Emotional branding remains a potent force at a time when economic caution often drives businesses to focus on value-based marketing.
Even as businesses adjust their marketing strategies to emphasize value and affordability, they need to respect the power of emotion along with the rational appeal of a product, service, or experience.
The essence of a brand comes down to the emotional connections that a stakeholder (customers, employees, business partners, and investors) has with a business. Emotion is so essential that strategists have attempted to scientifically categorize the emotional drivers that influence brand choice.
I’ve assessed measures of emotion in branding, such as Forrester’s Brand Energy framework, against my own client experiences. I’ve come up with seven essential emotional drivers of brand loyalty. If you prioritize these emotional connections alongside value-based marketing, you can develop deeper, more resilient relationships with your customers.
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Table of Contents
1. Trust
Trust is the foundation of any relationship, and the same is true for brands. Amazon has built trust by consistently delivering products on time and handling customer service issues efficiently. Salesforce earns trust by providing reliable CRM solutions for its business clients. But trust goes beyond reliability. Patagonia has earned the trust of its customers through its commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR). The company uses sustainable materials, supports fair labor practices, and donates a portion of its profits to environmental causes. This commitment to CSR has helped Patagonia build a loyal following of customers who trust the company to do the right thing.
2. Belonging
Humans are social creatures and have a deep need for connection. Brands that create a sense of belonging often retain a loyal customer base because customers are connected to each other, in addition to the brand. Harley-Davidson reinforces a powerful sense of belonging through its brand community, the Harley Owners Group (HOG). HOG members share a passion for the brand’s motorcycles and the lifestyle they represent. The company organizes events and rallies that bring members together to create a sense of camaraderie and shared identity. The entertainment industry also succeeds by creating communities with shared interests, such as the Swifties, who bond over the music of Taylor Swift.
3. Joy
Joy is a momentary sensation and, as such, can be very difficult for a brand to inspire – but when you fill a person’s heart with joy, you can create a lasting memory. Because joy is fleeting, the trick is to sustain it beyond the moment. Coca-Cola has long been associated with joy and happiness. The company’s advertising campaigns often feature images of people enjoying life and having fun. Coca-Cola also sponsors events such as concerts that bring people together through joyous experiences. This focus has helped the brand become one of the most admired brands in the world.
4. Fear
Fear is not about scaring customers. Rather, fear is about FOMO, or fear of missing out. When customers are afraid of missing out, they are more likely to stay with a brand they know and trust. Brands can apply FOMO by creating a sense of exclusivity or urgency around their products or services.
McDonald’s is the master of FOMO. The fast-food chain often offers limited-time menu items, such as the McRib sandwich. This creates a sense of urgency among customers, who know they will miss out if they do not act quickly. McDonald’s also uses social media to promote its limited-time offers, further amplifying the sense of FOMO.
5. Love
Love is the strongest emotion of all, and it can create an unbreakable bond between a brand and its customers. Customers who love a brand are likelier to be loyal for life. Disney evokes a sense of love in its customers. The company’s theme parks, movies, and characters are beloved by people of all ages. Disney’s ability to create magical experiences that generate love has helped it become one of the most successful brands in the world. But your customers can fall out of love, too. All it takes is one bad experience for a loyal customer to feel like a jilted lover, potentially creating hurt and anger. Love must be cultivated and managed carefully.
6. Comfort
Comfort is about creating a sense of ease and familiarity for customers. Comfort is the emotion that drives many brand campaigns that tap into nostalgia. Nostalgia is a longing for comfort, and we often dwell in the past when we are uncomfortable with the present.
Adobe taps into nostalgia for many creative professionals who have grown up using its products, including Photoshop and Illustrator. These tools are ingrained in the memories of design students, artists, and creators who have developed their careers with Adobe’s software. A consumer brand that leans heavily into nostalgia is Nintendo. For many, the brand conjures childhood memories of playing video games. Nintendo builds loyalty across generations by continuing to offer products that evoke those early experiences.
7. Empowerment
Empowerment can involve making customers feel capable and confident in their ability to use a product or service, but I think the real value of empowerment is making people feel confident in themselves. You can achieve this through educational content, intuitive design, and support.
Nike’s “Just Do It” slogan inspires people to overcome obstacles and push their limits, positioning the brand as a source of personal empowerment. The brand makes customers feel capable of achieving more via their products and supporting marketing campaigns which are emotions-driven.
In B2B, HubSpot empowers its users through resources such as the HubSpot Academy, which offers training and certifications that enable professionals to enhance their skills. This combination of tools and educational support encourages businesses to feel in control of their success.
The Key to Mastering Emotions
To master emotional appeal, brands must focus on authenticity and consistency.
Authenticity ensures that the emotions a brand seeks to feel are genuine. Customers can sense when emotional messaging is contrived, which undermines trust and erodes loyalty. Patagonia, for instance, builds trust by staying true to its environmental mission, demonstrating how authenticity creates meaningful connections.
Consistency, on the other hand, reinforces emotional connections in time. Brands that evoke emotions regularly across every touchpoint—from product quality to customer service—create lasting impressions. Disney exemplifies consistency, building brand love through movies, theme parks, and merchandise, ensuring customers feel a sense of magic at every encounter.
How to Measure the Impact of Emotions in Branding
How do you know if emotion is making a difference in your branding?
There are two key areas to focus on: immediate feedback and long-term results.
Immediate Feedback
You can use several metrics to evaluate how your audiences perceive your brand, right now. Some examples include:
- Net Promoter Score (NPS), which is based on the question “On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our brand/product/service to a friend or colleague
- Sentiment analysis, which determines the emotional association or attitude (positive, negative, or neutral) behind customer feedback, reviews, or social media posts.
Long-term Results
Over time, you can track Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), which measures how much revenue each customer generates throughout their relationship with your brand. This metric is crucial because emotional connections lead to customer loyalty, and loyalty should ultimately translate into revenue growth for your business.
Common Risks and How to Avoid Them
There is a downside to emotional branding, too. If your attempt to create an emotional connection seems inauthentic, your business will experience a backlash. This typically happens when a brand’s appeal to emotion doesn’t align with the brand’s core values or actions, which feels phony. It can damage trust and lead to skepticism about your brand’s intentions.
Brands can also land in hot water when they misjudge the tone or context of an emotional appeal, especially during sensitive times or around controversial topics. This major gaffe can lead to accusations of exploitation or insensitivity. This can happen especially when a brand comments on topical issues, which creates another problem: emotional appeals tied to fleeting cultural trends or viral moments may date your brand quickly or make it seem opportunistic rather than committed to long-term values.
You can mitigate these risks in a number of ways, such as always aligning your emotional appeals with your values and testing your efforts to gauge reactions before you release an idea into the wild. (Your employees, by the way, can be an essential sounding board.) Whatever you do, don’t make a decision in a vacuum.
And when brands marry authenticity with consistency, they build relationships based on emotions that transcend individual transactions.
