A Discussion on Different Perspectives of Emotional Branding 12

Companies, in view of the seismic changes occurring in the business world and in the way consumers are making their purchase decisions, have realized that facts and rationality can move customers only when they are wrapped up in emotions and have profound personal relevance that can transform them. This discussion between four friendsa brand manager, a philosopher, a psychologist and a market researcherbrings forth different perspectives on `Emotional Branding' and the plethora of complexities and ontological issues associated with it.

Companies, in view of the seismic changes occurring in the business world and in the way consumers are making their purchase decisions, have realized that facts and rationality can move customers only when they are wrapped up in emotions and have profound personal relevance that can transform them. This discussion between four friendsa brand manager, a philosopher, a psychologist and a market researcherbrings forth different perspectives on `Emotional Branding' and the plethora of complexities and ontological issues associated with it.

Date: 25th July, 2010

Venue: A Coffee Shop in Kolkata, West Bengal, India

People: Four friendsa Brand Manager, a Philosopher, a Psychologist, and a Market Researcher

Topic of Discussion: Emotional Branding

Prologue: Four friends gathered over coffee in a Coffee shop in Kolkata on the 25 th of July, 2010. One of them, a Market Researcher, took out an Archie's card for Friend's Day which he had bought for one of his friends (First of August, 2010 happens to be Friend's Day). This triggered the discussion about how Archies has come up with cards for different occasions apart from cards for traditional occasions such as Birthdays, Anniversaries, New Year and the important festivalsDiwali, Id, Christmas they are now available for every possible emotion and occasion. Today, Indians are celebrating Mother's Day, Father's Day, Boss' Day, Valentine's Day and even Doctor's Day besides, of course, Raksha Bandhan and Independence Day, and Archies has a card for every occasion.

Market Researcher: While India is known for a plethora of festivals, rituals and social occasions, Indians have traditionally not been very explicit about expressing their emotions through greeting cards. However, western influences, particularly in urban India, have brought about a sea change in attitudes. Today, greetings are an integral part of urban interaction among Indians. Archies can justly take credit for fostering these habits and enabling Indians to be mutually more expressive in their emotions. Archies is the first organized sector player to tap the market potential of social expressions and introduce the concept of branded Greet `N' Gift stores in the country. The key to Archies' success is the fact that the company has consistently focused on emotions and feelings, which is summed up in its marketing strapline: "The most special way to say you care." The company believes that so long as there are human emotions, Archies' brand positioning will remain fresh.

Brand Manager: The present world is all about Emotional Branding!

Psychologist: What is this `Emotional Branding' all about? It's a misnomer. And a corporate professional talking about emotions is quite surprising. I mean how well does it link to actual, hard-number financial outcomes that interest you people most?

Philosopher: This sounds like there is going to be something hot to discuss on this rainy day. By the way, what is `Emotional Branding'?

Brand Manager: Emotional branding appeals to the aspirations of consumers, thereby developing trust. In emotional branding, the brand definition extends beyond consumption into the realm of experience that people have with the company and its products. It is about capitalizing on the emotional appeals of a brand to deliver strategic and financial value to the customers.

Market Researcher: One cannot gainsay the fact that humans are emotional creatures. Even a casual glimpse into the nation's malls, boutiques, and cosmetics shelves reveals that consumers make buying decisions based on their feelings and emotions about particular brands. And marketers have long recognized the fact that emotions play a key role when consumers are talking aboutor purchasing products in categories as disparate as those represented by brands like Toyota, Kodak, and Levi's.

Philosopher: Does all this seem to be newsworthy at all? What is really startling is that everyone appears to be rediscovering the power of human emotions, quite apparent by a raft of books and articles now in bookstores.

