EMOTIONOMICS OF BRANDING

By Kunal Sinha

How our brains work

People are awash in information and glad to tune out what they don’t need, which is why it is increasingly difficult to create a successful ad.

The human brain absorbs 400 billion bytes of information per second through our senses. But it only able to consciously processes 2,000 bytes.

That ratio should make it evident that when it comes to awareness, keeping the door shut – not open – is by far our basic impulse. In other words, filtering or screening out takes precedence over input.

As the 400 billion bytes make it evident, the mind has remarkable elasticity when it comes to absorbing data. The problem lies in processing it all. Our sensory inputs are processed in a large funnel. The narrow spout is what behaviour actually results from the influence of so much input.

Everybody feels (emotions) before they think (rational decision), and without generating the appropriate emotional response, few ad campaigns can succeed.

We also know, through neuroscience, that emotional reactions are 80% faster than cognitively filtered reactions to brand-related stimuli. So, our original emotional reactions inevitably colour our ‘rational’, non-objective secondary reaction.

Our brain consists of three separate brains, the original sensory brain, an emotional brain, and a rational brain – a very late addition in evolutionary terms – from which verbal abilities stem.

The first-mover advantage goes to the emotional brain, which sends ten times the amount of data to the rational brain that it receives in return.

Value is determined emotionally because our brain’s decision-making process returns to the emotional segment  to ‘sign the cheque’. To translate branding efforts into sales, we should recognize that the rational brain is more like a lobbyist than a legislator: its role is simply to influence how the emotional brain will ‘vote’ on a potential purchase.

The opportunity for brands

Marketing is obsessed with monitoring brand equity almost entirely on the basis of brand awareness.  In reality, awareness is passive and unconvincing, and merely provides a starting point. To be aware of a brand is not the same as being loyal to it. Indeed, awareness follows the pattern ‘I see it, I notice it’, which keeps the brand firmly in the role of ‘external object’, rather than a focus of desire, or product lust.

Great brand equity is about having an emotional connection to a brand. Just being aware of the brand is inadequate because real equity is based on a response such as ‘I feel it and am inherently aware of it because the brand is myself’. A brand achieves genuine equity when the pronoun shifts from a company-centric ‘it’ to ‘me’ and ‘us’, with the brand reflecting one’s own values and vision of self within one’s desired peer group.

So, as a marketer, ask yourself, does the brand-consumer relationship feel like a friendship? Is there a sense of membership? Can your users readily identify with the brand?

Here’s an example of a brand that leveraged emotions in a typical Asian setting, successfully.

How British Airways’s emotional appeal created £10 million worth of value

British Airways faced a problem with their North America – India routes: they have a culturally relevant product, but their audience had little brand or social affinity for them. And market share was shifting to Emirates, Qatar Airways and Indigo.

The task was to create an “always on” platform to drive £4M of incremental revenue, and capture our share of the non-premium, Asian-Indian VFR (“Visiting Friends & Relatives”) segment in North America. And do it in a way t competitors couldn’t touch.

Research showed it would be impossible to match the Asian heritage of Eastern carriers. If BA could show that it truly understood the reason Indian expats fly, it could steal share from its European / American counterparts.

The strategy was to build brand affinity by showing passengers that BA understood that the reason they fly isn’t just British Airways’ offerings of Hindu and Jain meals, or Bollywood in-flight entertainment.

It’s because it helps them reconnect with the people they miss most.

The film narrated the story of Ratnesh, a young expat living in New York, and his Mum, Alka, who still lived in Mumbai. The airline offered Alka that if she cooked Ratnesh’s favorite meal, it would fly it over to him along with a discounted ticket – and those two things together would make him come home.

The story, however, had a twist that didn’t leave a dry eye in the house.

Judging by the views and sales in Great Britain and India (up 12% and 16% respectively), the campaign had global appeal, striking an emotional chord with anyone who has ever been separated from family.

The film led to a landing page where all of British Airway’s culturally relevant benefits were put in the voice of Indian Mums.

It amassed over 1.2 million views on YouTube and 75.3 million impressions through Twitter.

In the 3 months following the campaign’s release, direct ticket sales to India increased 65% generating £10 million in incremental revenue in just 3 months in North America alone, £6 million over goal. That was the emotionomics of branding.

Perhaps even more impressive, BA stole 38% of share from competitor airlines.

Great brand worth becomes internalised and accepted as a reflection – and extension – of the consumer’s own beliefs. Fail to make an emotional connection, and you lose out, because value is determined emotionally.

Brand attributes are like the claims related to a product. They are merely assertions, unless the consumer’s emotional brain finds them valid and worth embracing.

In contrast, trust and faith are able to add intensity to the quality of branded offering, making them less subject to erosion – a point of particular importance in a time of economic uncertainty.

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Learn more about leveraging emotions for successful branding by attending my workshop The Codes of Asian Branding on November 6&7 at Eastin Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

Kunal Sinha is Chief Knowledge Officer at Ampersand Advisory, Kuala Lumpur. He has built brands across China, India and Indonesia, is the author of six books on creativity, consumers and marketing, and has spoken at the world’s top business schools, including Harvard, Cambridge, London Business School, University of New South Wales and CEIBS.