The value of emotional appeal in brand building: how to build long-term joy over short-lived fireworks

As years go by, and as their cross category experience compounds, most tenured marketers start to develop a strong bias towards emotional marketing than ‘direct response’.

Their thinking evolves from putting out a ‘purely rational message’ to a ‘logical appeal wrapped up in emotion’.

According to most marketers, the key then to effective advertising, is to find a motivating yet logical message and then tell that story in an engaging and emotional way.

But when you look through some of the data around ‘ad efficiency’, you expect to find that a mix of emotion and rationality works best.

However, surprisingly, studies don’t show that.

What the data tells instead is that the more we move away from rational messages to pure emotion, the more effective advertising becomes.

Apple: investing in emotional framework over product marketing framework

This discovery is unexpected and not what we wanted or anticipated. According to Binet, the author of ‘The Long and Short of it’, he says that Rational communication only worked best in short-term, direct response, and performance marketing.

In all other cases, emotional messages were more effective.

This finding is shocking and challenges the traditional belief in how advertising works.

The rise of performance marketing led to a decade where brand building was considered old-fashioned, and the focus shifted to using big data for last-minute activation messages.

Binet in his book, ‘The Long & The Short of It’, affirms that many in marketing were/are unaware of this shift. Companies were redirecting funds from brand building to their own performance marketing operations, and marketing budgets were getting affected. This shift happened somewhat secretly, and it became a rallying cry for the industry.

How Marketing week puts it,

Going back to The Long and the Short of It, Binet and Field describe what I see daily in the land of SEO. People don’t build brands. They create short-term sales activation with PPC.”

Key Point: Focus on Brand Building for Long-Term Equity

Shrewd marketers recognize emotional appeals as one of the secret keys to unlocking a consumer’s Buyology

Research studies, such as those conducted by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, often emphasize the correlation between strong brand equity and long-term success. For example, the Institute’s work highlights that consistent, memorable brand building contributes to increased market share and customer loyalty over time.
Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising report has consistently shown that consumers tend to trust and prefer established brands. Over the long term, brands that invest in building trust and positive perceptions are more likely to retain customers and attract new ones.

Also, analysis of stock market performance of companies with strong brands, as shown in various financial reports, indicates that companies with robust brand equity tend to outperform competitors over extended periods.

Uber’s advertising strategy is a good example of how there’s a difference between long-term and short-term approaches.

For the long run, they run emotional ads in many countries, focusing on the good feelings you get at the end of a trip. They use TV, outdoor ads, and online stuff to connect Uber with these positive moments. It’s not about getting you to use Uber right away; it’s about making you see Uber as more than just a ride service.

I don’t know the exact numbers, but I’d guess about half of Uber’s ad money in any country goes to the short-term plan.

This is more specific and aims to get certain groups to act right away. It could be giving discounts to people who haven’t used Uber in a while or special deals for first-timers. These short-term ads run at the same time as the emotional, brand-building ones, and both are important parts of Uber’s overall advertising strategy.

Bonus: Binet hints at effectively using the concept of polyvagal stimulation when it comes to building story-telling mechanisms.

TLDR: The polyvagal theory talks about three states of the autonomic nervous system: social engagement, fight or flight, and shutdown. For a narrative to be effective, it must strategically tap into any of the 3 pillars, and must aim to elicit a response rooted in feelings of safety, connection or any other positive association.

If you’re hooked on to the application of polyvagal theory in marketing, then a primer below will serve you good:

The polyvagal theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, describes how the autonomic nervous system (ANS) influences our responses to stress and social interactions. The ANS has three states or branches, each associated with different physiological and behavioral responses:

1. Social Engagement (Ventral Vagal State):

• Description: This state represents a calm and connected state of the autonomic nervous system. When an individual feels safe and secure, the ventral vagal complex is activated, promoting social engagement and positive interactions.
• Physiological Responses: Slowed heart rate, relaxed facial muscles, improved digestion, and overall feelings of safety and connection.
• Behavioral Manifestations: Open body language, eye contact, and a willingness to engage in social interactions. This state supports positive communication, empathy, and collaboration.

2. Fight or Flight (Sympathetic State):

• Description: This state is associated with the classic “fight or flight” response, triggered in situations perceived as threatening or dangerous. The sympathetic nervous system becomes dominant, preparing the body to confront or escape a perceived threat.
• Physiological Responses: Increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, rapid breathing, and the release of stress hormones (e.g., adrenaline).
• Behavioral Manifestations: Alertness, increased focus on the perceived threat, and a readiness to respond defensively or take action.

3. Shutdown (Dorsal Vagal State):

• Description: This state represents a more extreme response to perceived danger when the social engagement and fight-or-flight responses are deemed ineffective. The dorsal vagal complex becomes dominant, leading to a shutdown or collapse response.
• Physiological Responses: Slowed heart rate, decreased blood pressure, shallow breathing, and a sense of numbness or dissociation.
• Behavioral Manifestations: Withdrawal, avoidance, and disconnection from the external environment. This state is often associated with situations of extreme stress, trauma, or a perceived inability to cope.

Considering the above human responses to external stimuli, any marketer worth her salt, will benefit from deliberating on her marketing messages from these vantage points.

Summarizing, if I were to examine the top 5 Marketing Lessons from Binet and Field, considering the above polyvagal stages of the mind’s work, then they will be the following:

1. Balance Short-Term and Long-Term Strategies: Striking a balance between short-term sales activation and long-term brand building is essential for sustained success. While short-term strategies may drive immediate sales, long-term brand building fosters emotional connections and customer loyalty.
2. Emphasize Emotional Engagement: Building emotional connections with consumers is crucial for long-term success.There is immense power in emotions to influence consumer behavior. Marketers should focus on creating memorable and emotionally resonant experiences to enhance brand loyalty.
3. Consistency Across Channels: Consistency in messaging across various channels contributes to a cohesive brand image. Consistent brand experiences strengthen neural connections, contributing to better brand recall and recognition.
4. Storytelling for Impact: Incorporating storytelling into marketing strategies can have a profound impact on consumer perceptions. If you’re a marketer, please understand and emphasize the brain’s preference for narrative structures, and make storytelling an essential toolkit for conveying brand messages and values.
5. Build Memory Structures: The creation of strong memory structures is crucial for brand recall. Neuro marketing research indicates that repeated exposure to consistent brand elements helps establish strong memory traces in the brain, increasing the likelihood of consumers recalling and choosing a brand.

Here is a recommendation from Binet himself, where he says, that on average, marketers should invest 60% of their budgets in long-term brand building and 40% in short-term sales activation

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