Have you ever scrolled on social media, saw an ad that pulled at your heartstrings or made you giggle with laughter, and instantly bought something?
If so, that was the work of emotional advertising, part of the more general concept of marketing communications. As the name suggests, emotional ads use emotions to connect with consumers and entice them to buy a product or service.
And it has a high success rate!
Thanks to our natural emotional responses, consumers are more likely to make an emotional purchase than an informed purchase. With that said, let’s explore the importance of emotional appeal in advertising.
Understanding Emotional Appeals in Advertising
The emotional marketing strategy aims to create an emotional connection between the target audience and the product or service in the advertisement to influence the consumer’s decision-making. The consumer will actually make decisions subconsciously, without the rational brain even knowing it!
The Difference Between Rational and Emotional Appeals
Rational appeal in advertising focuses on logic and reasoning. These ads persuade consumers to make a purchase decision using rational thoughts or those based on the facts and features of the product or service. Rational ads may highlight the following:
- Benefits
- Functionality
- Price
- Quality
Conversely, emotional appeal focuses on evoking an emotional response and getting the consumer to purchase based on desire. The power of emotional advertising effectiveness surpasses that of rational appeal.
The concepts come from the three persuasive techniques: pathos, logos, and ethos. Pathos appeals to emotion, logos appeals to logic, and ethos conveys credibility and authority.
Examples of Emotional Appeals in Advertising
One of the best-known marketing campaigns that uses positive emotions is Coca-Cola. Their historic “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” campaign invokes happiness and creates a positive association with their product. This persuades consumers to buy Coca-Cola and share it with their loved ones.
Dove’s Real Beauty campaign also used happiness to show that others typically view us more beautifully and happily than we envision ourselves. The campaign was a massive success and still widely circulates on the Internet today.
Nike’s advertisement with Colin Kaepernick used a sense of pride to make its target audience feel good about the brand and themselves for supporting the company. Pride is a valuable emotion to help build brand loyalty. Further, celebrity endorsements, like those from Kaepernick, can help elicit a stronger consumer response when combined with emotional appeal.
On the other hand, Apple uses desire for the newest technology to get consumers to buy the latest iPhone model yearly. Even if there aren’t significant differences between the models, consumers are always lining up for the next iPhone!
Anti-smoking campaigns use fear appeal ads, showing rotting teeth and black lungs, to convince people not to smoke or to quit.
Political campaigns will use comparison to highlight the positive attributes of their campaign and the negative qualities of their opponents.
ASPCA and the UN World Food Program (WFP) often invoke sadness by showing abused animals or testimonials from hungry children to get consumers to spring into action and donate to their campaigns.
Does it really work, though?
It sure does! The New York Times reported that ASPCA raised $30 million from one campaign alone!
The Types of Emotional Appeals and How to Use Them
There are two primary types of emotional appeals in advertising: positive and negative. Some examples include:
- Adventure
- Anger
- Comparison
- Fear
- Greed
- Guilt
- Happiness
- Humor
- Love
- Outrage
- Pride
- Sadness
- Trust
Both are powerful tools to use when creating emotional appeal advertising.
However, when consumers have a consistent negative emotional experience with your product or service, it can be bad for your brand awareness. So, while negative emotions can be a powerful tool in emotional appeal, you shouldn’t always use them in your campaigns.
Whichever emotion you use for a campaign, ensure you use the same appeal across all marketing channels. Integrated marketing services can help you achieve this.
Tips for Using Emotional Appeals in Advertising
So, how do you go about using emotional appeals in ad campaigns? Follow these tips to help you create emotional content that will influence consumer behavior.
Create an Objective
The objective of your ad is its purpose. What action do you want the viewer to take after seeing the advertisement?
Once you know the objective, you can identify which emotions will help accomplish that goal. The feeling should be appropriate in the ad’s context. For instance, using happiness and excitement in an advertisement for an organization like Save the Children would be off-putting.
Use Visuals
Visuals are imperative for helping consumers see your message. You should use pictures and videos in your advertisements to elicit a stronger emotional response.
Observe Your Competition
Monitoring your competition can help you stay on top of market trends and allow you to form better marketing strategies. If your competitors use a specific emotion, you should consider utilizing the feeling or a similar one, especially if the consumer response is positive.
Track Changes in Customer Behavior
Spending habits and consumer actions change over time. This means you must pay attention to changes in your audience’s behavior, so your advertisements don’t miss the mark.
Remember that Pepsi commercial with Kendell Jenner? The one where she stopped a protest and created a bond between protesters and the police with just a single soda?
You don’t want your advertisement to end up with a response like that commercial did. The backlash was harsh and lasted several months.
Conduct market research and perhaps even hold focus groups regularly to ensure you are current on consumer spending habits.
Additionally, since so many different types of advertising exist, you want to ensure you continue to advertise on the right platforms, whether it’s on social media, television, or elsewhere. Research the best places to promote your business to achieve your goals.
Let’s Have a Chat About Your Advertising Campaign
Emotional appeal in advertising has the power to convince consumers to buy your product or service at a moment’s notice. You’re missing out on precious consumer dollars if you don’t incorporate emotions into your ads.
To improve your advertising campaigns and attract more customers, let’s have a chat. Our team at EraserFarm can help create emotional advertisements that will have consumers lining up to purchase from your business!