emotional branding: concept and practice

Mittal, Arun (2013), “Emotional Barding: Concept and Practice”, Marketing by Consciousness,

Published by Spiritual Management Forum, Edited by Rohit Puri, ISBN – 978-81923275-5-6, Pp. 93-107.

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Emotional Barding: Concept and Practice

Dr. Arun Mittal

Assistant Professor

Birla Institute of Technology,

Noida, UP-201301

Introduction

Brand is a virtual asset of an organization. It has a great value associated with it, that is why, in

current scenario organizations are not concentrating on earning money as profit but they are

spending money on building brands. Some of the brands have a great monetary value in the

business world. Why do brands have so much value? The answer is ‘because a brand ensures

customers about the quality, reliability and value for money. Marketing experts usually say, “We

don’t buy products, we buy brands”. There are so many brands in India which have virtually

become the product names. In most of the rural and semi urban areas toothpaste means

‘Colgate’, ‘Coca Cola’ means soft drink, Xrox means Photocopy and every adhesive means

Fevicol. This actually shows the penetration of those brands in the minds of consumers. How it

happens? There are mainly three aspects when a brand becomes the synonym of a product. Even

in the year 2012 Colgate tops the most trusted brands list by The Economic Times.

- When it is the first brand in the category of a particular product. This may be called as

‘First Mover Advantage’ like Life Insurance Corporation of India in Indian Insurance

Industry.

- When it has a very high level of advertising and promotion. In such a situation other

brands may not reach to the consumer and a particular brand due to lot of publicity gets

more space in the consumers’ mind.

- Lastly, but most importantly when a brand has a very strong message in itself. Even if it

is not first mover and not spending a lot on promotion but if the message is strong, it can

become a very good brand.



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This paper deals with the advertising and other promotional methods where a brand gives a very

strong message. In present scenario, this strong message most of the times contains an emotional

message. There is a long list of the brands which have been positioned and being positioned in

India, containing an emotional message.

How Emotions attach with a Brand:

Emotional branding is one of the most popular ways to position a brand in the mind of the

consumers. A theoretical analysis of a consumer’s buying reflects more than one buying motives.

The core motive may or may not be the ‘core benefits’ of a product. Core benefits, however are

very important but they may only reason or main reason for buying a particular brand offering

that product.

Product is generic entity though brand is specific. Suppose you have just come out of

McDonald’s with one of your friends spending Rs. 300/- and almost 40 minutes. You enjoyed

burger with some French fries and soft drinks. I ask a simple question. Wat you have bought in a

meal of Rs. 300/-? and your answer is – two burgers, one cappuccino, some French fries and a

small coke. Is it a complete answer? Certainly no, just go back to the question and think in a

broader perspective. First of all think for the answers of some of the supplementary questions

such as – Why one had selected McDonald’s?, What was the motive of passing 40 minutes

inside?, and so forth. Now your answer for the first question would be different. One has bought,

of course the product, but more importantly a very good leisure time, Service, comfort,

Reliability, Hygiene and much more. Moreover, an overall satisfaction which is always a prime

concern of all the consumers. You have bought all the above in just Rs. 300/- . ‘Because you

have not purchased the product, you have purchased the brand’, such a brand which is the

reliability of good time inside the outlet, good services, comfort hygiene and all that, for what

you actually entered inside.

The brand McDonald’s, where the intrinsic value of the physical product exchanged with money

has little concern as compared to the emotional value, which can be measured as your

satisfaction. ‘Reliability’ is one of the personalities of Brand. It is committed by the marketers



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with the help of marketing communications and accepted and approved by the customers through

experience and word of mouth.

Emotions and Emotional Branding:

Any award, whether it is Oscar, has no value, if there is nobody with you to share your

achievement, if there is no audience in the hall, any artist will refuse to perform. We are

connected with emotions. These emotions are basically the colors of our life. We feel happy,

stressed, cool, frustrated, scared, and possess many other states from time to time depending

upon the situation. Marketer, with the help of consumer behavior research, always keeps an eye

on all these emotions and tries to offer and position his/her product/brand in such a way the

buyer will experience positive emotions in a better way and/or will be able to get rid of negative

emotions or state of mind.

