The Power Of Emo­tion In The Marketplace

by John Delavera

Your com­pany of­fers the best prod­uct or ser­vice of its kind in your in­dus­try. Its prices also hap­pen to trump all com­ers. Tons of money is dumped each year into ad­ver­tis­ing and mar­ket­ing yet your sales have not taken off. Mean­while, your com­pe­ti­tion is en­joy­ing a boon that is unbelievable.

What are you do­ing wrong?

Chances are it has noth­ing to do with your prod­uct, ser­vice or the pric­ing in­volved. The likely cul­prit for your slug­gish re­turns is found in how your mar­ket­ing is han­dled. Even if you are spend­ing a lot of money and re­ally get­ting the word out there, it may not pay off. If your mes­sage does not reach cus­tomers the right way, your gains may only be mod­est at best.

Take a look at the com­pe­ti­tion and see how it is get­ting the word out about a prod­uct or ser­vice. Look be­yond the ac­tual fre­quency of cam­paigns or the ve­hi­cles that are used. Pay at­ten­tion to the sub­stance, style and pre­sen­ta­tion of the advertising.

There is a very good chance that your com­pe­ti­tion has suc­ceeded in reach­ing out to cus­tomers on an emo­tional or sub­con­scious level where you have not. If the com­pe­ti­tion is us­ing mar­ket­ing tech­niques that speak to cus­tomers, so to say, it will not nec­es­sar­ily mat­ter that you have bet­ter pric­ing and bet­ter prod­ucts to of­fer. They will make the sale every time. Your tra­di­tional mar­ket­ing tech­niques might im­prove your sales, but they will not pro­duce the sky­rock­et­ing re­sults your com­pe­ti­tion is enjoying.

So, why is it that emo­tions are so im­por­tant in marketing?

When cus­tomers are ap­pealed to on an emo­tional level, they will re­spond even if they do not nec­es­sar­ily mean to. Peo­ple sim­ply grav­i­tate to­ward prod­ucts, ser­vices or com­pa­nies they feel they can trust. They are also more likely to sup­port prod­ucts that they be­lieve can do some­thing for them or their fam­i­lies that other prod­ucts might not be able to.

Con­sider some of the most suc­cess­ful com­pa­nies in the world. They have spent a great deal of time and ef­fort mak­ing them­selves house­hold names. Many have done this by reach­ing out to con­sumers on the emo­tional and sub­con­scious levels.

Say you sell laun­dry de­ter­gent. Your prod­uct is mar­keted as the great­est pow­er­house with the most value. Your sales are good, but they could be better.

As you try to grow your rep­u­ta­tion, com­pe­ti­tion comes on the mar­ket. Its prod­uct is clearly not as good as yours and its price might even be a bit higher. Its pack­ag­ing, logo and pro­mo­tions, how­ever, have been de­signed to reach con­sumers on an emo­tional level. The com­mer­cials show busy work­ing moms beam­ing that their chil­dren look so well taken care of. They might show sin­gle guys im­press­ing the ladies with their crisp, clean and styl­ish cloth­ing. While your prod­uct might ac­tu­ally do those things, the com­pe­ti­tion might en­joy a big­ger piece of the sales pie be­cause it has con­vinced oth­ers that it pro­vides the so­lu­tion to their problems.
When it is time to take your busi­ness to the next level, mar­ket­ing will mat­ter. Learn­ing how to reach clients in a dif­fer­ent, more com­pelling way can make all the dif­fer­ence in the world. There are se­crets about mar­ket­ing that can turn the ta­ble in your fa­vor, emo­tional ap­peals are just one av­enue for success.