What is Emotional Branding and How to Use it Effectively KC Karnes It’s basically mind control. Everything from your icon, design, and user experience can be optimized through emotional branding to establish loyalty among your users. Consumers can have highly emotional reactions not just to big brands like Apple, but even to smaller companies like yours. The goal of emotional branding in mobile apps is to shape how your brand is perceived by your users. Learn how you can use emotion to further connect with your users by reading our guide below or get the gist by jumping to our infographic. Emotional Branding vs. Emotional Advertising Although it may seem self-explanatory, emotional advertising is a complex practice and when done incorrectly can leave your audience feeling confused. With careful consideration and use of emotional appeal, however, emotional advertising can be highly effective. Emotion can be applied more directly in advertising, such as in a specific ad or campaign. Each emotional ad contributes to the emotional branding strategy — emotional ads are like the individual building blocks that create structural integrity of the brand. Many companies will create emotional ads in response to major events, while also promoting their products or services. For example, following the US travel ban in 2018, Airbnb launched a campaign pushing the idea of a global community in their “Let’s Keep Traveling Forward” advertisement. Making a statement like this is a bold and effective brand positioning strategy. Emotion and the Hierarchy of Needs Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory classifies emotional motivation through biological and social needs. 02 Humans need to cover their physiological needs (food, shelter, air, water) before they can work their way up the pyramid to meet their emotional needs: esteem (respect, status, strength) and self-actualization. What if Maslow’s theories of human needs could be applied to branding? How have the world’s most recognizable brands been so successful at captivating large populations and applying principles of human nature? Below, we have transposed Apple’s emotional branding strategy over the years to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Emotional Branding Appeals to Ethos, Pathos, and Logos Remember Aristotle? He’s the one we can thank for the three foundations of persuasive marketing techniques: ethos, pathos, and logos. When you are able to balance all three of them you have an emotionally powerful brand. These techniques are categorized into three groups based on how rhetoric is used in arguments. These three groups are: 1. Ethos: Appeal to Credibility and Ethics “Three out of four doctors recommend X over the competitors.” When a doctor or another influencer endorses a product or service, an advertiser is appealing to ethos. Ethos in branding can take many forms: quoting experts in a field, citing sources, testimonials from customers, and case studies, for example. Appealing to ethos builds trust and credibility within your industry and establishes your brand as the authority in the space. 2. Pathos: Appeal to Empathy “X: Live, Laugh, Long-Term Retention.” Pathos motivates consumers to take action by creating a sense of urgency, a fear of missing out, a sense of belonging, and more, as long as it is done carefully and doesn’t make the consumer feel like their emotions are being manipulated. Non-profit organizations consistently use pathos to establish empathy and bolster their branding strategy. 3. Logos: Appeal to Logic and Reason “X is effective against 99.9% of churn.” Logos, Aristotle’s most persuasive pillar of the three, is also the most dependent on the other pillars. Just pointing out facts, statistics, or features to consumers usually isn’t enough to convince them to take action. Show your audience what your product can do for them, and try to make a connection between their emotions and your logic. All three of Aristotle’s principles don’t need to be applied to every situation, but keeping them in mind when you’re building an emotional strategy can increase your persuasive prowess. The Neuroscience of Emotional Branding While many companies go about building their brands as more of an art and less of a science, some companies look at how they can adapt their brand awareness strategies to influence customers on a psychological level with a tactic called “neuromarketing.” Neuroscience is a field of research that studies the cognitive and affective responses of human beings. This translates into neuromarketing when we start applying these ideas to how they might impact a consumer’s brain responses to stimuli. When we approach branding from a scientific perspective instead of design perspective with eye-tracking, facial coding, and EEG (electroencephalogram), we can better analyze a person’s reaction and understand exactly how a person will emotionally respond to an advertisement or brand. Looking more into the science of how to effectively market to consumers has revealed lots of powerful statistics to help marketers reach their audiences: ● 90% of buying decisions are made subconsciously. ● Human beings process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. ● 50% of a brand experience is based on emotion.