Marketing is a multi-dimensional business entity and is crucial for any company’s development. Companies use various methodologies to run their campaigns, depending on their goals. One of the most common strategies companies are now using is Emotional Branding.

What is Emotional Branding?

As the name suggests, emotional branding is a branding technique that tries to trigger various emotions in people. Happiness, love, and peace are the main emotions we think of when we talk about positive emotional branding, but they aren’t the only branding emotions you will find.

Experts believe that positive emotions extend from these basic feelings to more complicated ones. A full spectrum of positive emotions would include:

• Euphoria
• Happiness 
• Inspiration 
• Joy
• Kindness to pride
• Optimism
• Satisfaction
• Serenity, interest
• Awe 
• Relief 

Understanding Emotional Branding and its Benefits

A wider range of emotions in branding provides companies with the tools to run more diversified branding campaigns and get the desired results. Emotional branding is a successful branding technique that the world’s leading brands follow. 

For example, Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign revolved around emotional branding. Their bottles had the most common names worldwide printed, and the company asked their customers to post their names on social media. The campaign was a major hit and increased Coca-Cola’s brand reputation.

Emotional branding has much more to offer, and campaign runners should know the full benefits of this branding technique. We’ve listed down some of these benefits for you, so have a look.

Conceptualize Every Strategy

The main purpose of using emotional branding is to elevate and enhance any business-related change you wish to make. It adds more ground to your business decisions and helps people connect with you better. 

Many companies also use social incidents as an inspiration for their branding methods. A common example is Umber’s renowned anti-racism billboard which said:

If you tolerate racism, delete Uber. Black people have the right to move without fear.

The company tapped into the emotions around the “Black Lives Matter” movement and helped people feel valued. Yes, some people may have also deleted the application, but the overall result was still in Uber’s favor.

Creates more Usability

Such a diverse range of emotions can be challenging for brands to utilize in their campaigns. Fortunately, adding emotional branding to their marketing campaign helps brands get actionable insights in their campaigns too.

It can show you how the visitors on your website interact with the platform and help you advance with future tactics accordingly.

Provides better Storytelling

The emotional narrative of any branding strategy needs to connect with the brand’s target audience. 

A successful example of good storytelling is Heineken’s ‘Worlds Apart ‘, which revolves around the idea that despite differences among different countries, we still unite as one. The campaign helped their audiences see others differently and resonated pretty well with the audience. 

This kind of branding technique merged with an advanced video advertising solution can help reap better results. 

Improves the Product Design 

The best way to improve your product design is to create the one that the audiences love. Identifying the right product design is challenging since it won’t reflect well on your brand if you do not understand the audience’s requirements. The product design options are virtually limitless, making it pretty challenging for companies to find the right one.

Improving the product design requires understanding the customer’s expectations from the brand and delivering accordingly. Nike is one of the few brands that quickly mastered emotional branding and the right approaches. 

Their “Just do It” campaigns are among the most well-renowned emotional branding campaigns. It focuses on athletes that have suffered injuries and how they have bounced back from these challenges. 

Stand out with your Social Media

Social media is one of the most viable tools for brands wishing to better connect with their audiences. It allows direct engagement, content sharing, collecting real-time feedback, and much more with your target audience. 

However, branding your products through social media doesn’t always have to be direct. The “Unsung Hero” by Thai Life Insurance is a perfect example of this technique. It doesn’t mention the product directly, but it discusses the importance of human belief in values.

Social media allows brands to connect with their audiences personally, increasing the number of conversions towards their brand without direct advertising. 

Creates Experience Dialogue

Working on your emotional branding technique can help increase dialogue around your campaign. People have more things to say about your brand, and if these responses are good, they will improve how the industry sees your company as a whole.  

The more people talk about your brand, the more they know. Customer feedbacks are one of the simplest types of dialogues that you can advertise on your websites too.

 Mistakes to Avoid in Emotional Branding

Running an emotional branding campaign is great for a company’s brand reputation and overall stature in the industry. However, there are some mistakes you need to avoid, while emotional branding can be counterproductive for you. These include:

• Focusing on the features of your business instead of the values behind it
• Trying to address the audience in a technical or tactical language
• Failing to tell a compelling story to the audience
• Thinking of emotional branding as academic alone
• Trying to replicate what others may be doing with their brands
• Failing to launch a new product or brand internally may lead to inconsistencies within the company.
• Compromising on the branding budget 

Bottom Line

Emotional branding is a simple yet effective technique for resonating with audiences. It lets companies connect with their target groups on a more personal level and help them achieve better results. 

Emotional branding campaigns vary for each brand, and so does the message they want to put across. Some companies consider social movements as their primary emotional branding, while others may consider success stories or battling struggles their main selling point. Nevertheless, the fact remains that you can use emotional branding to effectively change the customers’ perception about your brand.