Emotional Manipulation in Marketing Communication - Essay Example

THE LEVELS TO WHICH EMOTIONS ARE MANIPULATED IN DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS CAMPAIGNS By Institution Location Date Abstract This is a paper discussing the levels to which emotions are manipulated in domestic and international integrated marketing communications campaigns. It begins with an introduction which explains the role that emotions play in consumers decisions. The second part compares rational and emotional choices in consumer relations. The paper then goes ahead and distinguishes high and low emotional involvement in marketing campaigns, and implications of both. The next part describes the roles that emotions play in the process of brand development. In the manipulation of dominant mood part the paper discusses different ways through which emotional manipulation is commonly used in domestic and international marketing campaigns. This part looks at the differences and the implications. The paper then discusses the role that creative design plays in manipulating the emotions of customers. The paper concludes that emotional manipulation is highly used in marketing in the modern business environment. However, it also recommends the use of a blend of both rational and emotional appeals in marketing. Contents Abstract 2 Contents 3 Introduction 4 Rational choice versus emotion theories 4 Emotions versus low/high involvement and perceived risk 5 Emotions, emotional benefits and brand development 6 Manipulation of the dominant mood in domestic and international marketing communications 6 Creative design and manipulations 8 Recommendations and conclusion 9 Bibliography 10 Emotional manipulation in marketing communication Introduction The main purpose of the marketing campaign is to influence customers’ choices. Through marketing campaigns, business organisations usually aim at eliciting response. However, it has been observed that in a number of occasions business organisation would opt for emotionally appealing marketing campaigns (Verma 2006, p. 105). These marketing campaigns are always aimed at bringing emotional response from customers. In this way, the choices that customers make with regard to the product or service that is being marketed has nothing to do with rationality but mere emotional attachment to a brand. This kind of emotional attachment is brought about by the marketing campaign (Academy of Marketing Science &Kubacki 2014, p. 111). The use of emotional manipulation usually depends on the product or service being market and the targeted market segment. A good example of such a campaign is a motor sales company using a billboard advert of a beautiful model to advert one of the cars that they sell (Hawknis, Mothersbaugh & Mookerjee 2011, p. 78). This paper aims at discussing the levels to which emotions are manipulated in domestic and international integrated marketing communications campaigns. Rational choice versus emotion theories Rational choice is a choice that made through prudent analysis of logics while emotional choices are those that people make because of the emotional attachment towards something or someone. Consumers are known to make both types of choices when deciding on which product or service they should pay for (Blythe 2008, p. 118). When a customer makes a rational choice, they always base their choice of quality and benefits of the product or service to their lives (Mattila1999, P. 295). For example, a customer buying a car might consider fuel consumption and availability of spare parts before buying a car. They also tend to compare the benefits and shortcomings of a product or service to those of their closest substitutes (Oshaughnessy & Oshaughnessy2002, P. 210). However, given the fact that human beings are emotional beings careful choice of aspects such as tone, colour scheme, lighting, and mood, marketers can get customers to make decisions based on the emotional appeal that a certain marketing campaign has. The emotional appeal that these campaigns have is influential in attracting the attention of potential customers, thus creating an emotional attachment between customers and a brand. An example of an emotion based decision is a scenario where a person buys a product that is on fashion for prestige purposes. Emotions versus low/high involvement and perceived risk There is always a variation in emotional involvement of marketing campaigns. When there is a low emotional involvement in a marketing campaign, the format used is very simple. This format involve introduction of the process then the introduction of the solution, which is in this case is the product or service that is being marketed (Peter, Grunert & Olson 1999, p. 203). When customers have low emotional development there is a likeliness that they can easily get over such attachment (Ng & Lee 2015, p. 142). When involvement is high there is always a story that brings back some memories from the mind of the customers leading to the emotional of customers being used to influence their decisions (Sherven&Sniechowski 2009, p. 178). In such cases rationality rarely play any part in the decision making process of customers. A good example of such a case would be a customer who buys a given energy drink because it is endorsed by a celebrity figure they adore. Emotions, emotional benefits and brand development There are a number of ways through which a business organisation can benefit from using marketing campaigns with emotional appeal. Many professional marketers will have the opinion that persuasion is much easier when appealing to an individual’s emotions as compared to when appealing to their rationality (Travis 2000, p. 124). For instance, an experienced marketer will argue that fear and greed are the two powerhouses of marketing. By using fear, a marketer can be able to sell more to people who have much to use (LaToure 2006, p. 415). Greed is used in a case where customers will be too much concerned about what they will gain (Hansen & Christensen 