Using Emotions to Market Your Product

Way back before digital cameras were invented, the founder of Kodak, George Eastman, asked his salespeople a question.

That question was: “What is this product we are selling?”

The salespeople looked around, a little confused. One person said “cameras.”

“No,” replied Eastman.

“Pictures,” someone else tried.

Eastman shook his head. Someone else thought they knew the answer: “Film.”

“No,” Eastman said yet again. The salespeople were puzzled. Finally Eastman told them what
they were making were: memories. They weren’t selling hardware; they were selling memories of good times, of family. The hardware they sold was used to create memories. Memories are tied to emotions. You can’t think of a memory impartially. If you could, it wouldn’t be a memory. Think about it – when you recall a scene from childhood, don’t you also remember the feeling you had during that scene?

In today’s society, people are bombarded by media and ads that hardly give them time to create memories. To create emotions. People can talk on the phone to someone and pause to take a picture with that very same phone. They can record conversations so they don’t need to be committed to memory. People today like instant gratification. We want what we want now.

What are all these high-tech devices giving people? Memories. Souvenirs. Replays of emotion. Emotion is still what drives people to make purchases today.

Hot button purchases
A hot button, according to the book Hot Button Marketing: Push the Emotional Buttons That Get People to Buy by Barry Feig, is a cue that triggers an emotion that causes a person to buy a product.

A hot button is something that gets people excited or curious enough to want your product. A hot button is whatever interests you. It’s a pull on the emotions.

A hot button can be a photo or words that speak directly to the consumer and it’s what gets people’s juices flowing. Using the right images and words on your marketing materials, from your postcards to your Web site, gets people into your store.

People buy products for two reasons:
1. A rational reason
2. The real reason

People like to think they buy products based on rational logic, but if that were true, marketing would be easy and marketers would all retire rich. For instance, people love sports such as football and basketball and will buy clothes that are stamped with their favorite team’s name.

This doesn’t make them part of the team, but it gives people a sense of belonging and a sense of pride to be associated with that team. Belonging and pride are the hot buttons for people that are true sports fans.

The hot button principle
The hot button principle “means you stand on the same emotional footing your customer does,” according to Feig.

Instead of expecting to change your customers’ emotions, behaviors and opinions, you adapt your product and marketing to the customer. You identify and then fulfill the customer’s emotional needs by hitting their hot buttons. Find out what’s important to people and make it important to your company.

By winning the hearts of people, you also win their minds.