Emotional Branding: How Feelings Make Your Firm More Attractive

What do speed dating and branding have in common? In both scenarios, the outcome is dependent upon a decision that is made in less than 5 minutes.

Think about it.

When you’re speed dating, you’re making a decision about a potential mate with only a few minutes worth of data. In the time it takes you to take out the trash, you have decided whether or not to spend time on a date with someone.

Also, in less than five minutes, you also make a decision whether or not to explore the idea of doing business with a particular company. If you have a particular need, you look it up online, cycling through several different companies, deciding which one you will pursue further.

So what is it that would make you decide to take that extra step? Is it the way the company looks? Maybe. But more than likely, you choose the company (or person) that has something different from all the others. There’s something about them that makes you notice them more.

It’s called personality.

Imagine you’re speed dating and every candidate was a boring clone of everyone else. Then, the final candidate has something different. They have a different way of looking at things. They are interesting. Which one will you say “yes” to? The one with personality, of course!

A remarkable personality is a breath of fresh air for those who are used to the status quo. This is true of dating, but it’s also true of branding.

If you want to stand out from your competition, you need a distinct brand personality that differentiates your firm from your competition. An essential component of a successful brand personality is emotion. If you want prospects to notice you more than your competition, you need to be willing to embrace the power of emotion. That’s what this post is about.

Emotion is an integral part of who we are as people. Emotions shape our personalities and influence the decisions we make on a daily basis. Emotions play a prominent role in our lives, even though we don’t always notice the impact they have.

In the end, it is emotion that plays the most important role in the actions we choose to take. As a result, a successful marketing effort will appeal to emotions just as much as logic.

Yes, your prospects can easily use logic to figure out why your company’s offerings are better than that of your competition. But they won’t. If you don’t find a way to speak to their feelings, they will move on without buying.

You will only be able to motivate your prospects to buy from your company when you can make them feel something. Embracing the power of emotional branding will make you more relatable and attractive to your audience.

I’m not saying that it isn’t important to have a unique selling proposition. I’m saying that having a viable unique selling proposition is no longer enough to make your firm stand out from the crowd. It’s now clear that in order to have a way to stand out, your firm must have something to stand for. This means you must articulate a clear perspective, a viewpoint that reflects the values of your firm.

Your firm has to have a distinct personality based on the values and beliefs of its brand, and it needs to express this personality in a way that appeals to the emotions of your audience. Yes, it’s important for your audience to know why you do what you do, but they also must see the emotion that drives your brand.

Each prospect who is thinking about doing business with you has their own unique worldview. If you can successfully frame your brand’s perspective in a way that appeals to their worldview, and do so in a way that allows your marketing efforts to be raw and emotional, they will be far more likely to do business with you.

As I said before, humans are emotional creatures. Sure, we’d all love to think that we’re 100% rational, logical, and pragmatic at all times, but it’s simply not true. Even the most analytical person still has feelings. Not only that, but they still make decisions based in large part on their emotions.

Emotionalism isn’t something to be avoided. It’s something to be embraced. Anyone who has had to move other people to action knows that appealing to one’s rational mind will only take you so far. It’s the emotional aspect of the interaction that makes your brand more memorable.

Don’t be afraid to discuss how your firm feels about what it does. It’s exactly what your audience wants to know (even if they’re not aware of this desire).

Want a good example of a brand using emotion to show their value? Check out this video. See? Great stuff!

When I first watched this, I knew exactly what to expect. A moving story that is designed to make me feel good. And it still gave me goose bumps. It’s a powerfully emotional example of how an emotional story can get the viewer to see why Google is relevant to their own lives.

This is the type of marketing you must do if you want your brand to stand out from the competition. While everyone else is just touting their products and services, you need to make your audience feel something.

Figure out how to express your message in a way that touches your prospects’ emotions. It will make your story more remarkable, which means they will feel more connected to your company. This will result in more conversions and more clients.