Emotional branding is a way to connect with people in such a way that they feel more close to

themselves, their family, relatives, friends, colleagues, society and country. Emotional branding

is simply building a brand on the basis of emotions. Emotions are many in number and the list

may not be exhaustive. Some of the core emotions, which are frequently used in building brand,

can be listed as follows:

Emotional Branding: Some popular Indian Experiences

India is a country of emotions and care. Our scriptures tell us about caring for other, which is not

only family and relatives but the society and the country as well. The Indian approach is

‘Vasudhev Kutumbakam’ which means the whole world is a family. The rule for fulfillment of

your gratification is also different. We serve the third person first (Anyone who may be

unknown), then the second person (Someone know to you but not you) and then first person

(Yourself). Our concern for spouse, family, society and country has given a large scope to the

marketers to position their brands emotionally. At the end of the day a brand has certain

emotional content in it. We like when our country is praised, someone shows patriotism and

someone fights with the enemies of our country. We like when out social values and

individuality is respected.



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Tata Tea – with Jago Re (Wake-Up) campaign has positioned itself emotionally with patriotic

appeal, where you are convinced to vote, fulfill your duty, do whatever is constitutionally and

legally correct. The other product of Tata – Tata Salt with the punch-line Desh Ka Namak, where

Namak (Salt) is the symbol of loyalty, so if you have had Tata Namak, which is the Salt of your

country, so you are automatically an honest person for your country. A recently launched car by

Nissan – ‘Nissan Sunny’ has been positioned to make you feel pride. The campaign has a punch-

line – ‘Its not just a car, its a ‘Caaar’. The brand ‘Nissan Sunny’ positions itself in such a way

that the car becomes pride where, ‘Caaar’ stands for a big sized luxury car, which gives you an

ultimate comfort. The advertisements of Nissan ultimately focus more on the pride aspect, than

comfort, which means you are very special, if you owe such a car. Chevrolet’s emotional has

come up with a pure emotional appeals many times. In the era of cut throat competition

Chevrolet’s positioning with the punch line ‘Sang Rishte Chalen’ (Relations move along),

respected your relations. The category of automobiles is however known much for a rational

positioning, where the brands fight on mileage, interiors, style, speed, comfort and so on. Tata

Nano after stressing upon of the rational aspects such as speed, mileage etc., ultimately

concludes emotionally with “Khushion ki Chaabi’ (The key of happiness) punch line.

Brand personification has also helped marketers to connect the customers with some of the

specific brands. Pears Soap (being declared ‘Masoom’ which means ‘Innocent’) has been

positioned as soft as a kid’s skin. In the advertisements of Mr. Muscles (A cleaner), and Boomer

(Chewing Gum) a supernatural person with supreme powers is shown helping a household lady

and saving children from some challenge respectively. This again shows that how a consumer

gets connected with such product which actually has been demonstrated as your helper and

protector.

Humor is one of the most positive emotions. Fevicol, Happydent, Choloromint, Bingo Tingles,

Tata Sky have been positioned with humor appeal. The products of less involvement of money

and routine buying process are always positioned better with humour appeal. The best thing

about humor is entertainment, which everyone likes. Ad viewers like to see the advertisement

again and again, they do not really switch channels as quickly as they switch when a regular

informational advertisement is aired during the commercial break.



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Culture and Emotional Branding:

Culture has a great to do with emotions. It is a complex whole of learned beliefs, values and

customs, language, food and feeding habits, art and music, religions and much more. We are

emotionally tied up with culture. We love to enjoy it and at the same time we have a great

respect for our culture too. Cadbury has positioned itself focusing emotions with the festivals

like Rakshabandhan, During Deepawali.

The positioning of ‘Kurkure’ with the punch line – Tedha Hai, Par Mera Hai has been

successful in catching attention of people as the ‘Tedha’ here stands for someone who is little

crazy or naughty, not a simple and straight human being; and ‘Mera Hai’ stands for someone

very near to your heart. This shows the love for someone who is really special, no issues, if he is

not perfectly fine.

