AMiable Solution #142: When Emotions Aren’t Enough

If you studied science or math in school, you know that not all decisions are made on emotions.  In fact, we’d venture to guess that you’re more prone to practical, logical reasoning in everyday thinking than your photography and music counterparts.

That’s not to say that either way of thinking is wrong.  People make purchasing decisions based on both emotions and logic.  The trick is to figure out which approach is more appropriate for each product or service.  Sometimes you’ll use one and then the other.  Most times, you’ll use some combination of both.

According to Ken Orwig of Orwig Marketing Strategies, your offer itself can help determine which appeal--emotional or rational--to emphasize. 

When is a rational appeal best?  According to Orwig, if your product or service has a distinctly different component than your competition and is proven beneficial, then a rational appeal emphasizing this unique advantage is recommended.  In addition, higher-priced items that require careful evaluation and scrutiny are generally better suited to logical appeals

Conversely, if your product or service is basically the same as everyone else’s, then an emotional appeal will likely work best.  Furthermore, if your product or service belongs to a mature market, where the benefits are well known, an emotional appeal differentiating your from your competition could be in order.

As always, every campaign should be treated individually, paying close attention to the specific characteristics of the target audience, and every approach should be tested and tested and then tested again.  

AMiable Solution #141: The Other Side of Emotional Marketing

We’ve all read about emotional marketing--appealing to consumers’ values or beliefs to evoke a response.  In fact, we at AMi have even written about it in this blog.  The idea is to get your readers, your listeners, to FEEL something and then act.

The real question, though, is what do you feel?  When you sit down to write the copy for your promotion, are you as connected to your material, to your product or service, or to your offer as you expect your target audience to be?  If you’re not, your text may sound insincere, overly dramatic, or simply disconnected.

How can you prevent this from happening?  Look at the offer from your audience’s perspective.  Don’t just look at the customer data.  Imagine your customers are your neighbors, your good friends.  What would you say to them?  What tone would you use?  What words or stories or examples would you give to convince them that you can help solve a personal problem or that they can contribute to solving a bigger, more global problem?

Getting your head in the “helping” mindset instead of the “selling” mindset may help keep your copy more realistic and less dramatic, more specific and understated instead of broad and overstated.  It may help you strike just the appeal you’re reaching for: a heartfelt one.

AMiable Solution #140: Banishing Bloopers

We all make mistakes.  We distribute campaigns with typos and errors.  We gamble on new rental lists or lists that have inconsistent histories and they don’t generate responses.  We try new technologies and strategies that don’t work out.

What do you do when you or your marketing team makes a mistake or endures a failure?  Who takes responsibility?  Who takes action?  How do you handle the problem and prevent it from reoccurring?

First, make sure the mistake or error was made honestly, not

out of laziness, sloppiness, or indifference.  Marketers who don’t put a legitimate effort into your marketing activities create bigger problems than a misspelled word in the catalog and need to be dealt with immediately.  However, errors made out of good intentions and sincere efforts should be regarded as a learning experience and shared, productively, with the whole team.

Then, work as a department to correct the mistake and set up new protocols to prevent the same mistake or failure from happening again. 

If a typo was overlooked or wrong information was included, double check that the promotion went through the prescribed proofing channels.  Sometimes the individual working on a campaign becomes blind to errors because they know the material by heart.  Require all materials to be read by at least one other set of eyes. 

If a risk didn’t work out and joins a growing list of other risks that didn’t work out, reexamine your situation, your resources, and the gambles you’ve made.  Then, use that information to establish new guidelines for determining how much and how often you’re willing and able to make these types of decisions.  Risks must be taken to expand and grow, but when they consistently far short of breaking even, the risk for the organization overall becomes greater than the potential reward and should be stopped.

You can’t prevent things from going wrong in business.  But you can learn to view glitches and poor choices positively and use them to make better decisions in the future.