Emotional Marketing: Necessity of Today’s Marketing Management

The purpose of this paper is to write an analysis of an article that discusses an aspect of marketing management. During my research I was attracted to an article by James Cooper Titled, ‘Emotional Marketing as the Basis of Your Promotions’; after reading Coopers article I found Emotional Marketing to be interesting, but his article did not provide enough data to satisfy my interest in Emotional Marketing . So, rather than write about a single article, I have chosen to write about the topic of Emotional Marketing and its necessity in today’s Marketing Management. Marketing mangers must understand that if the consumers’ emotions are addressed in the right way they could get more loyal customers. This has unlashed the approach to marketing which was termed as â€Å"Emotional Marketing† (Drypen). Cooper points out that, â€Å"Marketing to today’s consumers is a challenging business because you are no longer listing the specifications of products and services. Instead you are meeting people on an emotional level to break into their consumer awareness†. As part of a company’s marketing strategy producers need to realize that there is a strong emotional connect between consumers / customers and the products they use. Brands that don't make emotional connections with their prospects and customers will eventually lose out to those that do. The practice of emotional marketing as it relates to value proposition is all about getting your target audience to connect with your product, service, and brand at a very basic and fundamental level – the level of emotions. When building customer value, emotional marketing can be used in influencing customer perceived value and total customer benefit. Some examples of firms that are successful in this application can be seen with top brands such as Starbucks, Porsche, and so on. These products and services make an emotional connection with the people they serve. They have met the challenge of identifying how its products/services can connect emotionally. They have explored what type of experience their product can offer its customers and the perceived value to customer above the firm’s competitors. Emotional marketing can only take place once the company delivers a user experience that represents its purpose. Once the company is able to deliver on that promise, it can market the experience to consumer prospects. Companies must leverage: customer testimonials, word-of-mouth, discussion forums, and trials (marketingscoop). Ideally the company wants its products or services to deliver an experience, and gets prospects to participate along with having the experience themselves. Emotional marketing is a powerful strategy if you can deliver a strong customer experience, thus, leveraging the experience to maximize customer satisfaction in the long run. On the other hand, there are the companies that use emotional marketing when customers are having a not so positive customer experience. These companies take advantage during times of crisis and turmoil. An example of this is appealing to the public during an epidemic or natural disaster and offering short term solutions. Many times the products or services offered are not even effective, nor do they provide the experience the customer desires. Furthermore, the customers’ negative experience is just the opportunity that some companies are looking for to capitalize on short run profit maximization. Leveraging emotional marketing can help in evaluating and selecting market segments to exploit. If and when the marketing/promotion appeals to the emotional aspects of customers the companies, in some cases, can move toward targeting a ‘supersegment’. For example, many symphony orchestras target people who have broad cultural interests, rather than those who only regularly attend concerts (Kotler & Keller pg 229). The product appeal is more toward a cultural or emotion interest rather than that of a physiological need. Emotion acts as a catalyst in the engine of the purchase decision process. Through experience and learning, people acquire attitudes. These in turn influence buying behavior (Kotler & Keller, pg 170). This is important since favorable and unfavorable experiences trigger emotional feeling toward a product or service being marketed. Cooper’s article, â€Å"Emotional Marketing as the Basis of Your Promotions† only touched on promotion of the product as it appeals to emotional marketing. After further research I found that emotional marketing throughout the marketing process is important in its application to: marketing strategy, customer value, target markets, brands, market segment, customer satisfaction and purchasing decisions. In conclusion, marketing managers must understand that costumers get attracted to products which effect there feelings. Companies which want to stand above the competition have to leverage emotional marketing so as to increase market share. Effective development in emotional marketing can shift a marketing challenger or market follower to position of market leader. Thus, making emotional marketing a necessity of today’s marketing management. References Cooper, J. , (Feb. 2008) Emotional Marketing As The Basis Of Your Promotions , Written for Marketinglinx. com, retrevied from the World Wide Web on 14 May 2009 at http://www. articlesbase. com/marketing-articles/emotional-marketing-as-the-basis-of-your-promotions-325335. tml Kotler, P. , & Keller, K. ,(2006), Marketing Management 13th edition, Pearson Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Drypen, (Nov. 2008),Emotional Marketing – to Play the Emotional Tune is the Necessity of Today's Marketing, written for Drypen. com, retrevied from the World Wide Web on 14 May 2009 at http://www. articlesbase. com/authors/drypen/73887. htm Unknow n, (2009), Making an Emotional Connection with Your Customers, written for marketingscoop. com, retrevied from the World Wide Web on 14 May 2009 at http://www. marketingscoop. com/emotional-marketing. htm