The average person makes over 35,000 decisions a day and new research now proves that in doing so they employ emotion first, not logic. Our best-selling book, “Why People Don’t Buy Things,” details over 40 case studies which show that messaging based on only logic is generally a disaster. People think to justify their emotional decisions. Check out our website and you’ll be a believer.
Our post 9/11 market research for Homeland Security (Florida) led to national PSA emotive messaging that worked. It shows how powerful emotive messaging can be. The goal was to motivate people to download “Ten Tips for Survival,” but no one was bothering to do it. The research revealed that Floridians thought, “There will be another 9/11 type attack in the US, but there’s nothing I can do to prevent it. Besides it probably won’t happen in my city.”
The logical unsuccessful “think” argument for downloading tips was, “The best time to prepare for an emergency is in advance, when you’re not crippled with stress.” But this was a ho-hummer. However, when a new emotional premise was featured, “If you’re not going to do it for yourself, do it for the kids because they’d be helpless in an attack,” good things started to happen with over 10,000 downloads a month. The campaign was immediately launched nationally with similarly good results.
If you’re not getting satisfactory results in your marketing, you might want to consider Pilot Research study which is quick and cost-effective. It’s a mini survey of 10 questions, mostly conversational, where we analyze customer verbal feedback using our proprietary EmotiveSCAN software. Then we determine what emotional “trigger” words will me most powerful for your brand. For details check out our interesting new video-oriented website (https://wallacewashburn.com) Don’t hesitate to contact me with questions.
Note: Agency and Social Marketers should know that Tufts neuroscientists report we’ve developed a new brain function to scan the internet faster. They call us “skimmers.” Skimmers scan through information so quickly that marketers won’t get noticed unless they have a headline message that resonates instantly. We’ve found that pre-tested “trigger” words help a lot in getting noticed, downloaded, and shared. But make sure you research the words because shooting from the hip doesn’t work. And make sure you include the emotional aspect of the purchase, because feelings have increased 43% in decision making importance (since 1992).