Emotional branding is not only restricted with the limited (regular) buying decisions. As we have

already discussed about the emotional branding for cars (a selective buying decision) with the

examples of Chevrolet, Nissan and Nano. Moreover, financial services also come under these

categories. In a country like India, financial services are positioned emotionally. For example

buying insurance is not only going for financial security but making your family members secure

with respect to any future mishappening. This shows your worry for your family and the same

emotion has been given words by ICICI prudential life insurance. The brand has always

connected itself with those who have concern for their loving ones. ICICI prudential has rarely

made rational appeals such as premium amounts, claim settlements, high returns or highest NAV

as their central idea of brand positioning. HDFC standard life’s campaign “Sar Utha Ke Jiyo”

has positioned itself with emotions by focusing on pride appeal and showing the self respect of a

person. Studies show that the emotional appeals in financial services are effective as they make

the complex decision making lighter.

Role of Women and Emotional Branding:

The role and status of women (a housewife or working women) has also somehow forced brands

to be emotional. Women have a great role to play in the buying decision of a large number of

household products. However, in consumer behavior studies women consumers have been



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classified in various categories but even if we do not make categories, as a rule of thumb women

are considered more emotional in buying decision as they have a great concern for their family,

husband and children. Whether a woman is working or a housewife, she cares for her family a lot

and she likes to go for the brands which convince and connect her with the safety, health and

success of her family members. Products like health drinks, Antiseptics, baby care products, bath

soaps, detergent powders, washing machines, liquid hand wash, pain relief creams, water

purifiers, grocery products such as edible oils, tea-leaves etc. are positioned emotionally.

A housewife who takes care of all the members in a family, there are certain brands which

positions themselves having concern for such women. Move pain relief cream positioned itself

by showing care for the household lady who woks day and night for her family members. Krack

SR heel cream also positioned itself somehow in the same way. Many times the advertisements

of such products do not target the housewives directly but they target husbands, daughters or

other family members. The appeal of such advertisement is simply to motivate family members

to take care of the lady who takes care of everyone.

A woman is always concerned about the health of her family, pride of her husband, education

and intelligence of her children. The products like detergent powder ensuring her to give shining

shirt for her husband fulfills the need of pride. Low fat edible oils ensure her for good health of

her husband and other family members. Health drinks make her sure about the intelligence of her

kids. Brands like Saffola (cooking oil), Horlicks (Health Drink), Rin (Detergent) are some

popular examples.

Benefits of Emotional Branding:

Positioning brands emotionally is not just a fashion; it gives lot of advantages to a brand. As we

have already discussed that human beings are tied with emotions. We have lot of emotional

needs to be fulfilled. To throw more light on it some the direct benefits of emotional branding are

given below:

Attractive: Emotions are the human needs. We always want to break the static state of

mind. We wish to express love, feel proud on our possessions, show our concern, and

expect concern of others for us. We wish to laugh, show anger on something



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unreasonable, want to show our intelligence and enjoy for success with friends and near

ones. The brands being positioned in such a way attract us. It may be an issue of further

discussion whether emotional branding/brand positioning is the guarantee of success or

not but, yes, it attracts a person. That is why the brands are positioned emotionally.

Better Recall: Can you recall some advertisements. Just make a list and you will find

that many of them are associated with certain emotions. We better remember those

brands which have been positioned with some emotional appeal as emotions connect us

with the brand. Better brand recall necessarily help a marketer when a consumer searches

alternatives of a product as a mandatory step of his buying process.

Help in Affection: Response hierarchy model has three stages – Cognitive stage

(concerned with knowledge, information gathering), Affection stage (Being emotionally

connected with the knowledge) and Conative Stage (Action/Behavioral Stage). In

affection stage, a consumer connects the gathered knowledge to his/her emotions. For

emotional brands, this step of the process becomes easier.

Self-Image Extension: An emotionally positioned brand gives some emotional benefits

to the prospective buyers. These emotional benefits help the buyer to extend his/her self

image. This extension may come when you buy a particular product and it increases any

of your personality traits. For examples, you buy a luxury car and it increases you status.

When you purchase an insurance policy for your family members, this extends your role

and image in the family and makes you feel proud as you are fulfilling a responsibility.

The positioning of “Pan Bahar Crystal” is less on attributes or ingredients of the

product and more on the tagline viz. “World’s most expensive Pan Masala”. This gives

an extension to the image of the person whosoever consuming it. A consumer of Pan

Bahar Crystal will feel himself a very rich person as he is buying something most

expensive in the world.

Easy to Differentiate: It is easier to differentiate brands positioned emotionally in the

huge crowd of brands. This differentiation gives real power to a brand and in fact a very

important objective of positioning is fulfilled. As we have discussed earlier in the



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beginning of this chapter, a highly differentiated brand may also come to your mind as

the only brand for a particular product you are planning to buy.