Brand Manager: Yes, it has become resoundingly clear that the world has moved from an industrially-driven economy where machines were the supremo to a people-driven economy where the consumer is the King. I opine that in today's dynamic marketplace where cut-throat competition is ruling the roost, the line of demarcation between success and indifference in the marketplace has become increasingly blurred. Today, goods and services are no longer enough to attract new customers or even retain the existing ones. The emotional connect between the products and the customers, has become the crucial defining element that elevates purchases based on needs to the realm of desire. The ICICI Prudential advertisement, for instance, brings out the emotional appeal of the husband and wife and therefore is able to move consumers into considering the brand seriously. Raymond (woolen and worsted textiles) uniquely positioned as a brand that addresses the innate need of men to look good and at the same time possess strength of character emphasizes on human values thereby creating a warm emotional link with consumers the essence of "The Complete Man".

Market Researcher: I agree with you, but what are the different dimensions of Emotional Branding? I mean what are the attributes that cause consumers to react favorably towards a brand when such a branding strategy is used?

Brand Manager: Consumers identify a good brand based on the product's quality or generic affirmations of brand reliability, trust, reputation, etc. Emotional and self-expressive value propositions build up strong bonds between customers and brands. "Buying decisions are made on promises that transcend products, and promises are rooted in human emotions. Emotions are experienced as `feelings'. The whole world is driven by emotions. Companies have started realizing that rational thought leads consumers to be interested in brands, but it is emotion that sells. Branding strategies are moving towards this `emotional anchoring'." The art of emotional branding is adding a new layer of credibility to the products, which in turn kindles an emotional dialog with the customer.

Market Researcher: I feel emotional branding should entail dimensions which have to be in sync with the corporate identity. Again, emotionally-driven corporate-identity programs need to be visionary, and reflective of the true commitment from corporations to share their values with the consumers. Connected identities are in turn endorsed by employers, consumers and employees alike. It has to resonate across all spheres.

Philosopher: I agree with you, but don't you think that this is a transition from the objective to the subjective; to the realm of philosophy and psychology which is ultimately guiding our behavior? In fact, I feel Employer Branding focuses on the most compelling aspect of the human character: the desire to transcend material gratification, and experience emotional contentment. It seeks to capitalize on the consumer's emerging need to experience a feeling of delight and ecstasy. Consumers today seek nourishment of not only their bodies but also their souls. And, a concept like Employer Branding plays an immense role herein. But, the Philosophy of Mind is a highly polemical issue! Different theories implicitly posit different ontologies of emotion, and what emotions really are, and indeed whether they are any kind of thing at all are controversial issues till date. Emotions also raise normative questions regarding the extent to which they can be said to be rational, or can contribute to rationality. Herein, the question of our knowledge of our own emotions is perplexing, as it seems they are both the object of our most immediate awareness and the most powerful source of our capacity for self-deception.

Brand Manager: True, the key to success, today, lies in understanding people's psychology, emotional needs and desires. Emotional Branding is a dynamic cocktail of elements from anthropology, psychology, sociology, and other diverse fields. Focus has shifted from stressing on product capabilities to design, appearance, color and shape. As, we know visuals speak a universal language and can invoke special emotions in customers. "For example, the Coca-Cola Company has chosen specific colors for their can to inspire certain emotions. The general red color is a power color to inspire strength and confidence, and a general warm comforting feel. The silver stripes and bubbles give a refreshing look, and the yellow stripe is a subtle but important color that inspires a feeling of happiness. All together this design inspires a comforting family feel. Their commercials also seem to promise a comforting and social experience. All of these factors create an emotional connection with the product. When the consumer sees the product in the store, they not only see a refreshing drink, they feel a sense of happiness and comfort, hoping for the social interaction the commercials display."

Psychologist: Being a Psychologist myself, let me highlight that tapping into the aspirational drives which underlie human motivation is a feat in itself. To be candid, an ontological question haunting the psychologists even today is whether behavior is intrinsically stochastic or deterministic. It is oft-quoted that mind and not space is the last frontier of science. Human mind is highly complex. What a consumer articulates is often not the true picture of his requirements. There are various mechanisms which are at work.

