A systematic approach to measure emotional experience in visual consumer communication

1. Email info@blicx.com for further information
Copyright © 2014 Blicx Ltd | Company No. 07054354 | Registered in England and Wales
Page | 1
EmotiScoreTM
measures customers’ true
emotions
A systematic approach to measure emotional experience in visual
consumer communication
People respond emotionally to visual brand stimuli such as promotional ads or images on social media. Emotions are
unreflective but immediate, true, personal and powerful responses to what we feel. A positive experience can trigger
beneficial customer behaviour such as product interest
or purchase intent. A negative experience can be
detrimental to the brand. Many companies still rely on
traditional quantitative question techniques to assess
marketing effectiveness in this space. Complex rating
scales still have its value but people feel too bored and
exhausted to provide honest feedback. More intuitive,
simpler and cost effective methods are needed in
order to measure emotions.
Emoticons as basis of EmotiScoreTM
EmotiScoreTM is based on two effects: Firstly, neuroscience has proven that our human brain is doing a pretty
good job in decoding & interpreting human facial expressions. We are able to immediately recognise distinct
emotions, e.g. if somebody is happy, sad, surprised, angry or disgusted. Secondly, with the use of social media we
humans have trained our brain to react to emoticons in the same way as we decode real human faces. The latest
research show that emoticons trigger the same brain areas of the occipitotemporal cortex as human face
expressions do.
Measure the true emotional brand
experience of your customer with
EmotiScoreTM
 Systematic analysis of distinct emotions
 Intuitive to understand
 Non-verbal and cross cultural
 Designed for qualitative and quantitative research
 Versatile application
How and where to apply EmotiScoreTM
?
Post-testing method
Review and quantify emotional response to branded
visual assets posted on company website, social media
channels and third party internet pages.
 Identify strengths and weaknesses of the
imagery
 Understand the current level of emotional
engagement with your customers per channel
over time
 Benchmark visual assets against a normative
data sets
 Impact analysis to clarify which visuals show
highest effect on KPI’s such as brand interest
purchase intent or social engagement
 Find the visual design which is the most
effective for the brand
Pre-testing method
Testing of new marketing material, concepts, images,
advertisement, video, product design, packaging etc. in
a secure (anti-leakage) environment.
 Find the new assets concepts that have the
highest emotional impact
 Identify the best images to trigger product or
brand awareness
 Design creative concepts in line with the
highest impact on relevant KPI’s
Positive emotions evoked
by product visuals can
trigger purchase intent,
owning ratio or usage
frequency.
Brands need a systematic
tool to measure and
quantify emotional
experience.
Pre- and post-testing
methodology to reveal the
value of your
communication.

2. Email info@blicx.com for further information
Copyright © 2014 Blicx Ltd | Company No. 07054354 | Registered in England and Wales
Page | 2
Case Study: Coffee Shop Emotion Survey
High street coffee shops such as Starbucks, Costa and Caffè Nero are very popular. We
wanted to find out what type of imagery is the most emotional. Are high quality
produced promotional visuals more or less emotional than funky, creative social
content? What impact do in-store ads and promotional campaigns have on the
customer? Which brand provides the most emotional content? Six image categories
were defined and then tested via an online survey (n=1,000 UK adults).
Respondents rated a mix of 60 authentic visuals from their preferred coffee shop
brand. The results show that, in general, branded visuals (e.g. the image of a brand
logo) carry the highest emotional potential whereas imagery from social media is the least appealing among a
normative sample of coffee shop visitors.
Result: Clear branded visuals are more appealing than unbranded,
low-key imagery
Visual effectiveness = Emotional experience * brand differentiation
The visual impact of a brand can be measured on two dimensions: (1) Emotional experience measured by positive
or negative emotions (2) Brand differentiation measured by the unique effect in which the image sets itself apart
from other brands.
The Emotion Map, based on a four quadrant model, identifies the most/least effective visuals by total market,
category or brand.
The survey showed that
branded visuals appeal
more to the audience than
authentic visuals without
clear branding. Logos
evoke the highest positive
emotions. 36% say they
feel “happy” when they
see the brand logo
compared to 20% for
other visuals. Generic
product promotions (e.g. a
branded cup of coffee)
bring more positives feelings than atmospheric visuals (e.g. happy customers in the coffee shop drinking coffee).
Social media content, although appealing to some, is for many too confusing (up to 42%), boring (up to 15%) or
meaningless (5%).
What EmotiScoreTM
means for brand marketing professionals:
 Emotional experience can be measured via EmotiScoreTM methodology
 Receive a systematic analysis on the emotional experience of imagery and brand stimulus
 Data rich reporting provide clear understanding: From a single imagery to total market view in easy-
to-understand data charts with benchmarks comparisons
 Track emotional brand experience over time or via one-off assignment
BlicxTM tested & validated
the emotion scale in the
UK coffee shop survey
with (n=1,000) online
respondents.
Statistical analysis with
benchmark comparison
reveals the power of your
visuals. The data comes
with detailed analysis per
visual or in aggregated
view to assess total
markets.
If you want to know how
we can help your brand
send an email to
info@blicx.com or visit
www.blicx.com
Philipp Wagner is Market Research Director at Blicx Ltd and developed EmotiScoreTM, the
emotion testing methodology together with clients from the video games industry. Philipp
has 11 years of experience with qualitative and quantitative research practice in global
consumer and youth markets. After working for GfK and Forrester Research Philipp now
heads up the Blicx team of research experts in London.