "refreshing" or "alluring"? How about
"enchanting" or "elegant"?
If you focus only on rational behavior, then you choose to
ignore enormously powerful emotional forces that ultimately make
your customer's final decision. The rational argument should
already be won by your product's high quality design. Creative
innovation, savvy pricing, and persuasive presentation will win
your customer's emotions.
*The six categories of emotional criteria were developed by John
O'Shaughnessy, and Nicholas Jackson O'Shaughnessy, The Marketing
Power of Emotion (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).