Market Researcher: Sorry to interrupt but are you talking about Defence mechanisms?

Psychologist: Exactly, consumers, often when approached with questionnaires trying to measure their attitude towards products, answer questions in a way that preserves their image in the society. This mechanism is called `Rationalization' and has become a buzzword today in the field of Consumer Psychology. A consumer tries to suppress real facts to maintain his image in the society. In addition, there are a myriad of ego-defenses which are at work, thereby giving us a different picture of consumer's needs. In fact, I would say that this world has become a masquerade.

Brand Manager: That's highly cynical. I do not gainsay the fact that we are clearly operating with different sets of values today than what were 10 years ago. We are facing new market opportunities and threats, trends are fast-changing, supply/demand economy models are being completely re-evaluated, intangible assets are becoming immensely valuable and we are growing in entirely new lines of revenue with innovative ideas. Hence, the need of the hour is to forge a deeper and enduring connection with consumers through Emotional Branding. Leading brands such as Apple, Nike, Lexus and Starbucks have recently turned towards emotional brand strategies which have widely supplanted more traditional branding strategies based on rationality and symbolic appeals. Over the past decade, these strategies have been heralded as a key to success in brand management. Though the concept of

Emotional Branding is Occidental, and building effective brand strategies and being successful in the Indian market is really a challenging task for companies, yet, a number of Indian companies have also built very strong national brands with very high brand equity. "Jet Airways, Titan, Infosys, Reliance, Raymond, Asian Paints are some of the well-known brands" (Martin Roll, 2006). "Airtel has a music track which has a force to be a `brand property'. The music has created an emotional presence. It is the second most valued brand as it has a compact customer focus and has always managed to strike an emotional chord with its patrons" "Brand promise is like a kind of liquid cement that fills in a small crevice in the brain. When well focused, it stakes out a position in the brain, so that even the toughest competitor will find it difficult to dislodge" (Travis, 2000). Every company is aiming at increasing its share of customer's mind through developing emotional connections.

Philosopher: I feel extremely disappointed when phrases like "employment of tactics to break down consumers' defenses" or "strategizing to win the battle of consumers' minds and wallets" are used so commonly in today's business world. I feel that there is a better way to successa win-win, partnership approach based on relationship of mutual trust. The philosophy behind the emergence of a need to develop an emotional connect with the consumers is the evolution of an unprecedented personal and emotional dimension in the choices and decisions of consumers. Their quest for heightened pleasure and improved `quality of life' calls for a new mandate, which employer branding can significantly contribute towards. As Bernd Schmitt puts it in his book Experiential Marketing, "The ultimate goal of Experiential Marketing is to create holistic experiences for customers."

Psychologist: Let me highlight that there is an immense difference between the paradigms of Physics and Mathematics, and that of Psychology. Whereas in case of the former, the standard paradigm is to start from primitive axiomatic principles and then derive general theories and theorems, in case of the latter, the prototypical paradigm is to observe the whole behavior, and then to infer what are the primitives. The latter is a priori invalid in that it can never lead to a unique explanation. This is why psychological hypotheses are mostly conjectures of loose relationships between stimulus and response than are equations. Hence, process models, and not phenomenological models, should be used in case of developing strategies of Emotional Branding because these attempt to analyze the `Black Box' in terms of internal mechanisms of information flow through various cognitive theories and neurodeductive theories.

Market Researcher: Research has suggested that this branding strategy could give rise to an unwanted and unintended consequencethe doppelgänger brand image. "In brief, a doppelgänger brand image is a family of disparaging images and stories about a brand that are circulated in popular culture by a loosely organized and Internet-linked network of consumers, anti-brand activists, bloggers, and members of the news and entertainment media. In recent years, these branding challenges have confronted several well-known brands, including Nike, McDonald's, and Apple, among others" This research illustrated this phenomenon by conducting a cultural analysis of the doppelgänger brand image that is beginning to haunt a paragon of emotional branding: Starbucks.

