Reason + emotion = decision. That simple equation for customer decision-making seems — these days — simultaneously too simplistic and yet inscrutably complex.
Arguably (and no doubt some of you will argue), the roots of branding and marketing grew out of the rational side of our brains. A brand name meant that a product was the genuine article and one could buy it without fear of being taken. Its marketing claims purported to give valid, differentiating reasons for purchase, and therefore a consumer could be confident the product or service worked and would provide value. Yet, even in that short sentence, the inextricability of reason and emotion becomes apparent: Fear, confidence, the desire to find signifiers of trustworthiness, emotion.
In our last Branding Roundtable, the topic was trust, which in itself is an emotional issue. So this month we will proceed to examine the role of branding in an era where facts and reason have, at best, become suspect players in the marketplace of ideas.
Download the full Roundtable eBook and you’ll hear from an international trio of experts, including:
- Anne-Marie Gaultier, President of Datakalab, a new Paris-based firm applying neuroscience to assess and guide emotion in brand marketing (she also has extensive experience as a CMO for emotion-driven brands such as Bally and Club Med).
- Simon Glynn, London-based Director of EMEA for Lippincott, the global creative consultancy.
- Alan Zorfas, Co-Founder and Chief Intelligence Officer of Motista, the San Francisco-based predictive intelligence company that works to help brands drive growth by creating emotional connections.
Once you’ve read the Roundtable, please return here to let us know what you think, and feel, about the state of emotion in branding.