Increasingly marketers and product developers are looking to understand consumers unconscious responses to their products and services and how these affect liking, preference, loyalty etc. but I find, not only in my dealings with clients but also in looking at what various other agencies offer, there is a very poor understanding of the difference between conscious and unconscious thought, how these can be accessed and how to use the insights generated.
Winning the Emotional argument is not about presenting our products or services in an emotionally appealing way. We need to stir something deep in the consumer’s psyche that prompts a desire to feel the way that our product/service makes them feel.
In order to achieve this we must first understand the emotional involvement that consumers have with our category and with our brand and the emotional journey that our brand is for them.
Really understanding the consumers’ unconscious responses and how we can affect these is not easy, but it is possible. It requires a different approach and brands need to be careful not to be fooled by researches that dress up standard methodologies and rational responses with emotive language. Some companies even seem to think that they can understand consumers’ emotional responses over the telephone or through on-line questionnaires.
Every Planner, CMI Manager etc. that I have met knows that cheap research invariably gives poor results that mislead the client. Savings are important in business, costs must be cut, but never at the expense of getting it right and finding the edge against your competitors.