Brand Manager: That's interesting but does the research suggest that managers will be unable to fully control a brand's image. Could you just elucidate the research to clarify?

Market Researcher: Sure. Based on depth in-depth interviews with 36 coffee shop patrons, the researchers found that uncharitable cultural constructions of Starbucks served as an underlying motive for a passionate form of brand avoidance. "This motive appears to be energized by perceptions that Starbucks' marketing efforts are inauthentic and emotionally shallow. In addition to deliberately avoiding Starbucks, these consumers actively seek out and patronize local coffee shops that provide a sense of authenticity that Starbucks lacks. Specifically, this authenticity comes in two forms: (1) the sense of an authentic coffee shop experience, (2) feelings of connection with an authentic coffee shop

owner/operator. Ironically, these two forms of authenticity are qualities that Starbucks seeks to convey via its emotional branding strategy. Thus, it seems that these efforts are actually working in favor of its competition (i.e., local coffee shops)"

Psychologist: Yes, I have read the Research paper which actually suggests that companies should have a proactive approach towards monitoring cultural cues and finding out any anti-brand sentiments, tracking brand avoiders, and making pre-emptive changes in case the emotional branding strategy turns against them. The issue presented is definitely a thought-provoking one, but given the new emotionally-driven paradigm, it would be incorrect to say that consumers are thinking with their head rather than heart or gut while choosing their products. In Emotional Brain, Dr. Joseph LeDoux points out that the Amygdala (concerned with Emotions) has a greater influence on the Cortex than the Cortex on the Amygdala allowing emotion arousal to dominate and control thinking. Following this, it would be wrong to conclude that this desperate attempt of companies to aim at Emotional Branding is in vain.

Market Researcher: I would like to add that scientific studies of brain reveal that emotions create electrochemical responses in our brain. Emotions and emotional messages/ branding are important because they impact the way we process and memorize information. We have over 100 billion neurons in the grey matter of our brain. The cells are not that extraordinary on their own. But, when we experience emotions, a cocktail of hormones inundate our brain and impacts the synaptic connections between our neurons, making them faster and stronger. As a result, we remember events better when we have experienced them with strong emotions. Antonio Damasio in Descartes' Error says that "We are not thinking machines that feel; we are feeling machines that think". All the above debates have led marketers to really question the traditional research methods like interviews, focus groups, etc. which are fraught with systematic limitations and biases. It is not surprising that new research tools like neuromarketing the application of neuroscience in the field of Marketingwith FMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and EEG (Electro-encephalography) tries to find out what exactly goes on in the consumer's mind in regard to his decision-making. The emergence of such novel methods is attributed to the fact that more than 80% products meet fiasco within three months of their launch.

Psychologist: There is another major issue that cannot be condoned. The cues that form indelible imprints on our emotional memories entail everything from the nuance of an image like the Marlboro brand, the delight of an unfamiliar taste like the pineapple and lemon flavored Pepsi Blue Hawaii, the memory of a sound like that of Airtel, to the associations of a smell like that of Brooke Bond Red Label tea, and the gentle feel of a soft fabric like Raymond. But, a significantly discussed issue in Social Psychology is the volatility of emotions and changing Social Cognition. Emotional connections aren't static. They ebb and flow, and the results can affect a company's long-term business success. So, how do companies deal with this volatility of consumers' emotions with a static Emotional Brand Strategy? Is the remedy to make Emotional Brand strategies dynamic? How would that work?

Philosopher: Jean-Paul Sartre has rightly said, "Time gnaws and wears away; it separates; it flies". It's already 7 P.M. There are many questions unanswered and many complexities unresolved. Let's call it a day, and continue this discussion the next time we meet.

Epilogue: The aforesaid discussion highlights that what is indispensable today is to have a profound insight into the recent changes in Consumer Behavior and Companies' response to these changes. This is the very core of the issue that has led to the emergence of focus on developing emotional brand strategies.

Reference # 18M-2010-10-02-01.