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The Power of Emotional Marketing
                            A Special Report by the Author of
            “Big Business Marketing for Small Business Budgets” (McGraw-Hill)




                                        Jeanette McMurtry
                                     Principal/Chief Strategy Officer
                                         e4marketing Company




                                    PO Box 370 , Eagle, CO 81631
                            970-390-6909 | jeanette@e4marketingco.com



All rights reserved. Except for use in review, the reproduction or use of this work in any form or by any
electronic, mechanical or other means not known of hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying,
recording, and any information storage and retrieval systems is forbidden without the written permission of
the author.




©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.                                                            1
Getting Emotional With Customers Through
              Experiential Marketing Strategies

        Understanding the emotions behind purchasing behavior is critical to any
business, whether in the business-to-business or business to consumer space. Once
you understand emotional influences, you can then create highly relevant, meaningful
messages, graphic presentations, promotions and offers that will help you draw
customers to your brand, connect with them, and capture their lifetime value. Capture
lifetime value is one of the most important goals of any marketing program. Research
shows that it costs typically $20 on average to gain a new customers, and only $4 to
retain a customer.
        Regardless of whether you work in the business to consumer space, or the
business to business space, you must understand the emotions associated with
purchasing decisions for your products or services in order to connect with customers,
draw them to your brand, and build personal value and equity that lasts a lifetime.
Capturing customers’ lifetime value is essential to staying competitive and profitable in
today’s highly competitive and cluttered markets.

Moving from Unique Selling Propositions to Emotional Selling Propositions

Building brands in a market where consumers have more choices and are more
demanding than ever before, businesses must have more than a unique selling
proposition. They must have an emotional selling proposition or ESP.
        USPs really are an oxymoron. When is the last time you came across a truly
unique USP? Think about it. They are almost always founded on best price, best
service, best quality. None of these are unique. For products, price is often set by
manufacturers; and everyone thinks their quality and service is far better than
competitors. The consumer is the only one that can make this determination.
        Recent research by various groups including Meridian and Cap Gemini Ernst and
Young show that consumers prefer selection and customization over price; and that
they don’t differentiate retailers by their value propositions. Rather, they want to do
business with brands that treat them with honesty and respect.
        Brands must know what emotions consumers seek to fulfill when purchasing
products and services in their categories. They must create marketing messages,
offers, promotions, benefits and experiences that fulfill the desired emotions or
“enduring concept of self” of their customers.
        For years, psychologists have maintained that nearly all human behavior is
emotionally driven, and most often unconsciously. Today, marketing experts are
jumping on this bandwagon and cashing in big. Big brands such as Proctor and
Gamble, Coke, Pepsi, and more are turning to neuromarketers to give them in-depth
insight as to how their customers really think and what emotions really drive their
purchasing behavior.
        According to neuromarketing pioneer, Gerald Zaltman, “95% of all thought occurs
in the unconscious.” And because of this theory, marketers worldwide and putting a
great deal of time, money and energy into discovering exactly what goes on in the
unconscious mind of their consumers when shopping, and how they can tap that
powerful activity, thus spawning the rapid growth of neuromarketing.


©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.                                               2
What actually is neuromarketing? According to the definition on Wikipedia, the free
online encyclopedia:

       Neuromarketing is a new field of marketing which uses medical technologies
       such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to study the brain's
       responses to marketing stimuli. Researchers use the fMRI to measure changes
       in activity in parts of the brain and to learn why consumers make the decisions
       they do, and what part of the brain is telling them to do it.

       Marketing analysts will use neuromarketing to better measure a consumer's
       preference, as the verbal response given to the question "Do you like this
       product?" may not always be the true answer. This knowledge will help
       marketers create products and services designed more effectively and marketing
       campaigns focused more on the brain's response.

The power of neuromarketing is that it tells marketers what they can likely expect
in terms of consumer behavior, and how “little” things such as the color or shape
of a product’s packaging; the sound it makes when shaken, graphic designs, and
so on impact consumers choices at the point of sale.

Following is an excerpt from Wikipedia on neuromarketing and its effect on results on
the infamous Pepsi Challenge:

       In a study by Read Montague, the director of the Human Neuroimaging Lab and the
       Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at Baylor University, published in the October 14,
       2004 issue of Neuron, 67 people had their brains scanned while being given the "Pepsi
       Challenge", a blind taste test of Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Half the subjects choose Pepsi,
       and Pepsi tended to produce a stronger response than Coke in the brain's ventral
       putamen, a region thought to process feelings of reward. But when the subjects were
       told they were drinking Coke three-fourths said that Coke tasted better. Their brain
       activity had also changed. The medial prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain that
       scientists say governs high-level cognitive powers was now being used, indicating that
       the consumers were thinking about Coke and relating it to memories and other
       impressions. The results demonstrated that Pepsi should have half the market share, but
       in reality consumers are buying Coke for reasons related less to their taste preferences
       and more to their experience with the Coke brand. However, it should be noted that Pepsi
       is sweeter than coke, and thus may do better in taste tests where only a small sample is
       given. Many people who prefer small amounts of Pepsi would probably rather consume
       an entire can of Coke to a can of Pepsi because people often grow tired of very sweet
       flavors

According to a column published by iMedia Connection, an online publication, written by
Jim Meskauskas, “Neuroscience is learning that there is more than one part of the brain
that influences feelings, while another influences thought. Both parts of the brain can
work at cross purposes during the process of making a decision. Neuromarketing holds
out the promise of decoding these processes and converting marketing messages into a
language that appeals to the different parts of the brain and motivates a decision in your
favor.”


©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.                                                3
Psychologists categorize human behavior in two ways:
   • The pursuit of pleasure
   • The avoidance of pain

Essentially, all that we humans do in our personal lives and professional lives fit into
these categories. Personally, we pursue joy, happiness, security, status, prestige,
excitement and thrills. – all of which we believe will lead to pleasure. Professionally, we
seek to avoid the pain of making decisions that hurt our careers, jeopardize our jobs
and our ability to provide for our basic needs and those of our families. We also seek to
find pleasure in the work we do, and make choices that lead to praise, recognition,
promotion, and wealth.
        As marketers, we need to understand how our products and/or services fit those
two basic human pursuits, and the emotions that influence decisions along the path to
achieving either. To do this, we must understand how decisions are made.
        Consumers typically go through a five step decision process, all of which are
heavily influenced by our emotional experiences while shopping for a good or service,
and the emotions we are seeking to achieve through the purchase at hand. Following is
a brief description of how this decision process works.

Understanding the Consumer Decision Process
Problem recognition:
Our problems typically fall into two categories: Physical – which covers tangible needs
such as financial, nutritional, comfort, safety, health, and so on. Emotional – which
covers inner peace, joy, comfort, security, belonging, love, and self-esteem. We
continuously face real and perceived problems in these categories and seek the best
possible solutions with the least risk, physical and opportunity costs, and obstacles.
    Personal problems might be as simple as needing to buy a tube of toothpaste, as
complex as buying a car or computer; purchasing clothes for a job interview, finding
nursing care for ailing parents. Business problems might include hiring the right support
staff; purchasing IT systems, making media purchases for advertising campaigns. All of
these decisions, personal and business related have a strong emotional component.
Consider the emotions behind the above referenced purchases:

   •   Toothpaste: Wanting to feel beautiful and youthful influences you to buy a tooth
       whitening product vs. a cavity protection product.
   •   Car: Beyond function and reliability, we want a car that helps us and others
       around us feel we’ve achieved a certain status in life; we want a car that supports
       our concept of self in terms of appearance, power, and performance.
   •   Computer: Our purchases often center around feeling smart, and that we are
       informed enough to make wise decisions.
   •   Clothing for job interview: We seek apparel that makes us feel and look like the
       person we want to be – confident, bold, successful, charismatic, accomplished,
       innovative.

   •   Support staff: We tend to hire people that will make us look good ourselves
       rather than just one that can fill the job. Supervisors often don’t hire someone
       that has more accomplishments than they do; more charisma than they do as


©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.                                             4
they don’t want to be overshadowed and feel insecure in their own jobs. Job
       skills often rank below these emotional influences.
   •   IT systems: We want to purchase products that make us feel smart and look
       good to our bosses as they perform, meet expectations and are within budget, all
       of which counts for a positive job review down the road.
   •   Media purchases: Brands often purchase space in media outlets that support the
       emotional image they want to project – excitement, innovation, individuality, self-
       esteem, confidence, and so on.

Image and Fact Matching:

         Before making complex purchases, we spend time researching various purchase
and vendor options. We look for facts that make us feel secure, and seek for
reassurance that products match our image of our self, and the image we want to
project to others. Both of these processes are emotionally driven.
         Marketers need to understand what emotions consumers are trying to achieve or
fulfill when making product selections. Understanding this process in a consumers’
decision process is among the most critical for marketers in all industries.
         Emotions clearly influence our decisions regarding our personal, social and
family lives; yet they are also behind many of our business choices.


Trial Purchase, Post-Purchase Evaluation and Loyalty Assignment:

Essentially all purchases are trial purchases as we are putting the products and vendors
we purchase on trial. When evaluating our purchases, we assess how they made us
feel: comfortable, confident, secure, happy, successful, excited, intelligent, smart? If the
process of shopping for a product, using or experiencing a product, and the post-
purchase service fulfilled the emotions we seek, consciously and unconsciously, then
we tend to assign our loyalty. If our emotional goals were not achieved, we tend to
assign our loyalty elsewhere.
        As consumers, we often buy on emotion and then justify their decision with facts.
According to an article by Ken Orwig, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas was
quoted as saying, “At the constitutional level where we work, 90% of any decision is
emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons for supporting our predilections.”

Building an Emotional Marketing Connection
Dr. Glenn Livingston, a well-known clinical psychologist, describes emotion as a state of
psychological arousal and lists four core emotions that most advertising is designed to
evoke: Mad, Glad, Scared and Sad. Livingston points out that advertising should be
designed to portray an emotional benefit vs. emotions. He claims that knowing how our
messages or brand activity makes someone feel is minimally useful, and that the real
metric is in the emotional benefit perceived by the consumer, or rather, how they feel
about themselves when they use or product of service.
       Understanding how to create the proper emotional benefit is essential to
marketing success because as Livingston states, “emotional benefits relate directly and
powerfully to enduring self concept.” As controversial as they might be, sexually



©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.                                             5
provocative advertisements such as those for Calvin Klein and Abercrombie and Fitch
produce results because of the enduring self concept they create among “wanna be”
consumers, or those that want to emulate and experience the images created in the
advertisements.
       As long as a brand contributes positively to a person’s sense of self, they are in a
strong position to develop a lifetime relationship with that customer, and this is the key
to success. Lifetime values translate into long-term profitability and overall returns on
advertising investments.

Consider the lifetime value of upscale car customers:
                  * Lifetime is 20 years ~ ages 40 to 60
                  * Purchase frequency is every three years
                  * Lifetime purchases are around 6
                        * One car = $45,000 x 6        $270,000
                        * Services = $1000/yr x 20 $20,000
                        * Customer Worth               $290,000
                        * Referral Worth (3)           $870,000
                        * Potential LTV:               $1,160,000

Capturing lifetime value is critical to any business, and research indicates that when
people feel positive about themselves or experience joy in some form, and associate
those positive feelings with a brand, they are more likely to assign their loyalty and
become lifetime customers.

Emotional Marketing Appeals:

Emotional marketing appeals are designed to address a consumers’ frame of mind,
emotional needs more than physical needs, and often involve sensory experiences. On
the other hand, rational marketing appeals are most often based upon promises of best
price, best value, best quality, or the practical side of purchasing decisions.
        While rational advertisements focus often “chest beat” about competitive price
differences and overall monetary value, emotional advertising’s promises are more
subtle. Print advertisements designed to tap a buyer’s emotional triggers will use the
appropriate colors, designs, fonts for the target audience and include promises based
upon emotional needs such as relief from stress vs. the best price; or confidence in
service, satisfaction promises, and other elements that take the fear of the purchase
process. In a broadcast advertisements, the music and voice tones, and moving visuals
can work together for a warm, emotional effect, and to portray a specific situation, state-
of-being, persona, image and the like.
       Emotional marketing is manifest through various mediums – print, broadcast and
internet. It also takes place through sensory experiences. Successful marketing
programs today blend both emotional messaging strategies with experiential strategies
to create a total experience for the customer, one that is remarkable and memorable.

