Marketers cashing in on emotional equity
Written on November 13, 2007
We at Prodo believe that it is harder than ever to get your advertising noticed as the public are more cynical than ever before, but advertising seems to be becoming more creative and memorable once more – with everything from the Cadbury’s gorilla to the Skoda Fabia ad engrained in our mind! One recent article discussed this phenomenon.
By Clark Turner
Is advertising going back to the Eighties? We’re not talking about the revival of Paddington Bear in the latest Marmite ad or the resurrection of the Milky Bar Kid.
What we mean is the re-emergence of advertising where the product it’s promoting is conspicuous by it’s absence: an advert for a chocolate bar, starring a gorilla, another for a television starring Play-Doh rabbits.
Think back to the 1980s with the iconic British Airways ad from Saatchi and Saatchi devoid of airplanes or the Levis 501 ads that were more about nostalgia for all things Americana in the 1960s and jeans.
Just what’s going on? Time was when adverts carried a message that said the product did just what it says on the tin. Those adverts still exist in abundance but the tide seems appears to be turning.
Welcome to the world of emotional equity. Let’s explain. Good marketing campaigns can deliver and deliver well. Sales can see an uplift or a service might see an upturn in subscribers but how do you keep those consumers on board for the long term?
While it’s important to keep those functional messages out there in the marketplace, building brand equity at the same time by tapping in to the hearts and is just as vital for a brand’s success down the line.
Tips for building brand equity successfully
1. Get the marketing mix right
One industry where emotional equity plays a key role is in the broadcast sector. When services are free and consumers can nip in and out of channels there’s a need to retain them.
Marketing Director of Capital Radio, Nick Button, said that while delivering on a functional level, which could deliver quantative results, it was still vital to create an emotional connection, which can deliver qualitative elements.
He said, “Marketers talk a lot about ‘Barriers to Entry’, but the promiscuity of audiences means what we need are a ‘Barrier to Exit’. This is where emotional equity comes into play.
“If a listener hears a track they don’t like we’d like to hope they will stick with us because they know they are going to like the next one or there’ll be a promotion or competition that will appeal to them.”
2. How to get its funding passed by your board
It was the importance of this marketing mix, Nick said, that marketers needed to demonstrate to the company Board.
He said, “Brand guardians need to realise that their brand exists in the eyes of the consumer, no matter what those inside the brand think, and it’s important not to lose sight of that.
“Delivering a functional product is not enough in itself. It’s an important part of the marketing mix, but its important to get the balance right with those marketing elements delivering emotional ties.”
3. Step outside your comfort zone
Delivering functional marketing messages may only impact for so long. Developing successful brand equity means adopting a different tact and stepping off a well worn path can take bravery.
Fallon’s ‘Gorilla’ work for Cadbury Dairy Milk’s has been hailed as groundbreaking and is undoubtedly the most popular UK TV advert of the year so far.
Why is it so special for the confectionary brand. Well, what is the gorilla doing? Eating chocolate bars? No, he’s playing the drums.
In fact, in the full 90-second ad, the brand only appears for the final 5-seconds of the ad. That’s 0.5 per cent of the total duration
It’s received more than 10 million views on YouTube and has been the subject of mass talkability.
Marketers need to bear in mind though that there is a danger with ads such as this. Google Analytics clearly shows that web users are searching for ‘Gorilla Advert’ way and beyond ‘Cadbury Gorilla’.
This however, has been balanced by grabbing the attention and imagination of the tabloids with coverage way and beyond what the brand could have initially anticipated.
The PR message seems to have well and truly obliterated any memories of the salmonella scare that plagued the manufacture earlier this year.
More recently its been the turn of Sony Bravia to step into the limelight with their ‘Play-Doh’ campaign. Featuring hundreds of rabbits rampaging through Manhattan, it’s the latest in a series of modern iconic adverts.
Previously ‘Balls’ saw thousands of coloured balls bouncing down a street in San Francisco, while ‘Paint’ saw gallons of paint exploding in a derelict housing estate in Glasgow.
Other recent examples of note include packaging for Hovis bread. Instead of carrying messages about the freshness and health benefits of the product it carried sandwich recipes and pictures of baked beans.
As a result, instead of encouraging consumers to focus on the bread, the brand played upon the emotional power of ‘beans on toast’ and its association with comfort food to drive the product.
Likewise, Persil’s ‘Dirt is Good’ campaign celebrated everyday scenarios involving mud, rather than simply pushing an our product delivers a ‘whiter than white’ proposition.
4. Identifying emotional buy-in
Ways to demonstrate the level of emotional engagement with consumers includes on-going research and the use of focus groups.
More than giving an indication of quantifiable impact of your marketing, it will give more indepth qualitative feedback.
Creative Director of mabox, Andy Powell, said, “Conducting in-depth focus groups or market research is one way of measuring an audience’s reaction to a campaign in emotional terms.
“New media analysts would advocate the use of Facebook research and Google trends to gauge such a response and this is one area of evaluation that will continue to evolve with improved technology and new media.”
Research doesn’t simply have to involve paper reports. Video research can give enlightened insight into the impact of brands on, and the response from, consumers.
Nigel Lawrence from Vox Pops explained that people are filmed talking about their experiences of anything from buying a car to shopping online. Clients to date include mobile phone manufacturers and The Daily Telegraph.
He added, “This tends to add an ‘emotional’ quality to their responses, since you can see the person react to the question - not just tick a box. There’s no easy way to measure emotional equity, but this is one technique that can certainly help.”
Your board may call into question the point of investing in a non-quantative aspect of marketing. Be prepared to be in a position to prove the benefits though your research and focus group findings.
So, maybe it’s time to take a new look at your marketing? Stop thinking of the immediate, think of the long term and follow the Gorilla!
Written by Neil Hancock [Internet Marketing Consultant] Prodo Ltd