2007, p. 218). Another thing that might make use of emotional appeal much convenient is the use of connection and belonging. The impulse of human beings to connect and belong is believed to be almost as strong as that for “fight and flight”. Therefore, many marketers would consider using the “connect and belong” strategy with the aim of creating the emotional attachment between a brand and the targeted segment of the market (Shaw 2002, p. 201). For example, teenagers are more likely to buy some products such a clothing because they are the ones that are trending among the youth. Manipulation of the dominant mood in domestic and international marketing communications One of the most important characteristic of a product or service is their ability to satisfy the need of consumers. However, before satisfaction takes place there must be acquisition or purchase. The perception that a customer has towards a given product is highly influential in their decision (Perreault, Cannon &Mccarthy 2014, p. 187). For instance, if a customer perceives a product or service to be of beneficial to their social status they are likely to buy them. In this case, the rationality of the quality would not place a part in the decision making process (Academy Of Marketing Science, et al 2014, p. 127). Such a scenario is common in marketing campaigns that involve celebrity endorsement. For example, some of the products being marketed my not be of high quality, but because many people adore the celebrity used in the campaign, they will always buy those products (Hong 2008, p. 99). Customers will trust that since the product is endorsed by a celebrity figure, then it must have high qualities that will be satisfactory to them. In order for products and services to have the emotional appeal, they must be innovative. This is not because the product or service have not been in existence, neither is because customers have not been aware of their existence (Solomon, et al 1999, p. 242). Every product or service should be creatively designed in such a way that they have the ability to appeal to customers emotionally. When doing this a company should consider measuring customer response in order to know the effectiveness of the chosen approach. Coinventional pre-testing might prove to have some flaws in measuring persuasion, cut through and message reception (Wood 2012, p. 36) When rational appeal is overused by many of their competitors, a business organisation can decide to be innovative and find a way through which their product or service can appeal to customers (Petley 2003, p. 107). Cultures usually differ internationally. For a domestic marketing campaign, a business organisation will not have to worry about diversity in cultures (Belch& Belch 2012, p. 212). This is because with the same culture, it is always easier to find things that can be of universal emotional appeal (Kotler& Armstrong 2014, p. 179). However, with international marketing this usually become trickier. This is because some aspects that might be emotionally appealing to people from one part of the world might turn out to be of an opposite effect to people from a different culture (Pelsmacker, Geuens& Bergh 2013, p. 135). Product type and national culture usually affect the applicability of either emotional or rational approach to advertising. A research carried out in the year 1999 observed that there was a difference in the applicability of advert strategies in Brazil, Taiwan, Mexico, and the USA (Albers-Miller & Stafford 1999, p. 52) There are a number of ethical issues that relate to the use of emotional manipulation in marketing. It is believed that emotional manipulation gives ease of gratification of choices. For instance, a customer might decide to buy a product due to emotional manipulation rather than the products ability to satisfy their needs (Tanner, J 2006, p. 415). This aspect can be taken advantage of by producers leading to a scenario where these products or service do not satisfy the needs of customers. This should be the main purpose of a product. There is also a very high possibility of wrong choices. Creative design and manipulations Most decisions that a customer make are always made under the context of influence. This is where creativity in the design process comes in. When designing a product or service it is important for a business organisation to carry out a research aimed at finding out the aspects that might lead to the emotional appeal of their designs (Smith & Zook2011, p. 177). For a product there are a number of things that should be taken into consideration including color scheme, shape, theme, and smell. These aspects are most likely to help customers in relating these products to their emotions (Brenkert 2008, p. 187). Colors have been observed to be very important as managers can use colors to decrease or increase appetite, calm down customers, enhance mood, and, reduce perception of waiting time (Singh 2006, P. 785). A company can also consider using imagery to enhance their advertisements. Posters, prints, and TV advertisements can choose to use images that have emotional appeal (Branthwaite, A 2002, p. 169) Recommendations and conclusion It is clearly evident that it is important for a marketer to take into consideration the emotional appeal of their marketing strategy. As seen through the discussion herein, emotional appeal makes it easier for a business organisation to convince customers. However, it is also clear that overuse of emotional appeal might backfire on an organisation. Therefore, the most rational thing that a business organisation can do is make sure that that their marketing campaign has a blend of both emotional and rational appeal. For example, an advertisement of a car can contain facts about the superiority of the car, but still appeal to the ego of the customers. As for international marketing, a marketer will need to carry out extensive researches given the differences in cultures. 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