       To this end, Livingston suggests that emotional marketing works best when done
in a subtle manner, one that does not “force the emotional benefit by telling the
consumer directly” how they should feel as this takes away their personal power.
Indirectly communicating the emotional benefit has much stronger implications and



©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.                                             6
results as it preserves consumers’ sense of self, personal power, and feelings of control
over their insecurities.
       Following is a list of emotional benefits that consumers consciously and
unconsciously seek from the products and services they purchase:
   • Achievement                                      • Style
   • Pride of ownership                               • Conformity
   • Security                                         • Ambition
   • Self-improvement                                 • Power
   • Status                                           • Love

Audit your brand’s emotional appeal. Dig deeper into the psyche of your customers to
learn how your products or services fulfill these benefits, and what emotional benefits
are of the greatest importance to them.

EVOKING EMOTIONS

Knowing which words trigger desired is critical to the success of emotional marketing.
Copywriters carefully select words that have the best ability to provoke the desired
thoughts, images, senses, feelings of comfort or urgency – whatever the call to action
calls for. According to research reported by Sanders Consultation Group Plus, words
that are highly effective in generating emotional responses include:

Absolutely                Fantastic             Pioneer               Turbocharged
Accurate                  Fascinating           Popular               Ultimate
Amazing                   Foolproof             Powerful              Unconditional
Approved                  Force                 Practical             Unique
Authentic                 Foremost              Preferred             Unlimited
Bargain                   Fortune               Private               Unparalleled
Better                    Genuine               Professional          Unprecedented
Big                       Greatest              Profitable            Unsurpassed
Bonus                     Guaranteed            Proven                Unusual
Celebrate                 Honor                 Quality               Urgent
Challenge                 Immediately           Quickly               Useful
Colorful                  Improved              Rare                  Valuable
Commanding                Incredible            Recommended           Wealth
Complete                  Informative           Reduce                Wonderful
Convenient                Inspect               Refundable
Delivered                 Invincible            Reliable
Dependable                Largest               Sensational
Direct                    Limited               Simplified
Discount                  Lifetime              Skilled
Easily                    Magnificent           Strong
Effective                 Matchless             Sturdy
Enchanting                Maximum               Substantial
Endorsed                  Miracle               Successful
Exquisite                 Outperforms           Superior
Extraordinary             Outstanding           Tested
Extravagant               Overpower             Timeless
Famous                    Personalized          Tremendous


©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.                                             7
Creating Emotionally Powerful Brand Experiences

Emotional marketing is not limited to messaging strategies. It must encompass all
interactions a customer has with your brand. One of my favorite examples is Armani
Exchange. They create a highly emotional experience in their retail locations though
the power of music. Armani Exchange researched the type of music that evokes
positive emotions and images of self among its customers and plays carefully selected
songs loudly to create a high energy, fun atmosphere. While shopping, customers get
in sync with the music, feel excited, energized, enthused, and as a result, spend more.
After one test pilot of this concept, their revenue per retail foot went from several
hundreds to several thousands within days.
         One of the greatest challenges associated with emotional marketing is scientific
evidence that it is working. Again according to neuromarketing pioneer Zaltzman, “95%
of all thought occurs in the subconscious.” This implies that as consumers we often
don’t even know why we make the purchasing decisions we do. From studying body
gestures and facial gestures to determine what types of package designs, graphic
images, colors, and design elements trigger the emotions that influence shopping
behavior, product manufacturers are making big changes to their packaging and
product presentations. For one, the Clairol Herbal Essence package is now brighter,
slightly curved, has a fun, happy smiley icons, and reads like the product inside is
talking directly to the consumer – a much more emotionally charged approach than the
old pale pink rectangle package.
         Even when consumers are aware that their decisions were influenced by
emotions, or desires to enhance their self-image and status projection, they are often
hesitant to admit this to themselves and even more so to others. Few of us admit that
advertising influenced us to purchase specific one brand over another. This attitude
coupled with the fact that our subconscious drives much of our behavior makes it very
difficult to substantiate the impact emotional marketing has on sales in a qualitative
manner.

Sensational Brand Experiences

Research has long shown that the senses have a significant impact on human behavior.
It’s no news that when you walk past the cookie counter in a shopping mall or
restaurant, you start feeling hungry and crave a hot, gooey chocolate chip cookie. It
may be less obvious that when you smell strong scents of lavender or vanilla, you likely
relax a little and release some of the tension from a hard, long day. Scents, textures,
sounds, tastes and graphics all have a strong impact on our behavior – some of which
we are aware and many of which we are not.
        According to an article by Michael Lindstrom, many supermarkets in Northern
Europe actually have pipelines connecting them to distant bakeries so that the scent of
fresh bread permeates the stores’ entry, enticing passersby to come in and buy hot,
fresh bread. Singapore Airlines which continues to post high profits in a time when
most others in the industry are fighting bankruptcy creates a sensual experience with
music, fragrance, and a high standard of customer service to create a pleasant, relaxing
flight.




©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.                                          8
Neuroscientists have long studied the effects of scents on human behavior and many of
their theories have been integrated in to the work place. For example, factories in Asia
have been known to mist lemon scent in the assembly areas this aroma appears to
have a positive impact on productivity. Aromatherapy has significant implications in
business settings as well. Factories have misted scents of citrus and other invigorating
smells throughout the assembly areas to create an energizing and pleasant
atmosphere, and thus increase productivity. Aroma therapists utilize scents for healing
many mind and body ailments. For example, scents of cedarwood and lavender are
known to help reduce feelings of anxiety. Other aromas are linked to positive effects on
many aspects of our moods and mental health.
        Savvy marketers have learned how to capitalize on the work of aroma therapists
who have long studied the effect that scent has on human behavior. Aromatherapy has
a powerful effect for retailers. When shopping in a store that a calming smell, such as
vanilla which has been proven to calm, we tend to relax, enjoy the experience and
ultimately shop more. When holding open houses, real estates agents often will make
sure the home is full of warm, welcoming scents that make people feel calm,
comfortable, cozy, and at peace.

The list of mind ailments and healing aromas includes:
 Anxiety – Bergamot, cedarwood, lavender
 Apathy – Basil, grapefruit, peppermint
 Depression – Basil, jasmine, lavender, neroli
 Grief – Frankincense, rose
 Insecurity – Frankincense, sandalwood
 Irritability – Chamomile, lavender, neroli
 Loneliness – Marjoram
 Low Self Esteem – Sandalwood, Ylang Ylang
 Mental Fatigue – Lavender, peppermint, rosemary
 Panic Attacks – Frankincense, lavender, neroli, Ylang Ylang
 Poor Memory – Rosemary
 Postnatal Depression – Bergamot, chamomile, neroli
 Sadness – Bergamot, neroli
 Stress – Chamomile, lavender, sandalwood


Marketing that appeals to the senses is essentially “sensory marketing” and takes place
anytime consumers engage sensually with a brand or product. This can be as simple
as sitting in a massage chair at a Brookstone; tasting samples of the new Frappucino
flavor at Starbucks; or running your hands over the leather steering wheel of a new
BMW. Sensory engagement, whether subtle or obvious, can create an experience that
is memorable long afterwards. Activities that engage the senses are often a key
ingredient in Experiential Marketing, or marketing that is experience based vs. just
communications based. Businesses need to engage in the new marketing genre of



©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.                                         9
CEM, Customer Experience Management which is the art and science of creating
experiences vs. just communications for customers and prospect.

In his book, “Experience the Message – How Experiential Marketing is Changing the
Brand World,” Max Lenderman describes experiential marketing as:

       “Experiential marketing tries to create a bit of magic for the consumer.
       The magic is the experience itself. Much like groundbreaking advertising
       creative, experiential marketing strives to hit an emotional and /or
       intellectual connection between the consumer and the brand or product
       being marketed through marketing experiences that go deeper than any
       form of marketing deployed today.”

Lenderman cites a successful experiential marketing campaign that increased sales of
Charmin brand toilet paper by 14 percent among consumers participating in a unique
experience. Under the direction of Gigunda Group, a marketing firm, Procter and
Gamble created the Potty Palooza, a beautiful trailer pulled by an 18-wheeler full of
bathrooms. Each bathroom had air conditioning, hardwood floors, aromatherapy,
skylights, and flushing toilets, and of course, plenty of Charmin toilet paper. Brand
ambassadors stood outside each door to make sure the bathrooms are clean in
between guests, thus assuring a positive experience. P&G took their Potty Palooza to
concerts and even the Super Bowl in San Diego and got an enormous response. The
portable non-flushing toilets sat empty while the Potty Palooza had long lines, serving
over 2 million people in more than 20 events in one year. And again, sales went up.
        Creating an “experience” for customers is critical to the success of any brand in
any business category. According to studies conducted by Forrester Research 60
percent of organizations surveyed believe it is critical that they improve the experience
their customers have with their brand, but only 24 percent of these organizations have
someone appointed to lead this effort. As a result, many companies feel they have
“internal inefficiencies and customer dissatisfaction.”
        A brand experience needs to be much more encompassing than the actual sales
experience. It needs to address every aspect of the consumer decision process as
defined earlier. An ideal total brand experience is one that provides assistance with
information gathering so consumers feel informed and involved; easy access to
objective information to support their search for options, alternatives, product and brand
comparisons, warranty information, and so on. And finally, total brand experiences
include added values like free support services, loyalty programs and frequent purchase
rewards, free gifts with purchase, and so on that motivate trial and keep customers
loyal. The post-purchase support is arguably the most critical stage of the total brand
experience. If customers don’t hear from you after the fact, they can easily forget you
when ready for ancillary products or services. Simple things like calls to assess
satisfaction, thank you notes, coupons for complementary products, go a long way in
creating the kind of total brand experience that results in loyalty and referrals.
        A survey conducted by CRMGuru showed that only 22 percent of respondents
agreed that major brands in banking, air travel and electronics, and so on with which
they do business provide an excellent customer service. When companies do provide
memorable experiences, according to this survey, they build loyalty and referrals – 19
percent of customers increased their purchases, and 31 percent referred a “good
experience” company to a friend.

©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.                                          10
This whole new movement towards creating customer experiences has led to yet
another acronym for marketers to embrace: CEM for Customer Experience
Management.

HOW DO CUSTOMERS DEFINE EXPERIENCE VS. SERVICE?
Again, the customer experience needs to be an integration of all touch points during a
transaction and the life of the brand relationship, including all interactions with your
product, employees, your customer support staff, and the product itself.
        When creating a marketing plan, you need to thoughtfully analyze how each
component of a marketing program affects the total brand experience. Does the
product quality or selection translate into a positive experience: Does the process of
purchasing the product or service create a perception that your business’ profits
override customer rights and service, or is the experience one that creates perception
that customer advocacy overrides all internal business agendas?
        Customer advocacy is key to any brand. When customers perceive that a
company is truly their advocate, they rate the experience as a positive one, according to
the most recent research conducted by Forrester Research. A huge 99 percent of
customers who have a positive experience with a brand are likely to recommend that
brand to a friend. On the other hand, a huge 80 percent are likely to quit doing business
with the given organization if they have a negative experience; and 20 percent never
return.
    Customers that believe a brand is truly their advocate tend to be repeat customers
and quite often, profitable ones. There are Four Brand Traits of Customer Advocacy
that meet the expectations defined by the Forrester research completed at the end of
2005:

   1. Simplicity: Does the brand’s products and associated service simplify their lives?
   2. Benevolence: Are the customers’ best interests at heart of the interaction?
   3. Transparency: Does the brand disclose all fees, agendas, and competitive
      issues freely vs. maintain hidden agendas and charges?
   4. Trustworthiness: Does the brand honor its promises and do the right thing for
      customers?

Exceeding customers’ expectations consistently is key to assuring a positive experience
and gaining their loyalty and word of mouth referrals. For most of us, shopping for a car
is not something we cherish as it can be intimidating and stressful, and too often, a
negative experience void of trust and respect. I have learned to arm myself before
stepping into a dealership. In fact, I once took my 120-pound Doberman car shopping
with me. (Yes, I immediately got noticed and experienced a different kind of respect
than in the past). However, the last time I went shopping I surprisingly encountered a
very different experience. I found the car I wanted online and called the dealer. Before
I went to see the car, the dealer faxed me a third-party report on the car’s maintenance,
blue book value, accident status and other important information. When I drove the car,
there was no pressure to “buy the car now as I have 10 others looking at it,” or “buy it
now and I’ll reduce the price” or my favorite pressure line, “what do I have to do to get
you to buy this right now.?” I asked for access to the original buyer so I could find out
exactly why the car was traded in after just one year, and was pleasantly surprised
when that owner called me just minutes later.

