{"id":1252,"date":"2009-02-17T10:09:59","date_gmt":"2009-02-17T15:09:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/business\/emotional-targeting-smart-marketing-or-virtual-sucker-punch.html"},"modified":"2009-02-17T10:09:59","modified_gmt":"2009-02-17T15:09:59","slug":"emotional-targeting-smart-marketing-or-virtual-sucker-punch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/emotional-targeting-smart-marketing-or-virtual-sucker-punch\/","title":{"rendered":"Emotional Targeting- Smart Marketing or Virtual Sucker Punch?"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/images\/blog-images\/istock-000005036732xsmall.jpg\" alt=\"emotional targeting\" width=\"160\" height=\"240\" align=\"left\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A few days ago, an acquaintance gave me a link to a public service announcement that had been uploaded to YouTube.<\/p>\n<p>The theme of the video was sexual abuse\/incest. The contents were shocking and repulsive. It included a father toasting to the union of his daughter and son-in-law while cracking jokes about her physical prowess. The daughter sat idly by, enjoying herself and smiling all the way through.<\/p>\n<p>After I finished watching the video, I couldn\u2019t help but wonder about the marketing behind it. What struck me most about it was that it aimed to scrape the barrel of humanity in the hopes of inspiring an evolved outlook in viewers.<\/p>\n<p>Although it was an extreme example, it got me thinking about emotional marketing and the way that some businesses choose to use negative emotions to incite positive actions in prospects. At least, it would be a positive action for the business- a sale.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_26590\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"  data-origwidth=\"800\" data-origheight=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/4ut8xeXyFxI?autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&modestbranding=0&rel=1&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/figure>\n<p>Using shock, fear, horror, guilt, anxiety and other negative emotions to move a product isn\u2019t a new idea in marketing. But I think the expectation that others will recognize negative propositions from businesses as invitations towards an implied positive outcome is.<\/p>\n<p>Nowadays, there\u2019s a more focused effort on \u201cethical\u201d business practices. If they\u2019re not driven by conscience, then it\u2019s legality. But it\u2019s amazing to me how some people think that \u201cethics\u201d is a nebulous concept- at least in the world of marketing.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m convinced that in business, there\u2019s no better place than the marketing area to ask the question \u201cDoes the end justify the means?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Consider a study that <a href=\"http:\/\/responsiblemarketing.com\/blog\/?p=467\">The Responsible Marketing Blog<\/a> commented on. The study experimented with ads containing thin and average-sized women. It found that women felt badly about themselves when the ads with thin women aired, but they bought the products associated with them. In contrast, when women were shown the ads with average-sized women, they felt more at ease, but didn\u2019t run out to buy the products. I don\u2019t really have to tell you which ads would be more desirable to marketers.<\/p>\n<p>The author asked two questions at the end of the post: \u201cIs it ethical?\u201d and \u201cIs it Responsible Marketing?\u201d It\u2019s interesting to me that both questions were posed, simply because both could beg different responses. On the one hand, no, it\u2019s not ethical to manipulate people\u2019s emotions for the sake of a selfish goal. But marketers may consider it \u201cresponsible marketing\u201d- maybe even the only type of marketing there is- because it can be the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.articlesbase.com\/online-business-articles\/emotional-marketing-techniques-and-tips-471073.html\">best<\/a> way to encourage sales. By pulling people\u2019s heartstrings, they\u2019re doing all they can to live up to the responsibility of bringing in as many conversions as possible.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m fascinated by the idea that marketing experts often use the word \u201ctriggers\u201d to describe what marketers do to get prospects to respond. This is probably because therapists use the same term to describe anything that elicits a terrible memory (and, possibly, a negative response) in patients recovering from trauma.<\/p>\n<p>Philip Kotler\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/bharathcreates.blogspot.com\/2007\/11\/kotlers-five-top-tips-for-marketing.html\">statement<\/a>,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We are not in a state of competition anymore; we&#8217;re in a state of hyper-competition. So people are desperately looking for handles- functional features, emotional appeals- that will draw people to their product<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>raises some interesting questions for me. The marketing consultant admits frenetic competition resulting in desperation, which in turn leads to marketers playing with emotions\u2026the virtual sucker-punch. But is it really our right, as marketers or not, to exploit basic biology and quantify the very things that make us human? By doing so, we\u2019d be reducing the human experience to numbers\u2026sales and profits.<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, I\u2019m not speaking about all emotional marketing. All marketing, in some form or another, uses emotion to get points across. What I am talking about is that lowest form of marketing- the type that aims to emotionally break down prospects for the sake of making them customers. The companies, of course, aim to build them up again and make everything all right with their products. The worst of them attempt to turn\u00a0 the experience into a cycle, tearing customers down, building them up and tearing them down again, each time offering a \u201csolution\u201d that was better than the last. Those companies would no doubt say that their customers were \u201cloyal\u201d and not the victims of unscrupulous marketing practices\u2026<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s your take on this? It\u2019s a complicated matter for sure, but I\u2019m sure it\u2019s one that many have given thoughts to, whether passing or not. Where do you draw the line with your marketing practices?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span>A few days ago, an acquaintance gave me a link to a public service announcement that had been uploaded to YouTube. The theme of the video was sexual abuse\/incest. The contents were shocking and repulsive. It included a father toasting to the union of his daughter and son-in-law while cracking jokes about her physical prowess. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[191,79,60,192],"class_list":["post-1252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sales-marketing","tag-emotional","tag-marketing","tag-sales","tag-targeting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}