The Psychology of Emotion

Emotion is one of the most powerful tools a marketer can wield, and it is well known that the environment we find ourselves in can spark an unlimited number of emotional responses that influences how we behave in future.

But why? Are emotions rational or irrational? Do they have a strong biological basis? And why do we cluster emotions and behaviours together to explain the culture surrounding us?

Limits of Neuromarketing

Empirical evidence is a good thing, and when looking at how people respond to advertising, it’s something that the marketing discipline will always benefit from. However, there is a fine line between evidence that is applicable to marketing and evidence that is not.

Among more recent trends is neuromarketing, the idea that brain mapping in real time can determine how consumers behave in response to a brand, product, or campaign. While promising, this field of research is still in its early stages, and should be approached critically.

Pervasive Assumptions

A while ago I wrote up a short advertising effectiveness test of sorts to annoy my friends with. I wanted to see how widespread the misconceptions surrounding advertising really were. Below are the eight true/false statements I used:

• Brand loyalty is crucial to achieving high sales
• Demographic segmentation is the best way to reach a target audience
• Advertising works through persuasion 
• Brands should primarily seek differentiation from their competitors 
• Brand awareness drives sales
• The best way to increase market share is by getting existing buyers to buy more often
• Social media strategy must be differentiated from traditional media strategy
• Mass marketing is an outdated strategy

Knowing Your Sources

Market research, like all social science research, falls into one of two categories: quantitative and qualitative. Quant data can be categorised and statistically measured, whereas qual data is non-objective, and cannot be categorised systematically (e.g. numerically).

The difference is pretty stark, but market research is particularly susceptible to pulling quant statistics out of the ass of qual data. This kind of research, unsurprisingly, tells us nothing, and I have found the perfect example to demonstrate why.