©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.                                         11
As you might guess, I bought the car due to this being a positive experience from
start to finish as I was being “served” vs. “sold.” In fact, when I found this car, I was in
the process of purchasing a totally different brand from a different dealer. It wasn’t the
product that influenced me as much as the experience that resulted from their level of
service. Other dealerships didn’t come close to making me feel like I could trust them,
and that they had my best interest in mind. The story continues as the service didn’t
stop with the sale. I needed some maintenance work done on my car shortly after
purchase. To accommodate me, the dealer gave me a loaner car for an entire week,
knowing full well that I lived 180 miles away and would likely put 500 or more miles on
the loaner. This type of service offered by Shortline Subaru in Denver, Colorado again
exceeded my expectations and just like the research above indicates and cost them
virtually nothing. I referred numerous friends to this dealership and have promoted their
“positive experience” service time and time again.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES
Customers experience your brand in numerous ways including:
  • Phone conversations or call center support
  • Retail or service locations
  • Website interaction and information browsed
  • Email exchanges
  • Mail
  • Kiosks
  • Chat rooms and Support IMs

Each of these experiences and others are continuously judged by consumers as they
determine with which brands they want to do business. They evaluate a wide range of
issues such as:
    • Friendliness of sales reps
    • Value and depth of information provided to help them make informed decisions
    • Selection of products available
    • Perceived quality of products available
    • Level of service provided – assistance, waiting time, ability to fulfill needs
    • Added-values – warranties, service, premiums with purchase, that created more
       value for money spent

DO EXPERIENCES REALLY MATTER TO CUSTOMERS?

In April 2006, CRMGuru conducted an online survey asking respondents to rate the
importance of three key factors in earning their loyalty. Survey participants were asked
to rate the three factors overall and for specific industries. The findings include:

                              All Industries   Banking   Wireless      Autos
Superior product or service   77%              76%       81%           83%
High quality interactions     78%              81%       78%           82%
Lowest price or cost          31%              31%       42%           24%




©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.                                             12
According to CRMGuru surveys, relevant customer experiences can boost business
performance, and customers value the quality of the business experience as much as
they do the quality of the goods or services purchased.

Here’s some of the major findings of the CRMGuru research:
   1. Many enterprise managers understand the importance of experiences, yet they
      probably overestimate the quality of the experiences they are currently providing.
   2. Marketers tend to overestimate the value of marketing communications
      programs, and need to be careful not to take basic issues such as price and
      product quality and selection for granted as they work to improve experiences.
   3. Companies identified as leaders in CEM per CRMGuru’s assessment survey,
      generally also achieve double-digit growth in revenue and profitability.

CREATING MEMORABLE EXPERIENCES

As you might imagine, the most memorable experiences are those that engage our
senses. We remember the smell of Grandma’s hot cinnamon rolls, the smell of a walk
in the rain with someone special, the slippery touch of satin sheets, the sound of a
child’s laughter, the sight of fireworks on the Fourth of July. When our senses are
engaged, we are engaged and focused and as a result we process the experience more
in-depth and remember it better.
        Nordstrom’s is a good example of an integrated sensory experience. When you
walk in, there is a sense of calm that is created by carefully planned lighting, inviting
merchandise displays, subtle scents throughout the entire store, and quite often, you
hear live classical piano. These sensory activities combine to create a sense of
comfort, status, prestige, calm…all of which translate into a greater likelihood to spend.
In addition to the ambiance created at the store level, Nordstrom’s has a return policy
that to me creates a great emotional response. No matter when you bought it, whether
it is used or not, Nordstrom’s will take merchandise back. This gives shoppers a sense
of confidence and security that triggers impulse or extravagant purchases, enhances
the overall emotional experience, and ultimately results in more sales
        One of my favorite sensory shopping experiences is at REI. Upon entering many
of their stores, you are greeted by a large climbing wall. Shoppers are invited to
try this under the guidance of a professional, trying out REI’s newest climbing
equipment. As they climb the wall, they experience the thrill of achieving something
new, the rush of climbing for the first time, the excitement of a new personal challenge.
They become emotionally “high” as they feel their muscles work to climb higher, their
adrenaline increase as they get higher from the ground, the feel of the grips in their
hands, and so on. As a result they to become more inclined to stay in the store longer,
shop longer, and potentially spend more.
        Casinos, just their very essence, create a strong sensory experience. Yet
marketers continuously strive to increase the value and relevancy of the experiences
offered. Like Armani, many casinos use age appropriate and mood relevant music to
create the right frame of mind for players. You might hear different music during the
week than you do on weekends as the sound tracks are carefully selected to appeal to
the right customer demographics at any given time. Adding to the overall sensory
experience is of course the sound of money dropping against the metal shoot of a slot
machine, the flashing lights that go off each time there is a winner, no matter how large
or small the payout, and the smell of food coming from the nearby buffets. Players’

©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.                                          13
senses are engaged with the sounds of winning, the sounds of uplifting, energetic
music, the smell of hot, delicious food, and the energy of festive, fun colors.
        Hotels and resorts provide exceptional customer experiences when they provide
the extras and unexpected to their frequent guests. For example, frequent hotel
customers often get free meals at the concierge buffets, free dinners in the hotel
restaurants, special items in their rooms per their customer profiles, and of course,
points redeemable for free stays. When walking into your hotel room, and you find your
bed turned down and pillows fluffed up, a chocolate on the pillow, soft music on your
radio, you experienced a memorable sensory event that not only tastes good, sounds
good, but feels good emotionally and physically.
        Real estate agents are wonderful sensory marketers. When showing a house for
sale, they encourage the home owners to have cookies in the oven as the scent creates
a warm, nostalgic mood; to have fresh flowers throughout the house to create a calm,
inspiring effect; to have all clutter removed as a cluttered environment creates tension,
anxiety and confusion and none of these emotions are likely to lead to a positive
customer experience and thus sale.
        Any type of business can create a positive sensory experience for customers.
Recently, I walked into a chiropractor’s office and was greeted by the calming sound of
a small waterfall fountain, the smell of green tea – a scent known for its calming effect,
and found little bowls full of chocolate candy on every table and countertop.
Immediately I was engaged in a sensory experience that made me feel calm, relaxed,
and comfortable with the setting and ultimately the doctor that provided the care.
        Businesses in non-retail settings can also create memorable experiences by
improving routine business interactions. Wells Fargo experienced a double-digit profit
and revenue growth when they invested heavily in improving its customers’ experience
with its call center, and trained its representatives on how to more effectively satisfy and
cross-sell customers.
        Customer interactions that take place via call centers, online or phone ordering,
or business transactions in person or phone don’t directly affect our five senses
however, they do impact how we feel about a brand, and thus trigger emotions. If we
have to wait for a long time period, can’t understand the person on the other end, get
put on hold multiple times, get passed around the phone network a lot, we tend to have
negative feelings and lose our enthusiasm to finish the deal. In fact, Forrester Research
shows that:

   •   90 percent of customers say they get frustrated when they're put on hold

   •   63 percent say they’ve stopped using a product because of long hold times

If our call is answered quickly, we talk to a rep that has the information we want the first
time and can help us immediately, we are treated with patience and respect, then we
are likely to feel good, satisfied and even enthused about our business choice and our
ability to make a good decision.




©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.                                             14
CREATING A TOTAL EXPERIENCE FOR YOUR BRAND

Marketing needs to be a total brand experience, not an interaction or message
here and there. Companies need to practice Total Brand Marketing, not one good
campaign followed by another.

Following are some tips for creating a total brand experience that will connect
emotionally with your customers.

1.     Have a plan: Without a plan or a blue print that outlines goals, metrics, action
items and timelines, your chances of working efficiently and staying on goal will go
down. Engage all managers in your plan to assure commitment and compliance
throughout the organization. Components of successful strategies include:

     •   Communications programs
     •   Loyalty programs
     •   Reward and recognition programs
     •   Special events
     •   Web and online strategies based upon interactions
     •   Training for employees at levels and all customer touch points
     •   Internal communications to gain support of all employees, management to
         support staff
     •   Metrics to determine customers perception of experience quality and value;
         execution of experience,
     •   Surveys to help you discover relevant ideas for new and rewarding brand
         interactions and experiences

2.       Know what you’re doing: Identify the senses that have the strongest influence on
         the decision to purchase your business’ products or services. In retail, music is
         clearly a strong influencer as is smell and touch. In business-to-business
         interactions, engaging experiences that build rapport, trust, and feelings of
         customer advocacy are likely to get you closer to closing a sale and keeping a
         customer. If you offer multiple channel sales, make sure your customer service
         is consistent across the system. Research shows that the responsiveness of an
         email or online request affects their decision to shop at a company’s retail
         outlets. Conduct surveys to help you understand what inspires, motivates,
         compels and commands the attention of your customers. When you do this you
         can create visuals, headlines, promotions, offers and so on that get unparalleled
         attention and results.
                 Savvy designers understand the power of emotionally charged graphics
         and headlines. Magazine covers are great examples. Years ago, National
         Lampoon had a picture of a dog with a gun to its head and the words, “If you
         don’t buy this magazine, we will kill this dog.” It was so emotionally charged and
         compelling that it is 7th on the 40 greatest magazine covers of the last 40 years
         list which was unveiled at the 2005 American Magazine Conference (AMC) by
         Mark Whitaker, Editor of Newsweek and President of American Society of
         Magazine Editors (ASME), and AMC Chairman Evan Smith, Editor of Texas
         Monthly.


©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.                                             15
3.     Manage your data: You also need to invest in a system for recording and
       managing customers’ experiences and transaction history. CRM systems are
       critical here. Track carefully the effect of various experiences you create on
       generating new leads, getting existing customers back in the door, and
       increasing the purchase value of existing customers. Create a system that
       allows you to monitor the value of each customer, the cost per lead of each
       experience you implement, and the overall revenue value to the company.

4.     Get out of denial and into the reality zone. Way too often, brand managers and
       company executive teams believe they provide a great experience, yet when
       customers are surveyed, they all too often discover the opposite. CRMGuru
       research points out that while 42 percent of enterprises interviewed felt that they
       provide an excellent customer service, only 22 percent of customers agreed.
       Across numerous industries, there is a significant gap between what enterprises
       perceive to be a positive customer experience and what customers report to be a
       positive experience. Find out precisely what your customers think of your current
       experience offered, and then go about fixing any problems, internal
       misperceptions, and creating new experiences.

CONCLUSION
Marketing in a complex world requires far more than interesting graphics,
entertaining story lines and copy. It requires a total experience between
customers and brands. Experiences must be memorable and satisfying to the
point that customers get excited about doing business with you, assign their
loyalty to you, and refer qualified leads. It goes without saying that the most
effective marketing is word of mouth. Experiences create word of mouth, not a high
frequency of expensive entertaining advertisements.
        Creating memorable experiences for your brand is affordable and actionable by
any type and size of business. Experiences can be as simple as extraordinary
customer service, free seminars, thank you lunches or even a friendly thank you call.
They can also be as complex as a customer event such as Saturn’s customer rallies
that attract nearly 100,000 people or the Harley Owners Group (HOGS) events that
keep the passion alive for more than 600,000 HOGS nationwide.
        Getting emotional with customers in a way that build results and profitability
depends on creating campaigns that are personalized, relevant, and memorable. To
start, you must have a strong understanding of what emotions drive your customers’
decisions, and what experiences are relevant, actionable, and remarkable to them.

Need some help getting started? Contact Jeanette McMurtry at e4marketing at 970 390
6909 or jeanette@e4marketingco.com.




