Companies are constantly trying to connect with and appeal to consumers on an emotional level. You want to create an emotional connection between consumers and your brand, with the intention that consumers will then buy your products. How is it though, that their emotions actually influence their decision making? At Qual360 North America 2016, we presented on how to better understand the role of emotions in consumer decision making. Our talk aimed to provide insight into the synergy between emotional decision making and path to purchase research. We showed how to develop a qualitative study to best understand product/category related emotions.

1. Sean O’Connor, Marcel Slavenburg | 6 April 2016 | Qual360
The rest of the iceberg,
exploring the roles of emotions
in purchase behavior

2. Emotional connections between
consumers and their brands
How is it that emotions
actually influence our
decision making,
particularly in the
context of a consumer
decision journey?
Is it simply about trying
to evoke a positive
emotion or is there
more to it?

3. How we view the decision
journey has changed

4. How we view the decision
journey has changed
In the latent phase, consumers are not in the
market and are primarily just passive recipients
of brand communication.
Prior to buying products, consumers consider
and evaluate brands, based off of:
• Triggers
• Recent experiences
• Interactions with touch points

5. How we view the decision
journey has changed
Consumers use, interact and evaluate brands
and products, how they evaluate this experience
is based in part on expectations formed during
earlier phases in the decision journey.
Some consumers, who have a positive
experiences, become advocates and begin to
share their experiences and promote their
brands and products.
Ultimately, there are a few who bond:
consumers who develop an emotional
attachment with their brands and products.

6. How we view the decision
journey has changed
How do the emotions associated with
the top three stages influence
judgment and decision making?

7. How do emotions actually play a
role in the decision journey
Our model looks at three specific categories of
emotions that play a role in the decision journey.

8. Our Model
These three categories of emotions influence what we
consider and how we evaluate it in making a decision

9. Case Study
The case study was set-up to find out how we are able to determine how
emotions actually influence decision making.
If we understand the source and influence of emotions, we are able to
recommend how and when to evoke desired emotions or appeal to specific
emotions.

10. Laros & Steenkamp 2005
18 - 65
Life Grid Method
Customer Journey Mapping
In our case study, we
interviewed ten consumers
with ages ranging from 18 to
65, who had recently switched
from cell phone subscriptions.
The interviews were semi-
structured and included
exercises, such as:
• Life Grid Method
• Projective Techniques
• Customer Journey Mapping
Target Group

11. Laros & Steenkamp 2005
18 - 65
Life Grid Method
Customer Journey Mapping
The Life Grid Method, is a structured
way with which retrospective data can
easily be collected with the aim to
improve the ‘accuracy’ of recalled data.
As Projective Techniques, we used an
image deck to articulate moods during
certain experiences and a deck of
cards with emotions from the Laros &
Steenkamp study. Drawn from an
extensive literature review, they
proposed 33 emotion terms, including
a hierarchy of whether the emotion is
perceived as positive or negative.
The Customer Journey Mapping
exercise focused on mapping touch
points in their decision journey using
iconic representations.
Method

12. Decision
Product
Emotion
Expected
Emotion
Learning 1
Consideration
Evaluation
Immediate
Emotion
A ‘trigger’ is the activation of a need state
that has emotional associations and
generally leads to:
• change in behavior
• being receptive to a first touch point
• start of the consideration phase

13. Reassurance
Need
Learning 2
It is important to understand:
1. how people feel when they
start the decision journey
2. how they feel when they
interact with your brand at
various touch points.
Just as you want to consider
the context of other products,
you want to understand the
context of emotions.
By doing so, you can better
understand why consumers are
making decisions and tailor
your content, products or
recommendations accordingly.

14. Let's not forget that the little emotions are the
great captains of our lives and we obey them
without realizing it.
Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

15. Contact us
Sean O’Connor
Senior Research Analyst
s.oconnor@skimgroup.com
Marcel Slavenburg
Research Director Qualitative
m.slavenburg@skimgroup.com