Brand Becomes Part of your Life: Goldner, Steve1 has given the six stages of

emotional branding Emotional

o Stage 1 – How you get someone interested?

o Emotional Stage 2 – How do you get someone to consider a purchase?

o Emotional Stage 3 – How do you continually reinforce that their purchase

decision was absolutely the right decision, the “winning” decision?

o Emotional Stage 4 – How do you create a loyal customer such that they want to

continue to buy your product and/or are most receptive to cross selling and value

add purchases?

o Emotional Stage 5 – How do you create a brand ritual so that your brand

becomes part of your customer’s life

o Emotional Stage 6 – How do you get your audience to be your cheerleader?

Just focus on stage 5, and see how a brand becomes the part of your life or you create a brand

ritual. A brand ritual is a brand-bonded behavior that customers build with certain brands that

makes them a central part of their experience in the category. These rituals go beyond habits and

routines to create a deeper bond2.

A brand becomes part of your life when you feel something incomplete without that brand. If

you don’t see or consumer the product with that brand you feel discomfort. Some of the leading

examples in Indian industry are Dabur Chyawanprash, Cadbury Celebrations etc. However

there are plenty other without those we cannot complete our day or a particular task. Sometimes

you do not even begin a particular task if there is no availability of a particular brand. This

situation shows that you have adopted the brand even more than a routine buying choice, as it

1 Goldner, Steve The Six Stages of Emotional Branding, retrived from

http://www.businessesgrow.com/2012/02/01/the-six-stages-of-emotional-branding/ on 07-03-2013

2 Raj, Zain, Leading with Loyalty, White paper, The Hub, Novermber/December, 2009



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has now become a part of your life. It has become a mandatory element for you to move ahead.

Interestingly some brands are positioned in such a manner also. Punch line of Jokey

(undergarment’s brand) “Jokey or Nothing” stresses on such type of appeal. However is it really

possible for someone to wear no undergarments if he/she cannot buy Jokey? But yes! if you have

made it the part of your life you can give such an importance to a brand.

Culture and Emotional Branding:

Culture is one of the most important aspects focused for building brands. MDH using folk songs

and some cultural symbols like the attires, music, family values, etc tries to make its brands

culturally fit and preferable. Rakshabandhan, Deepawali, Eid and lot of other festivals are the

subject matter of advertisements and hence help in positioning the brands emotionally. Cadbury

celebrations focusing on Rakshabandhan is one of the best examples.

Not only festivals but other cultural components also help in emotional branding. These

components may include – values, beliefs, art, music, language, aesthetics, food, feeding habits,

law and order and so on. People feel proud when their culture is respected and admired. We love

our cultural symbols. When a brand caters the needs of customers with a focus upon the cultural

symbols, the impact is multiple.

Conclusion:

There are two major types of advertising appeals – Rational and Emotional. One can never

position a product with 100% rationality and without emotions and vice versa. The most

emotional buying decision in this world is perhaps ‘buying decision of a gift’3; and the fact is that

‘we always have a predefined budget for it’. We may buy gift for our spouse, children, family

members, friends or others who are close to us. Don’t we seek value for money while buying a

gift? Yes we do. In fact in the world of emotional branding the value is not only generated by

emotions but it is strongly backed by some rational benefits and rewards. These rational rewards

may be economy, reliability, value for money, safety and so on.

3 Theoretically known as ‘consumer gifting behavior’



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‘Emotions give a meaning to our life and marketer knows it’. This is probably the most

appropriate statement one can make in support of relevance and importance of emotional

branding.

References

Emotional branding: the new paradigm for connecting brands to people. (2002). Choice Reviews

Online, 39(07), 39-4068-39-4068. doi:10.5860/choice.39-4068

GobeÌ•, M. (2001). Emotional branding. New York: Allworth Press.

Gopal, A. Emotional Branding in India: Is it Applicable Only to Fast Moving Consumer Goods.

SSRN Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.797405

Keller, K. (1998). Strategic brand management. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Kopel, M., & LÃ¶ffler, C. Commitment, First-Mover-, and Second-Mover Advantage. SSRN

Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.975024

Ries, A., & Trout, J. (1986). Positioning. New York: McGraw-Hill.