©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.                                           16
Part 2: Tapping Fundamentals of Human Psychology


PSYCHOLOGY-BASED MARKETING
Appealing to the triggers of the unconscious mind

It used to be that loyalty was a given if you provided a good value, a good product, and
decent customer service. In the past, brands could amass thousands of customers by
adhering to these practices. Today, these same brands are losing thousands of
customers by practicing these same fundamentals. According to reports shared by the
CMO Council, major brands are losing significant business from what they once
deemed to be their highest loyalty consumer. From 2007 to 2008, 52% of customers of
global brands surveyed reduced their loyalty or defected to a new brand. At least one
third of these customers switched brands completely. For example, WISK brand of
laundry detergent loss 25% of its revenue as 38% of their loyal customers reduced or
eliminated their spending patterns. Crest, in one year’s time, lost some or all sales
from 59% of its customers. What is startling here is that these products are commodity
products with very low relative cost, and not much difference in terms of product benefit
and function. In other words, switching brands is not about saving money, or getting a
better product in most cases. So what is behind the loss of loyalty among today’s
consumers?
       One way to answer this question is to look at the rapidly declining levels of trust
consumers put in brands or pretty much any type of organization today. Yankelovich
conducted a consumer trust study a few years ago and determined that broken trust is
the number one reason people switch brands. They also determined that there is no
known method by which brands can regain that trust once it is broken. Various studies
conducted recently on trust show that globally, trust in brands has eroded among 50%
of consumers; and that 52% of U.S. consumers don’t trust businesses. For the
financial industry, the trust level is only at 25%, meaning that 75% of customers don’t
trust banks.
      When it comes to resources we trust to help us make good decisions about
purchases, 90% of consumers polled indicated that they trust friends and people they
know, and 70% mentioned that they trust consumer opinions posted online. Mass
media outlets, such as radio, TV, newspaper, and even SEO results ads, have
significantly lower levels of trust. No surprise then that magazines, radio stations, and
newspapers experienced record revenue losses and closures in just the past two years.
In 2009, more than magazines alone folded.




© Copyright 2011 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.
Building trust does not happen most effectively at the conscious level. In fact, how likely
are you to comply when someone, especially a salesman, says, “trust me.” To me, if
someone tells me to trust them, I automatically sense that I should not as trust is
exemplified from actions not words. In today’s business and economic climate, many
consumers look for reasons not to trust someone or a brand before they look for
reasons why they should as consumers are becomingly more skeptical given the many
breeches of public trust that have occurred in numerous industries in recent years.
Trust is most powerfully secured at the unconscious level, and this is what psychology-
based marketing is all about.

BUILDING TRUST UNCONSCIOUSLY

For the past 100 plus years, psychological theory has held that we humans
unconsciously and consciously behave in order to accomplish two things: avoid pain
and pursue pleasure. All behavior thus can be categorized into these two pursuits. For
example, we seek to avoid the pain of losing a job by working long days, refining our
professional skills, and keeping our resumes up to date. We fulfill this theory in our
daily lives when we make choices regarding food, friends we spend time with,
entertainment options we choose, and so on. We seek both physical and emotional
pleasure in all that we do, all day, whether we are consciously think of the outcome or
not. And our brain releases hormones that create feelings of pain and pleasure without
any help from our conscious minds.




© Copyright 2011 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.
The fascinating field of neuromarketing reveals much about the unconscious emotional
experiences generated by the brain while exposed to various forms of stimuli. While
watching a TV commercial, the emotional regions of our brain may show elevated states
of empathy, sympathy, fear, joy, excitement and so on, while the conscious mind simply
thinks we are being entertained. When these emotional regions are engaged, we are
much more likely to perform the desired behavior set forth in a TV or direct marketing
advertisement than when they are not. Understanding what engages these regions and
motivates conscious behavior is thus critical for marketers in all industries, and all facets
of marketing.
       One of the most effective ads of recent times in terms of evoking emotion was the
Google Parisian ad that debuted on TV during the 2010 Super Bowl game. Simple,
costing almost nothing for their in-house creative team to produce, it topped the charts
as one of the most emotionally engaging ads created during the Super Bowl and
beyond. Innerscope, a research firm in California, studies the physiological reactions of
people watching television ads. They monitor changes in people’s pulse, sweat glands,
and heart beat to see what messages and creative applications evoke the most
emotion. Google’s ad which is really a Google service video about a young male finding
answers and love in Paris via Google’s search engine, not only scored amongst the
highest ads for emotional impact for Super Bowl 2010 ads, but has been the topic of
many editorials on effective ads ever since. While Google’s Parisian ad was taking the
emotional marketing charts by storm, Snickers’ Betty White ad, also debuting in the
Super Bowl 2010 advertisement line up, topped the USA Today Ad Meter chart for the
most liked, entertaining ad. Interestingly, Betty White didn’t make it in the Top 20 for the
most emotionally-powerful ads, and Google’s ad was nowhere to be seen in USA
Today’s Ad meter top 20 either.
      The Snickers vs. Google story here is that our conscious minds and unconscious
minds can be worlds apart in terms of what influences our behavior, and we don’t even
know it. Betty White’s football debut in the Snickers ad gave life to her career in her mid
80’s, but it didn’t do much for Snickers if you take a look at candy sales during the time
period of the Super Bowl 2010 ads. Yet we remember it because it entertained us. Yet
entertainment in this and many other cases doesn’t necessarily spark purchasing
behavior. On the other hand, Google’s ad broke through the clutter because it rekindled
within us the most powerful emotional experience of all: new love. As we watched that
ad, we “felt” the rush that comes from meeting someone you connect romantically with,
the spark that lights up your world, and the warm feelings of love and acceptance. Time
magazine TV critic James Poniewozik summed up it as he gave the ad an A grade and
the top spot on his list by saying, “Did a freaking Google search ad seriously just make
me cry.” Point made.




© Copyright 2011 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.
Why does this really matter to marketers? Because so much of what we do is based
upon irrational thought patterns vs. rational or conscious thought patterns. When you
look at how we make some key decisions in our lives, it is clearly a highly irrational
unconscious that drives us. In Australia and New Zealand, they don’t just post warnings
about smoking on their cigarette cartons; they post graphic, quite repulsive photos of
the damage that smoking can cause to one’s body. At first glance, you are certain that
they have to stop people from buying those dangerous smokes. However, just the
opposite occurred. Smoking in New Zealand and Australia actually went up when these
graphic visual warnings debuted. While there are likely many psychological theories as
to how and why they triggered an increase in smoking and cigarette sales, there are two
key lessons for marketers: 1) we disconnect with messages we don’t want to believe,
and 2) regardless of our age, we really don’t grow out of that teen attitude of defiance
toward authority we feel is pushed on us beyond our control. While I was at American
Express, managing the worldwide travelers cheques advertising, we tested various
emotional appeals in our TV advertising to determine what worked the best for
generating sales. One of our key findings was that there is a threshold for fear over
which marketers must not cross. We don’t just disconnect with the message, but we
tend not to engage in the desired or promoted action, and often will do just the opposite
as indicated by the smoking visuals down under. Take a look below.




(Government mandated warning photos on cigarette packages in Australia and New Zealand.)




© Copyright 2011 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.
Behavioral Economics Sheds Eye Opening Insights

One of the most fascinating studies of irrational behavior takes place in the financial
industry. It is easy to assume that financial and investment decisions are based upon
carefully calculated formulas, trends, and other evidence. But according to the many
research findings presented through behavioral economic studies, we tend to make
highly emotional decisions regarding our money and as a result often make very unwise
decisions. Emotionally, we can’t let go of a stock that once performed well for us. And
most of us have a high degree of risk aversion as our fear of loss overrules our
anticipation for reward. The financial whiz that created the diversified portfolio strategy
for investing actually died a poor man because he couldn’t take his own advice for fear
of losing what he already had.
      Researchers studying behavioral economics categorize investors into four key
personality types: secure, dismissive, preoccupied and fearful. Each of these
personality types has a different set of emotions and levels of self-worth that influence
their decisions and thus various levels of advisability. Savvy investors understand these
personality issues and how they influence decisions re: investments and money, and
use them to guide their marketing and sales efforts. I had a client in real estate
investment when real estate investing wasn’t cool. We studied these emotional triggers,
categorized his clients accordingly, and used new approaches to get dialogue going and
secure appointments to advise. He closed four accounts he had been trying to just
meet with for years.
       Psychologists tell us that the best investors are psychopaths - people with a real
clinical disorder that diminishes emotional responses and enables them to behave in
ways that people with normal levels of emotions consider ruthless, cruel, and
insensitive.

Building Human Happiness through Marketing

As simple as it sounds, knowing what makes our customers happy is critical to our
success as marketers. The tricky part is that much of the happiness we attain in our
lives, we gain through unconscious, instinctive behaviors that are core to being human.
Jonathan Haidt, a professor at the University of Virginia, studied what makes humans
happy across various cultures, and amongst various civilizations from ancient times to
current times. He discovered that human happiness is inherent and has remained
constant. In his book, The Happiness Hypothesis, Haidt identified five key elements
that we need in order to be happy, consciously and unconsciously. These are:

   1. We need to feel like we are connected to others. We are not meant to live in
      isolation which is why we spend so much of our life’s energy finding a
      companion. It drives just about everything we do – how we dress, how we care
      for ourselves, how we choose to project ourselves and how we spend our time.


© Copyright 2011 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.
2. People that feel they make a difference in the lives of others have higher levels of
      reported happiness. In fact, volunteers are counted amongst the happiest people
      on earth regardless of marital or financial status. We need to nurture others; we
      need to be validated by knowing someone listened and benefitted from our
      friendship or advice. We need to know that someone else’s life was better, even
      momentarily, because of our behavior.
   3. Those of us that associate with good causes are happier people than those who
      do not. Consciously and unconsciously we tend to surround ourselves with
      others, events, and activities that make us feel good. As Haidt puts it, we form
      hives with people of like minds, like values and interests.
   4. Whether we want to admit it, we humans need reciprocity in our lives to be
      happy. Although we might say we don’t care if favors are returned, according to
      Haidt, we are much happier when we feel people treat us the way we treat them,
      or that our good deeds come back to us in good ways.
   5. Finally, we are happier when our lives and the experiences we observe around
      us are rooted in and result in fairness and justice. Watching movies like The
      Fugitive with Harrison Ford might keep us on edge and rev up our heart beats as
      we need to know that fairness and justice win in the end. If we didn’t believe this,
      we would have a hard time continuing forward with hope.

When we engage in activities that result in the above five elements, we not only
experience an emotional reaction, we experience a physiological reaction. When we
connect with others and good things, and we feel positive emotions, our bodies create a
chemical called oxytocin which in turn generates feelings of trust and devotion, two of
the most important feelings we must create between consumers and our brands.
Therefore, we as marketers have to know precisely what makes our customers happy in
terms of our product or service category and work to fulfill that happiness with every
transaction. When we secure their trust and devotion, we secure their lifetime value
and thus long-term stability for our companies.
      The lesson here is that our marketing must engage consumers in ways that
support the above happiness factors. Do our messages promote feelings of
connectedness with something or someone good? Are we enabling customers to help
make a difference in others’ lives through cause-related marketing programs, and is our
customer experience founded on being fair and creating a win-win situation for all
involved?

Emotionally-Relevant Graphics

Beyond developing messaging, engagement, and brand attributes that appeal to our
psyche and intrinsic emotional needs, we marketers must pay attention to the
psychological impact of the graphics we use in our materials. Naturally, your choice of
color makes a big impact on the unconscious mind and impacts how the conscious


© Copyright 2011 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.
mind thinks about a specific marketing piece. Research shows us that we make an
unconscious judgment about a marketing piece, product or environment within 90
seconds of exposure and that up to 90% of that judgment is typically based upon color.
And color creates immediate impressions of a product’s, or in the case of marketing
materials, a brand’s attributes as each color creates a distinct feeling or mood whether
we realize it or not. Some examples:




Red and black have very powerful emotional results, and these change for various
cultures. In Christian cultures, red symbolizes sacrifice, love and passion while in China
it is associated with brides, good luck and long life. Black in some cultures represents
bad luck and thus would need to be avoided as a key marketing color.




© Copyright 2011 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.
Colors have distinct connotations independently, yet these can change when combined
with another color. For example, when you combine red and black, the overall effect is
most often a sense of intimidation, hostility and even danger. Yet many marketers
combine these colors with friendly positive messaging and end up creating a
contradiction by what they say to us consciously vs. what they project to our
unconscious minds.
        When you put it all together, amazing results follow. A home improvement
company hired me to prove that my psychology-based approach could beat the direct
marketing piece they had been using for nearly three years. I eagerly accepted the
challenge. Together we set up a test process, utilizing test cells in different markets with
like demographics. Our households included those in their internal database who had
some type of past contact with the brand, and purchased lists. We tested a
psychologically-relevant message in both print and digital formats, and even I was
surprised by the results. Our test piece which was written to build on the emotional
fulfillment homeowners seek, and to nurture a friendship vs. push a quick sale beat their
control by 640% and achieved an ROI of 31 times. These results held up well beyond
the testing period, further validating that this approach works.

Go Do It!

The best part of psychology-based marketing is that it can be and has been affordably
executed. There are many resources available in print and online on current
psychology studies, neuromarketing experiments and results, and consumer behavior.
Develop customer profiles that include the emotions that drive choice, advisability or
likelihood to respond, like the ones set forth in Behavioral Economics theories. Survey
your current customers to find out why they choose to work with you or purchase from
you, and what brand characteristics are important to them when choosing products or
services within your business category.
       Once you gain an understanding of the emotional issues, references, and needs
facing your core customers, create corresponding messaging and test, test and test
some more. With email, testing messages, graphic presentations, personalized
promotions, and offers has never been easier or more affordable.

Join the dialogue on Psychology-Based Marketing by joining my group on LinkedIn at
www.linked.com, group name, “psychology based marketing.” When you join this
group, you will have access to psychological thought, ideas, trends and resources
posted by marketers and psychologists around the world. Follow the blog at
http://e4marketingco.blogspot.com/. Contact me at Jeanette@e4marketingco.com for
more information or to exchange ideas, questions, and successes.

Enjoy!



© Copyright 2011 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.
RESOURCES

William Band, Forrester Research Webinar on September 19, 2006, RightNow
Technologies

Bob Thompson, CRMGuru.com, “Customer Experience Management:

“Accelerating Business Performance”, June 2006 white paper.

Notes from Forrester Research Webinar 9/19/06

Cap, Gemini, Ernst and Young, Consumer Research 2004 – 2005

2005 American Magazine Conference (AMC) in Puerto Rico, by Mark Whitaker, Editor
of Newsweek and President of American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME), and
AMC Chairman Evan Smith, Editor of Texas Monthly.




©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.                                  17
The Power of Emotional Marketing by Jeanette McMurtry

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The Power of Emotional Marketing by Jeanette McMurtry

  • 1.
  • 2. The Power of Emotional Marketing A Special Report by the Author of “Big Business Marketing for Small Business Budgets” (McGraw-Hill) Jeanette McMurtry Principal/Chief Strategy Officer e4marketing Company PO Box 370 , Eagle, CO 81631 970-390-6909 | jeanette@e4marketingco.com All rights reserved. Except for use in review, the reproduction or use of this work in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means not known of hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying, recording, and any information storage and retrieval systems is forbidden without the written permission of the author. ©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved. 1
  • 3. Getting Emotional With Customers Through Experiential Marketing Strategies Understanding the emotions behind purchasing behavior is critical to any business, whether in the business-to-business or business to consumer space. Once you understand emotional influences, you can then create highly relevant, meaningful messages, graphic presentations, promotions and offers that will help you draw customers to your brand, connect with them, and capture their lifetime value. Capture lifetime value is one of the most important goals of any marketing program. Research shows that it costs typically $20 on average to gain a new customers, and only $4 to retain a customer. Regardless of whether you work in the business to consumer space, or the business to business space, you must understand the emotions associated with purchasing decisions for your products or services in order to connect with customers, draw them to your brand, and build personal value and equity that lasts a lifetime. Capturing customers’ lifetime value is essential to staying competitive and profitable in today’s highly competitive and cluttered markets. Moving from Unique Selling Propositions to Emotional Selling Propositions Building brands in a market where consumers have more choices and are more demanding than ever before, businesses must have more than a unique selling proposition. They must have an emotional selling proposition or ESP. USPs really are an oxymoron. When is the last time you came across a truly unique USP? Think about it. They are almost always founded on best price, best service, best quality. None of these are unique. For products, price is often set by manufacturers; and everyone thinks their quality and service is far better than competitors. The consumer is the only one that can make this determination. Recent research by various groups including Meridian and Cap Gemini Ernst and Young show that consumers prefer selection and customization over price; and that they don’t differentiate retailers by their value propositions. Rather, they want to do business with brands that treat them with honesty and respect. Brands must know what emotions consumers seek to fulfill when purchasing products and services in their categories. They must create marketing messages, offers, promotions, benefits and experiences that fulfill the desired emotions or “enduring concept of self” of their customers. For years, psychologists have maintained that nearly all human behavior is emotionally driven, and most often unconsciously. Today, marketing experts are jumping on this bandwagon and cashing in big. Big brands such as Proctor and Gamble, Coke, Pepsi, and more are turning to neuromarketers to give them in-depth insight as to how their customers really think and what emotions really drive their purchasing behavior. According to neuromarketing pioneer, Gerald Zaltman, “95% of all thought occurs in the unconscious.” And because of this theory, marketers worldwide and putting a great deal of time, money and energy into discovering exactly what goes on in the unconscious mind of their consumers when shopping, and how they can tap that powerful activity, thus spawning the rapid growth of neuromarketing. ©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved. 2
  • 4. What actually is neuromarketing? According to the definition on Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia: Neuromarketing is a new field of marketing which uses medical technologies such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to study the brain's responses to marketing stimuli. Researchers use the fMRI to measure changes in activity in parts of the brain and to learn why consumers make the decisions they do, and what part of the brain is telling them to do it. Marketing analysts will use neuromarketing to better measure a consumer's preference, as the verbal response given to the question "Do you like this product?" may not always be the true answer. This knowledge will help marketers create products and services designed more effectively and marketing campaigns focused more on the brain's response. The power of neuromarketing is that it tells marketers what they can likely expect in terms of consumer behavior, and how “little” things such as the color or shape of a product’s packaging; the sound it makes when shaken, graphic designs, and so on impact consumers choices at the point of sale. Following is an excerpt from Wikipedia on neuromarketing and its effect on results on the infamous Pepsi Challenge: In a study by Read Montague, the director of the Human Neuroimaging Lab and the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at Baylor University, published in the October 14, 2004 issue of Neuron, 67 people had their brains scanned while being given the "Pepsi Challenge", a blind taste test of Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Half the subjects choose Pepsi, and Pepsi tended to produce a stronger response than Coke in the brain's ventral putamen, a region thought to process feelings of reward. But when the subjects were told they were drinking Coke three-fourths said that Coke tasted better. Their brain activity had also changed. The medial prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain that scientists say governs high-level cognitive powers was now being used, indicating that the consumers were thinking about Coke and relating it to memories and other impressions. The results demonstrated that Pepsi should have half the market share, but in reality consumers are buying Coke for reasons related less to their taste preferences and more to their experience with the Coke brand. However, it should be noted that Pepsi is sweeter than coke, and thus may do better in taste tests where only a small sample is given. Many people who prefer small amounts of Pepsi would probably rather consume an entire can of Coke to a can of Pepsi because people often grow tired of very sweet flavors According to a column published by iMedia Connection, an online publication, written by Jim Meskauskas, “Neuroscience is learning that there is more than one part of the brain that influences feelings, while another influences thought. Both parts of the brain can work at cross purposes during the process of making a decision. Neuromarketing holds out the promise of decoding these processes and converting marketing messages into a language that appeals to the different parts of the brain and motivates a decision in your favor.” ©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved. 3
  • 5. Psychologists categorize human behavior in two ways: • The pursuit of pleasure • The avoidance of pain Essentially, all that we humans do in our personal lives and professional lives fit into these categories. Personally, we pursue joy, happiness, security, status, prestige, excitement and thrills. – all of which we believe will lead to pleasure. Professionally, we seek to avoid the pain of making decisions that hurt our careers, jeopardize our jobs and our ability to provide for our basic needs and those of our families. We also seek to find pleasure in the work we do, and make choices that lead to praise, recognition, promotion, and wealth. As marketers, we need to understand how our products and/or services fit those two basic human pursuits, and the emotions that influence decisions along the path to achieving either. To do this, we must understand how decisions are made. Consumers typically go through a five step decision process, all of which are heavily influenced by our emotional experiences while shopping for a good or service, and the emotions we are seeking to achieve through the purchase at hand. Following is a brief description of how this decision process works. Understanding the Consumer Decision Process Problem recognition: Our problems typically fall into two categories: Physical – which covers tangible needs such as financial, nutritional, comfort, safety, health, and so on. Emotional – which covers inner peace, joy, comfort, security, belonging, love, and self-esteem. We continuously face real and perceived problems in these categories and seek the best possible solutions with the least risk, physical and opportunity costs, and obstacles. Personal problems might be as simple as needing to buy a tube of toothpaste, as complex as buying a car or computer; purchasing clothes for a job interview, finding nursing care for ailing parents. Business problems might include hiring the right support staff; purchasing IT systems, making media purchases for advertising campaigns. All of these decisions, personal and business related have a strong emotional component. Consider the emotions behind the above referenced purchases: • Toothpaste: Wanting to feel beautiful and youthful influences you to buy a tooth whitening product vs. a cavity protection product. • Car: Beyond function and reliability, we want a car that helps us and others around us feel we’ve achieved a certain status in life; we want a car that supports our concept of self in terms of appearance, power, and performance. • Computer: Our purchases often center around feeling smart, and that we are informed enough to make wise decisions. • Clothing for job interview: We seek apparel that makes us feel and look like the person we want to be – confident, bold, successful, charismatic, accomplished, innovative. • Support staff: We tend to hire people that will make us look good ourselves rather than just one that can fill the job. Supervisors often don’t hire someone that has more accomplishments than they do; more charisma than they do as ©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved. 4
  • 6. they don’t want to be overshadowed and feel insecure in their own jobs. Job skills often rank below these emotional influences. • IT systems: We want to purchase products that make us feel smart and look good to our bosses as they perform, meet expectations and are within budget, all of which counts for a positive job review down the road. • Media purchases: Brands often purchase space in media outlets that support the emotional image they want to project – excitement, innovation, individuality, self- esteem, confidence, and so on. Image and Fact Matching: Before making complex purchases, we spend time researching various purchase and vendor options. We look for facts that make us feel secure, and seek for reassurance that products match our image of our self, and the image we want to project to others. Both of these processes are emotionally driven. Marketers need to understand what emotions consumers are trying to achieve or fulfill when making product selections. Understanding this process in a consumers’ decision process is among the most critical for marketers in all industries. Emotions clearly influence our decisions regarding our personal, social and family lives; yet they are also behind many of our business choices. Trial Purchase, Post-Purchase Evaluation and Loyalty Assignment: Essentially all purchases are trial purchases as we are putting the products and vendors we purchase on trial. When evaluating our purchases, we assess how they made us feel: comfortable, confident, secure, happy, successful, excited, intelligent, smart? If the process of shopping for a product, using or experiencing a product, and the post- purchase service fulfilled the emotions we seek, consciously and unconsciously, then we tend to assign our loyalty. If our emotional goals were not achieved, we tend to assign our loyalty elsewhere. As consumers, we often buy on emotion and then justify their decision with facts. According to an article by Ken Orwig, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas was quoted as saying, “At the constitutional level where we work, 90% of any decision is emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons for supporting our predilections.” Building an Emotional Marketing Connection Dr. Glenn Livingston, a well-known clinical psychologist, describes emotion as a state of psychological arousal and lists four core emotions that most advertising is designed to evoke: Mad, Glad, Scared and Sad. Livingston points out that advertising should be designed to portray an emotional benefit vs. emotions. He claims that knowing how our messages or brand activity makes someone feel is minimally useful, and that the real metric is in the emotional benefit perceived by the consumer, or rather, how they feel about themselves when they use or product of service. Understanding how to create the proper emotional benefit is essential to marketing success because as Livingston states, “emotional benefits relate directly and powerfully to enduring self concept.” As controversial as they might be, sexually ©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved. 5
  • 7. provocative advertisements such as those for Calvin Klein and Abercrombie and Fitch produce results because of the enduring self concept they create among “wanna be” consumers, or those that want to emulate and experience the images created in the advertisements. As long as a brand contributes positively to a person’s sense of self, they are in a strong position to develop a lifetime relationship with that customer, and this is the key to success. Lifetime values translate into long-term profitability and overall returns on advertising investments. Consider the lifetime value of upscale car customers: * Lifetime is 20 years ~ ages 40 to 60 * Purchase frequency is every three years * Lifetime purchases are around 6 * One car = $45,000 x 6 $270,000 * Services = $1000/yr x 20 $20,000 * Customer Worth $290,000 * Referral Worth (3) $870,000 * Potential LTV: $1,160,000 Capturing lifetime value is critical to any business, and research indicates that when people feel positive about themselves or experience joy in some form, and associate those positive feelings with a brand, they are more likely to assign their loyalty and become lifetime customers. Emotional Marketing Appeals: Emotional marketing appeals are designed to address a consumers’ frame of mind, emotional needs more than physical needs, and often involve sensory experiences. On the other hand, rational marketing appeals are most often based upon promises of best price, best value, best quality, or the practical side of purchasing decisions. While rational advertisements focus often “chest beat” about competitive price differences and overall monetary value, emotional advertising’s promises are more subtle. Print advertisements designed to tap a buyer’s emotional triggers will use the appropriate colors, designs, fonts for the target audience and include promises based upon emotional needs such as relief from stress vs. the best price; or confidence in service, satisfaction promises, and other elements that take the fear of the purchase process. In a broadcast advertisements, the music and voice tones, and moving visuals can work together for a warm, emotional effect, and to portray a specific situation, state- of-being, persona, image and the like. Emotional marketing is manifest through various mediums – print, broadcast and internet. It also takes place through sensory experiences. Successful marketing programs today blend both emotional messaging strategies with experiential strategies to create a total experience for the customer, one that is remarkable and memorable. To this end, Livingston suggests that emotional marketing works best when done in a subtle manner, one that does not “force the emotional benefit by telling the consumer directly” how they should feel as this takes away their personal power. Indirectly communicating the emotional benefit has much stronger implications and ©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved. 6
  • 8. results as it preserves consumers’ sense of self, personal power, and feelings of control over their insecurities. Following is a list of emotional benefits that consumers consciously and unconsciously seek from the products and services they purchase: • Achievement • Style • Pride of ownership • Conformity • Security • Ambition • Self-improvement • Power • Status • Love Audit your brand’s emotional appeal. Dig deeper into the psyche of your customers to learn how your products or services fulfill these benefits, and what emotional benefits are of the greatest importance to them. EVOKING EMOTIONS Knowing which words trigger desired is critical to the success of emotional marketing. Copywriters carefully select words that have the best ability to provoke the desired thoughts, images, senses, feelings of comfort or urgency – whatever the call to action calls for. According to research reported by Sanders Consultation Group Plus, words that are highly effective in generating emotional responses include: Absolutely Fantastic Pioneer Turbocharged Accurate Fascinating Popular Ultimate Amazing Foolproof Powerful Unconditional Approved Force Practical Unique Authentic Foremost Preferred Unlimited Bargain Fortune Private Unparalleled Better Genuine Professional Unprecedented Big Greatest Profitable Unsurpassed Bonus Guaranteed Proven Unusual Celebrate Honor Quality Urgent Challenge Immediately Quickly Useful Colorful Improved Rare Valuable Commanding Incredible Recommended Wealth Complete Informative Reduce Wonderful Convenient Inspect Refundable Delivered Invincible Reliable Dependable Largest Sensational Direct Limited Simplified Discount Lifetime Skilled Easily Magnificent Strong Effective Matchless Sturdy Enchanting Maximum Substantial Endorsed Miracle Successful Exquisite Outperforms Superior Extraordinary Outstanding Tested Extravagant Overpower Timeless Famous Personalized Tremendous ©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved. 7
  • 9. Creating Emotionally Powerful Brand Experiences Emotional marketing is not limited to messaging strategies. It must encompass all interactions a customer has with your brand. One of my favorite examples is Armani Exchange. They create a highly emotional experience in their retail locations though the power of music. Armani Exchange researched the type of music that evokes positive emotions and images of self among its customers and plays carefully selected songs loudly to create a high energy, fun atmosphere. While shopping, customers get in sync with the music, feel excited, energized, enthused, and as a result, spend more. After one test pilot of this concept, their revenue per retail foot went from several hundreds to several thousands within days. One of the greatest challenges associated with emotional marketing is scientific evidence that it is working. Again according to neuromarketing pioneer Zaltzman, “95% of all thought occurs in the subconscious.” This implies that as consumers we often don’t even know why we make the purchasing decisions we do. From studying body gestures and facial gestures to determine what types of package designs, graphic images, colors, and design elements trigger the emotions that influence shopping behavior, product manufacturers are making big changes to their packaging and product presentations. For one, the Clairol Herbal Essence package is now brighter, slightly curved, has a fun, happy smiley icons, and reads like the product inside is talking directly to the consumer – a much more emotionally charged approach than the old pale pink rectangle package. Even when consumers are aware that their decisions were influenced by emotions, or desires to enhance their self-image and status projection, they are often hesitant to admit this to themselves and even more so to others. Few of us admit that advertising influenced us to purchase specific one brand over another. This attitude coupled with the fact that our subconscious drives much of our behavior makes it very difficult to substantiate the impact emotional marketing has on sales in a qualitative manner. Sensational Brand Experiences Research has long shown that the senses have a significant impact on human behavior. It’s no news that when you walk past the cookie counter in a shopping mall or restaurant, you start feeling hungry and crave a hot, gooey chocolate chip cookie. It may be less obvious that when you smell strong scents of lavender or vanilla, you likely relax a little and release some of the tension from a hard, long day. Scents, textures, sounds, tastes and graphics all have a strong impact on our behavior – some of which we are aware and many of which we are not. According to an article by Michael Lindstrom, many supermarkets in Northern Europe actually have pipelines connecting them to distant bakeries so that the scent of fresh bread permeates the stores’ entry, enticing passersby to come in and buy hot, fresh bread. Singapore Airlines which continues to post high profits in a time when most others in the industry are fighting bankruptcy creates a sensual experience with music, fragrance, and a high standard of customer service to create a pleasant, relaxing flight. ©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved. 8
  • 10. Neuroscientists have long studied the effects of scents on human behavior and many of their theories have been integrated in to the work place. For example, factories in Asia have been known to mist lemon scent in the assembly areas this aroma appears to have a positive impact on productivity. Aromatherapy has significant implications in business settings as well. Factories have misted scents of citrus and other invigorating smells throughout the assembly areas to create an energizing and pleasant atmosphere, and thus increase productivity. Aroma therapists utilize scents for healing many mind and body ailments. For example, scents of cedarwood and lavender are known to help reduce feelings of anxiety. Other aromas are linked to positive effects on many aspects of our moods and mental health. Savvy marketers have learned how to capitalize on the work of aroma therapists who have long studied the effect that scent has on human behavior. Aromatherapy has a powerful effect for retailers. When shopping in a store that a calming smell, such as vanilla which has been proven to calm, we tend to relax, enjoy the experience and ultimately shop more. When holding open houses, real estates agents often will make sure the home is full of warm, welcoming scents that make people feel calm, comfortable, cozy, and at peace. The list of mind ailments and healing aromas includes: Anxiety – Bergamot, cedarwood, lavender Apathy – Basil, grapefruit, peppermint Depression – Basil, jasmine, lavender, neroli Grief – Frankincense, rose Insecurity – Frankincense, sandalwood Irritability – Chamomile, lavender, neroli Loneliness – Marjoram Low Self Esteem – Sandalwood, Ylang Ylang Mental Fatigue – Lavender, peppermint, rosemary Panic Attacks – Frankincense, lavender, neroli, Ylang Ylang Poor Memory – Rosemary Postnatal Depression – Bergamot, chamomile, neroli Sadness – Bergamot, neroli Stress – Chamomile, lavender, sandalwood Marketing that appeals to the senses is essentially “sensory marketing” and takes place anytime consumers engage sensually with a brand or product. This can be as simple as sitting in a massage chair at a Brookstone; tasting samples of the new Frappucino flavor at Starbucks; or running your hands over the leather steering wheel of a new BMW. Sensory engagement, whether subtle or obvious, can create an experience that is memorable long afterwards. Activities that engage the senses are often a key ingredient in Experiential Marketing, or marketing that is experience based vs. just communications based. Businesses need to engage in the new marketing genre of ©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved. 9
  • 11. CEM, Customer Experience Management which is the art and science of creating experiences vs. just communications for customers and prospect. In his book, “Experience the Message – How Experiential Marketing is Changing the Brand World,” Max Lenderman describes experiential marketing as: “Experiential marketing tries to create a bit of magic for the consumer. The magic is the experience itself. Much like groundbreaking advertising creative, experiential marketing strives to hit an emotional and /or intellectual connection between the consumer and the brand or product being marketed through marketing experiences that go deeper than any form of marketing deployed today.” Lenderman cites a successful experiential marketing campaign that increased sales of Charmin brand toilet paper by 14 percent among consumers participating in a unique experience. Under the direction of Gigunda Group, a marketing firm, Procter and Gamble created the Potty Palooza, a beautiful trailer pulled by an 18-wheeler full of bathrooms. Each bathroom had air conditioning, hardwood floors, aromatherapy, skylights, and flushing toilets, and of course, plenty of Charmin toilet paper. Brand ambassadors stood outside each door to make sure the bathrooms are clean in between guests, thus assuring a positive experience. P&G took their Potty Palooza to concerts and even the Super Bowl in San Diego and got an enormous response. The portable non-flushing toilets sat empty while the Potty Palooza had long lines, serving over 2 million people in more than 20 events in one year. And again, sales went up. Creating an “experience” for customers is critical to the success of any brand in any business category. According to studies conducted by Forrester Research 60 percent of organizations surveyed believe it is critical that they improve the experience their customers have with their brand, but only 24 percent of these organizations have someone appointed to lead this effort. As a result, many companies feel they have “internal inefficiencies and customer dissatisfaction.” A brand experience needs to be much more encompassing than the actual sales experience. It needs to address every aspect of the consumer decision process as defined earlier. An ideal total brand experience is one that provides assistance with information gathering so consumers feel informed and involved; easy access to objective information to support their search for options, alternatives, product and brand comparisons, warranty information, and so on. And finally, total brand experiences include added values like free support services, loyalty programs and frequent purchase rewards, free gifts with purchase, and so on that motivate trial and keep customers loyal. The post-purchase support is arguably the most critical stage of the total brand experience. If customers don’t hear from you after the fact, they can easily forget you when ready for ancillary products or services. Simple things like calls to assess satisfaction, thank you notes, coupons for complementary products, go a long way in creating the kind of total brand experience that results in loyalty and referrals. A survey conducted by CRMGuru showed that only 22 percent of respondents agreed that major brands in banking, air travel and electronics, and so on with which they do business provide an excellent customer service. When companies do provide memorable experiences, according to this survey, they build loyalty and referrals – 19 percent of customers increased their purchases, and 31 percent referred a “good experience” company to a friend. ©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved. 10
  • 12. This whole new movement towards creating customer experiences has led to yet another acronym for marketers to embrace: CEM for Customer Experience Management. HOW DO CUSTOMERS DEFINE EXPERIENCE VS. SERVICE? Again, the customer experience needs to be an integration of all touch points during a transaction and the life of the brand relationship, including all interactions with your product, employees, your customer support staff, and the product itself. When creating a marketing plan, you need to thoughtfully analyze how each component of a marketing program affects the total brand experience. Does the product quality or selection translate into a positive experience: Does the process of purchasing the product or service create a perception that your business’ profits override customer rights and service, or is the experience one that creates perception that customer advocacy overrides all internal business agendas? Customer advocacy is key to any brand. When customers perceive that a company is truly their advocate, they rate the experience as a positive one, according to the most recent research conducted by Forrester Research. A huge 99 percent of customers who have a positive experience with a brand are likely to recommend that brand to a friend. On the other hand, a huge 80 percent are likely to quit doing business with the given organization if they have a negative experience; and 20 percent never return. Customers that believe a brand is truly their advocate tend to be repeat customers and quite often, profitable ones. There are Four Brand Traits of Customer Advocacy that meet the expectations defined by the Forrester research completed at the end of 2005: 1. Simplicity: Does the brand’s products and associated service simplify their lives? 2. Benevolence: Are the customers’ best interests at heart of the interaction? 3. Transparency: Does the brand disclose all fees, agendas, and competitive issues freely vs. maintain hidden agendas and charges? 4. Trustworthiness: Does the brand honor its promises and do the right thing for customers? Exceeding customers’ expectations consistently is key to assuring a positive experience and gaining their loyalty and word of mouth referrals. For most of us, shopping for a car is not something we cherish as it can be intimidating and stressful, and too often, a negative experience void of trust and respect. I have learned to arm myself before stepping into a dealership. In fact, I once took my 120-pound Doberman car shopping with me. (Yes, I immediately got noticed and experienced a different kind of respect than in the past). However, the last time I went shopping I surprisingly encountered a very different experience. I found the car I wanted online and called the dealer. Before I went to see the car, the dealer faxed me a third-party report on the car’s maintenance, blue book value, accident status and other important information. When I drove the car, there was no pressure to “buy the car now as I have 10 others looking at it,” or “buy it now and I’ll reduce the price” or my favorite pressure line, “what do I have to do to get you to buy this right now.?” I asked for access to the original buyer so I could find out exactly why the car was traded in after just one year, and was pleasantly surprised when that owner called me just minutes later. ©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved. 11
  • 13. As you might guess, I bought the car due to this being a positive experience from start to finish as I was being “served” vs. “sold.” In fact, when I found this car, I was in the process of purchasing a totally different brand from a different dealer. It wasn’t the product that influenced me as much as the experience that resulted from their level of service. Other dealerships didn’t come close to making me feel like I could trust them, and that they had my best interest in mind. The story continues as the service didn’t stop with the sale. I needed some maintenance work done on my car shortly after purchase. To accommodate me, the dealer gave me a loaner car for an entire week, knowing full well that I lived 180 miles away and would likely put 500 or more miles on the loaner. This type of service offered by Shortline Subaru in Denver, Colorado again exceeded my expectations and just like the research above indicates and cost them virtually nothing. I referred numerous friends to this dealership and have promoted their “positive experience” service time and time again. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES Customers experience your brand in numerous ways including: • Phone conversations or call center support • Retail or service locations • Website interaction and information browsed • Email exchanges • Mail • Kiosks • Chat rooms and Support IMs Each of these experiences and others are continuously judged by consumers as they determine with which brands they want to do business. They evaluate a wide range of issues such as: • Friendliness of sales reps • Value and depth of information provided to help them make informed decisions • Selection of products available • Perceived quality of products available • Level of service provided – assistance, waiting time, ability to fulfill needs • Added-values – warranties, service, premiums with purchase, that created more value for money spent DO EXPERIENCES REALLY MATTER TO CUSTOMERS? In April 2006, CRMGuru conducted an online survey asking respondents to rate the importance of three key factors in earning their loyalty. Survey participants were asked to rate the three factors overall and for specific industries. The findings include: All Industries Banking Wireless Autos Superior product or service 77% 76% 81% 83% High quality interactions 78% 81% 78% 82% Lowest price or cost 31% 31% 42% 24% ©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved. 12
  • 14. According to CRMGuru surveys, relevant customer experiences can boost business performance, and customers value the quality of the business experience as much as they do the quality of the goods or services purchased. Here’s some of the major findings of the CRMGuru research: 1. Many enterprise managers understand the importance of experiences, yet they probably overestimate the quality of the experiences they are currently providing. 2. Marketers tend to overestimate the value of marketing communications programs, and need to be careful not to take basic issues such as price and product quality and selection for granted as they work to improve experiences. 3. Companies identified as leaders in CEM per CRMGuru’s assessment survey, generally also achieve double-digit growth in revenue and profitability. CREATING MEMORABLE EXPERIENCES As you might imagine, the most memorable experiences are those that engage our senses. We remember the smell of Grandma’s hot cinnamon rolls, the smell of a walk in the rain with someone special, the slippery touch of satin sheets, the sound of a child’s laughter, the sight of fireworks on the Fourth of July. When our senses are engaged, we are engaged and focused and as a result we process the experience more in-depth and remember it better. Nordstrom’s is a good example of an integrated sensory experience. When you walk in, there is a sense of calm that is created by carefully planned lighting, inviting merchandise displays, subtle scents throughout the entire store, and quite often, you hear live classical piano. These sensory activities combine to create a sense of comfort, status, prestige, calm…all of which translate into a greater likelihood to spend. In addition to the ambiance created at the store level, Nordstrom’s has a return policy that to me creates a great emotional response. No matter when you bought it, whether it is used or not, Nordstrom’s will take merchandise back. This gives shoppers a sense of confidence and security that triggers impulse or extravagant purchases, enhances the overall emotional experience, and ultimately results in more sales One of my favorite sensory shopping experiences is at REI. Upon entering many of their stores, you are greeted by a large climbing wall. Shoppers are invited to try this under the guidance of a professional, trying out REI’s newest climbing equipment. As they climb the wall, they experience the thrill of achieving something new, the rush of climbing for the first time, the excitement of a new personal challenge. They become emotionally “high” as they feel their muscles work to climb higher, their adrenaline increase as they get higher from the ground, the feel of the grips in their hands, and so on. As a result they to become more inclined to stay in the store longer, shop longer, and potentially spend more. Casinos, just their very essence, create a strong sensory experience. Yet marketers continuously strive to increase the value and relevancy of the experiences offered. Like Armani, many casinos use age appropriate and mood relevant music to create the right frame of mind for players. You might hear different music during the week than you do on weekends as the sound tracks are carefully selected to appeal to the right customer demographics at any given time. Adding to the overall sensory experience is of course the sound of money dropping against the metal shoot of a slot machine, the flashing lights that go off each time there is a winner, no matter how large or small the payout, and the smell of food coming from the nearby buffets. Players’ ©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved. 13
  • 15. senses are engaged with the sounds of winning, the sounds of uplifting, energetic music, the smell of hot, delicious food, and the energy of festive, fun colors. Hotels and resorts provide exceptional customer experiences when they provide the extras and unexpected to their frequent guests. For example, frequent hotel customers often get free meals at the concierge buffets, free dinners in the hotel restaurants, special items in their rooms per their customer profiles, and of course, points redeemable for free stays. When walking into your hotel room, and you find your bed turned down and pillows fluffed up, a chocolate on the pillow, soft music on your radio, you experienced a memorable sensory event that not only tastes good, sounds good, but feels good emotionally and physically. Real estate agents are wonderful sensory marketers. When showing a house for sale, they encourage the home owners to have cookies in the oven as the scent creates a warm, nostalgic mood; to have fresh flowers throughout the house to create a calm, inspiring effect; to have all clutter removed as a cluttered environment creates tension, anxiety and confusion and none of these emotions are likely to lead to a positive customer experience and thus sale. Any type of business can create a positive sensory experience for customers. Recently, I walked into a chiropractor’s office and was greeted by the calming sound of a small waterfall fountain, the smell of green tea – a scent known for its calming effect, and found little bowls full of chocolate candy on every table and countertop. Immediately I was engaged in a sensory experience that made me feel calm, relaxed, and comfortable with the setting and ultimately the doctor that provided the care. Businesses in non-retail settings can also create memorable experiences by improving routine business interactions. Wells Fargo experienced a double-digit profit and revenue growth when they invested heavily in improving its customers’ experience with its call center, and trained its representatives on how to more effectively satisfy and cross-sell customers. Customer interactions that take place via call centers, online or phone ordering, or business transactions in person or phone don’t directly affect our five senses however, they do impact how we feel about a brand, and thus trigger emotions. If we have to wait for a long time period, can’t understand the person on the other end, get put on hold multiple times, get passed around the phone network a lot, we tend to have negative feelings and lose our enthusiasm to finish the deal. In fact, Forrester Research shows that: • 90 percent of customers say they get frustrated when they're put on hold • 63 percent say they’ve stopped using a product because of long hold times If our call is answered quickly, we talk to a rep that has the information we want the first time and can help us immediately, we are treated with patience and respect, then we are likely to feel good, satisfied and even enthused about our business choice and our ability to make a good decision. ©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved. 14
  • 16. CREATING A TOTAL EXPERIENCE FOR YOUR BRAND Marketing needs to be a total brand experience, not an interaction or message here and there. Companies need to practice Total Brand Marketing, not one good campaign followed by another. Following are some tips for creating a total brand experience that will connect emotionally with your customers. 1. Have a plan: Without a plan or a blue print that outlines goals, metrics, action items and timelines, your chances of working efficiently and staying on goal will go down. Engage all managers in your plan to assure commitment and compliance throughout the organization. Components of successful strategies include: • Communications programs • Loyalty programs • Reward and recognition programs • Special events • Web and online strategies based upon interactions • Training for employees at levels and all customer touch points • Internal communications to gain support of all employees, management to support staff • Metrics to determine customers perception of experience quality and value; execution of experience, • Surveys to help you discover relevant ideas for new and rewarding brand interactions and experiences 2. Know what you’re doing: Identify the senses that have the strongest influence on the decision to purchase your business’ products or services. In retail, music is clearly a strong influencer as is smell and touch. In business-to-business interactions, engaging experiences that build rapport, trust, and feelings of customer advocacy are likely to get you closer to closing a sale and keeping a customer. If you offer multiple channel sales, make sure your customer service is consistent across the system. Research shows that the responsiveness of an email or online request affects their decision to shop at a company’s retail outlets. Conduct surveys to help you understand what inspires, motivates, compels and commands the attention of your customers. When you do this you can create visuals, headlines, promotions, offers and so on that get unparalleled attention and results. Savvy designers understand the power of emotionally charged graphics and headlines. Magazine covers are great examples. Years ago, National Lampoon had a picture of a dog with a gun to its head and the words, “If you don’t buy this magazine, we will kill this dog.” It was so emotionally charged and compelling that it is 7th on the 40 greatest magazine covers of the last 40 years list which was unveiled at the 2005 American Magazine Conference (AMC) by Mark Whitaker, Editor of Newsweek and President of American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME), and AMC Chairman Evan Smith, Editor of Texas Monthly. ©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved. 15
  • 17. 3. Manage your data: You also need to invest in a system for recording and managing customers’ experiences and transaction history. CRM systems are critical here. Track carefully the effect of various experiences you create on generating new leads, getting existing customers back in the door, and increasing the purchase value of existing customers. Create a system that allows you to monitor the value of each customer, the cost per lead of each experience you implement, and the overall revenue value to the company. 4. Get out of denial and into the reality zone. Way too often, brand managers and company executive teams believe they provide a great experience, yet when customers are surveyed, they all too often discover the opposite. CRMGuru research points out that while 42 percent of enterprises interviewed felt that they provide an excellent customer service, only 22 percent of customers agreed. Across numerous industries, there is a significant gap between what enterprises perceive to be a positive customer experience and what customers report to be a positive experience. Find out precisely what your customers think of your current experience offered, and then go about fixing any problems, internal misperceptions, and creating new experiences. CONCLUSION Marketing in a complex world requires far more than interesting graphics, entertaining story lines and copy. It requires a total experience between customers and brands. Experiences must be memorable and satisfying to the point that customers get excited about doing business with you, assign their loyalty to you, and refer qualified leads. It goes without saying that the most effective marketing is word of mouth. Experiences create word of mouth, not a high frequency of expensive entertaining advertisements. Creating memorable experiences for your brand is affordable and actionable by any type and size of business. Experiences can be as simple as extraordinary customer service, free seminars, thank you lunches or even a friendly thank you call. They can also be as complex as a customer event such as Saturn’s customer rallies that attract nearly 100,000 people or the Harley Owners Group (HOGS) events that keep the passion alive for more than 600,000 HOGS nationwide. Getting emotional with customers in a way that build results and profitability depends on creating campaigns that are personalized, relevant, and memorable. To start, you must have a strong understanding of what emotions drive your customers’ decisions, and what experiences are relevant, actionable, and remarkable to them. Need some help getting started? Contact Jeanette McMurtry at e4marketing at 970 390 6909 or jeanette@e4marketingco.com. ©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved. 16
  • 18. Part 2: Tapping Fundamentals of Human Psychology PSYCHOLOGY-BASED MARKETING Appealing to the triggers of the unconscious mind It used to be that loyalty was a given if you provided a good value, a good product, and decent customer service. In the past, brands could amass thousands of customers by adhering to these practices. Today, these same brands are losing thousands of customers by practicing these same fundamentals. According to reports shared by the CMO Council, major brands are losing significant business from what they once deemed to be their highest loyalty consumer. From 2007 to 2008, 52% of customers of global brands surveyed reduced their loyalty or defected to a new brand. At least one third of these customers switched brands completely. For example, WISK brand of laundry detergent loss 25% of its revenue as 38% of their loyal customers reduced or eliminated their spending patterns. Crest, in one year’s time, lost some or all sales from 59% of its customers. What is startling here is that these products are commodity products with very low relative cost, and not much difference in terms of product benefit and function. In other words, switching brands is not about saving money, or getting a better product in most cases. So what is behind the loss of loyalty among today’s consumers? One way to answer this question is to look at the rapidly declining levels of trust consumers put in brands or pretty much any type of organization today. Yankelovich conducted a consumer trust study a few years ago and determined that broken trust is the number one reason people switch brands. They also determined that there is no known method by which brands can regain that trust once it is broken. Various studies conducted recently on trust show that globally, trust in brands has eroded among 50% of consumers; and that 52% of U.S. consumers don’t trust businesses. For the financial industry, the trust level is only at 25%, meaning that 75% of customers don’t trust banks. When it comes to resources we trust to help us make good decisions about purchases, 90% of consumers polled indicated that they trust friends and people they know, and 70% mentioned that they trust consumer opinions posted online. Mass media outlets, such as radio, TV, newspaper, and even SEO results ads, have significantly lower levels of trust. No surprise then that magazines, radio stations, and newspapers experienced record revenue losses and closures in just the past two years. In 2009, more than magazines alone folded. © Copyright 2011 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.
  • 19. Building trust does not happen most effectively at the conscious level. In fact, how likely are you to comply when someone, especially a salesman, says, “trust me.” To me, if someone tells me to trust them, I automatically sense that I should not as trust is exemplified from actions not words. In today’s business and economic climate, many consumers look for reasons not to trust someone or a brand before they look for reasons why they should as consumers are becomingly more skeptical given the many breeches of public trust that have occurred in numerous industries in recent years. Trust is most powerfully secured at the unconscious level, and this is what psychology- based marketing is all about. BUILDING TRUST UNCONSCIOUSLY For the past 100 plus years, psychological theory has held that we humans unconsciously and consciously behave in order to accomplish two things: avoid pain and pursue pleasure. All behavior thus can be categorized into these two pursuits. For example, we seek to avoid the pain of losing a job by working long days, refining our professional skills, and keeping our resumes up to date. We fulfill this theory in our daily lives when we make choices regarding food, friends we spend time with, entertainment options we choose, and so on. We seek both physical and emotional pleasure in all that we do, all day, whether we are consciously think of the outcome or not. And our brain releases hormones that create feelings of pain and pleasure without any help from our conscious minds. © Copyright 2011 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.
  • 20. The fascinating field of neuromarketing reveals much about the unconscious emotional experiences generated by the brain while exposed to various forms of stimuli. While watching a TV commercial, the emotional regions of our brain may show elevated states of empathy, sympathy, fear, joy, excitement and so on, while the conscious mind simply thinks we are being entertained. When these emotional regions are engaged, we are much more likely to perform the desired behavior set forth in a TV or direct marketing advertisement than when they are not. Understanding what engages these regions and motivates conscious behavior is thus critical for marketers in all industries, and all facets of marketing. One of the most effective ads of recent times in terms of evoking emotion was the Google Parisian ad that debuted on TV during the 2010 Super Bowl game. Simple, costing almost nothing for their in-house creative team to produce, it topped the charts as one of the most emotionally engaging ads created during the Super Bowl and beyond. Innerscope, a research firm in California, studies the physiological reactions of people watching television ads. They monitor changes in people’s pulse, sweat glands, and heart beat to see what messages and creative applications evoke the most emotion. Google’s ad which is really a Google service video about a young male finding answers and love in Paris via Google’s search engine, not only scored amongst the highest ads for emotional impact for Super Bowl 2010 ads, but has been the topic of many editorials on effective ads ever since. While Google’s Parisian ad was taking the emotional marketing charts by storm, Snickers’ Betty White ad, also debuting in the Super Bowl 2010 advertisement line up, topped the USA Today Ad Meter chart for the most liked, entertaining ad. Interestingly, Betty White didn’t make it in the Top 20 for the most emotionally-powerful ads, and Google’s ad was nowhere to be seen in USA Today’s Ad meter top 20 either. The Snickers vs. Google story here is that our conscious minds and unconscious minds can be worlds apart in terms of what influences our behavior, and we don’t even know it. Betty White’s football debut in the Snickers ad gave life to her career in her mid 80’s, but it didn’t do much for Snickers if you take a look at candy sales during the time period of the Super Bowl 2010 ads. Yet we remember it because it entertained us. Yet entertainment in this and many other cases doesn’t necessarily spark purchasing behavior. On the other hand, Google’s ad broke through the clutter because it rekindled within us the most powerful emotional experience of all: new love. As we watched that ad, we “felt” the rush that comes from meeting someone you connect romantically with, the spark that lights up your world, and the warm feelings of love and acceptance. Time magazine TV critic James Poniewozik summed up it as he gave the ad an A grade and the top spot on his list by saying, “Did a freaking Google search ad seriously just make me cry.” Point made. © Copyright 2011 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.
  • 21. Why does this really matter to marketers? Because so much of what we do is based upon irrational thought patterns vs. rational or conscious thought patterns. When you look at how we make some key decisions in our lives, it is clearly a highly irrational unconscious that drives us. In Australia and New Zealand, they don’t just post warnings about smoking on their cigarette cartons; they post graphic, quite repulsive photos of the damage that smoking can cause to one’s body. At first glance, you are certain that they have to stop people from buying those dangerous smokes. However, just the opposite occurred. Smoking in New Zealand and Australia actually went up when these graphic visual warnings debuted. While there are likely many psychological theories as to how and why they triggered an increase in smoking and cigarette sales, there are two key lessons for marketers: 1) we disconnect with messages we don’t want to believe, and 2) regardless of our age, we really don’t grow out of that teen attitude of defiance toward authority we feel is pushed on us beyond our control. While I was at American Express, managing the worldwide travelers cheques advertising, we tested various emotional appeals in our TV advertising to determine what worked the best for generating sales. One of our key findings was that there is a threshold for fear over which marketers must not cross. We don’t just disconnect with the message, but we tend not to engage in the desired or promoted action, and often will do just the opposite as indicated by the smoking visuals down under. Take a look below. (Government mandated warning photos on cigarette packages in Australia and New Zealand.) © Copyright 2011 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.
  • 22. Behavioral Economics Sheds Eye Opening Insights One of the most fascinating studies of irrational behavior takes place in the financial industry. It is easy to assume that financial and investment decisions are based upon carefully calculated formulas, trends, and other evidence. But according to the many research findings presented through behavioral economic studies, we tend to make highly emotional decisions regarding our money and as a result often make very unwise decisions. Emotionally, we can’t let go of a stock that once performed well for us. And most of us have a high degree of risk aversion as our fear of loss overrules our anticipation for reward. The financial whiz that created the diversified portfolio strategy for investing actually died a poor man because he couldn’t take his own advice for fear of losing what he already had. Researchers studying behavioral economics categorize investors into four key personality types: secure, dismissive, preoccupied and fearful. Each of these personality types has a different set of emotions and levels of self-worth that influence their decisions and thus various levels of advisability. Savvy investors understand these personality issues and how they influence decisions re: investments and money, and use them to guide their marketing and sales efforts. I had a client in real estate investment when real estate investing wasn’t cool. We studied these emotional triggers, categorized his clients accordingly, and used new approaches to get dialogue going and secure appointments to advise. He closed four accounts he had been trying to just meet with for years. Psychologists tell us that the best investors are psychopaths - people with a real clinical disorder that diminishes emotional responses and enables them to behave in ways that people with normal levels of emotions consider ruthless, cruel, and insensitive. Building Human Happiness through Marketing As simple as it sounds, knowing what makes our customers happy is critical to our success as marketers. The tricky part is that much of the happiness we attain in our lives, we gain through unconscious, instinctive behaviors that are core to being human. Jonathan Haidt, a professor at the University of Virginia, studied what makes humans happy across various cultures, and amongst various civilizations from ancient times to current times. He discovered that human happiness is inherent and has remained constant. In his book, The Happiness Hypothesis, Haidt identified five key elements that we need in order to be happy, consciously and unconsciously. These are: 1. We need to feel like we are connected to others. We are not meant to live in isolation which is why we spend so much of our life’s energy finding a companion. It drives just about everything we do – how we dress, how we care for ourselves, how we choose to project ourselves and how we spend our time. © Copyright 2011 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.
  • 23. 2. People that feel they make a difference in the lives of others have higher levels of reported happiness. In fact, volunteers are counted amongst the happiest people on earth regardless of marital or financial status. We need to nurture others; we need to be validated by knowing someone listened and benefitted from our friendship or advice. We need to know that someone else’s life was better, even momentarily, because of our behavior. 3. Those of us that associate with good causes are happier people than those who do not. Consciously and unconsciously we tend to surround ourselves with others, events, and activities that make us feel good. As Haidt puts it, we form hives with people of like minds, like values and interests. 4. Whether we want to admit it, we humans need reciprocity in our lives to be happy. Although we might say we don’t care if favors are returned, according to Haidt, we are much happier when we feel people treat us the way we treat them, or that our good deeds come back to us in good ways. 5. Finally, we are happier when our lives and the experiences we observe around us are rooted in and result in fairness and justice. Watching movies like The Fugitive with Harrison Ford might keep us on edge and rev up our heart beats as we need to know that fairness and justice win in the end. If we didn’t believe this, we would have a hard time continuing forward with hope. When we engage in activities that result in the above five elements, we not only experience an emotional reaction, we experience a physiological reaction. When we connect with others and good things, and we feel positive emotions, our bodies create a chemical called oxytocin which in turn generates feelings of trust and devotion, two of the most important feelings we must create between consumers and our brands. Therefore, we as marketers have to know precisely what makes our customers happy in terms of our product or service category and work to fulfill that happiness with every transaction. When we secure their trust and devotion, we secure their lifetime value and thus long-term stability for our companies. The lesson here is that our marketing must engage consumers in ways that support the above happiness factors. Do our messages promote feelings of connectedness with something or someone good? Are we enabling customers to help make a difference in others’ lives through cause-related marketing programs, and is our customer experience founded on being fair and creating a win-win situation for all involved? Emotionally-Relevant Graphics Beyond developing messaging, engagement, and brand attributes that appeal to our psyche and intrinsic emotional needs, we marketers must pay attention to the psychological impact of the graphics we use in our materials. Naturally, your choice of color makes a big impact on the unconscious mind and impacts how the conscious © Copyright 2011 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.
  • 24. mind thinks about a specific marketing piece. Research shows us that we make an unconscious judgment about a marketing piece, product or environment within 90 seconds of exposure and that up to 90% of that judgment is typically based upon color. And color creates immediate impressions of a product’s, or in the case of marketing materials, a brand’s attributes as each color creates a distinct feeling or mood whether we realize it or not. Some examples: Red and black have very powerful emotional results, and these change for various cultures. In Christian cultures, red symbolizes sacrifice, love and passion while in China it is associated with brides, good luck and long life. Black in some cultures represents bad luck and thus would need to be avoided as a key marketing color. © Copyright 2011 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.
  • 25. Colors have distinct connotations independently, yet these can change when combined with another color. For example, when you combine red and black, the overall effect is most often a sense of intimidation, hostility and even danger. Yet many marketers combine these colors with friendly positive messaging and end up creating a contradiction by what they say to us consciously vs. what they project to our unconscious minds. When you put it all together, amazing results follow. A home improvement company hired me to prove that my psychology-based approach could beat the direct marketing piece they had been using for nearly three years. I eagerly accepted the challenge. Together we set up a test process, utilizing test cells in different markets with like demographics. Our households included those in their internal database who had some type of past contact with the brand, and purchased lists. We tested a psychologically-relevant message in both print and digital formats, and even I was surprised by the results. Our test piece which was written to build on the emotional fulfillment homeowners seek, and to nurture a friendship vs. push a quick sale beat their control by 640% and achieved an ROI of 31 times. These results held up well beyond the testing period, further validating that this approach works. Go Do It! The best part of psychology-based marketing is that it can be and has been affordably executed. There are many resources available in print and online on current psychology studies, neuromarketing experiments and results, and consumer behavior. Develop customer profiles that include the emotions that drive choice, advisability or likelihood to respond, like the ones set forth in Behavioral Economics theories. Survey your current customers to find out why they choose to work with you or purchase from you, and what brand characteristics are important to them when choosing products or services within your business category. Once you gain an understanding of the emotional issues, references, and needs facing your core customers, create corresponding messaging and test, test and test some more. With email, testing messages, graphic presentations, personalized promotions, and offers has never been easier or more affordable. Join the dialogue on Psychology-Based Marketing by joining my group on LinkedIn at www.linked.com, group name, “psychology based marketing.” When you join this group, you will have access to psychological thought, ideas, trends and resources posted by marketers and psychologists around the world. Follow the blog at http://e4marketingco.blogspot.com/. Contact me at Jeanette@e4marketingco.com for more information or to exchange ideas, questions, and successes. Enjoy! © Copyright 2011 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved.
  • 26. RESOURCES William Band, Forrester Research Webinar on September 19, 2006, RightNow Technologies Bob Thompson, CRMGuru.com, “Customer Experience Management: “Accelerating Business Performance”, June 2006 white paper. Notes from Forrester Research Webinar 9/19/06 Cap, Gemini, Ernst and Young, Consumer Research 2004 – 2005 2005 American Magazine Conference (AMC) in Puerto Rico, by Mark Whitaker, Editor of Newsweek and President of American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME), and AMC Chairman Evan Smith, Editor of Texas Monthly. ©2008 Jeanette McMurtry. All rights reserved. 17