Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People

Citation

Lafferty, B.A. (2001), "Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 10 No. 7, pp. 466-469. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpbm.2001.10.7.466.1

As we enter the new millennium, marketers are eager to devise ways to make their brands distinctive. In Emotional Branding, Marc Gobé uses his experience in brand design to explore how brands can and should “engage consumers on the level of the senses and emotions” (p. xiv). According to the author, emotional branding also is “how a brand comes to life for people and forges a deeper, lasting connection” (p. xiv). Gobé divides his book into four sections based on what he refers to as the four pillars of emotional branding: relationship, sensorial experiences, imagination, and vision.

In the first section, Gobé takes a look at the relationships companies should have with their customers based on generations, ethnicity, and gender. Each of the four chapters targets a large and influential consumer population that companies must connect with on an emotional level. Chapter One compares and contrasts what emotional branding means to Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen Yers. For example, emotional branding means comfort, reassurance, and solutions to Boomers. Gen Xers value imagination, creativity, and relationships; and Gen Y responds to fun, interactivity, and experience. Gobé provides plenty of effective uses of emotional branding by advertisers that are targeted at each generational group. For example, Vanity Fair magazine began using older models after determining that their main clientele were women between thirty‐five and fifty‐four, while Zippo lighters used offbeat, slightly off‐color humor to attract the eXcel generation. Bubble‐yum has attempted to capture the Yers by using a duck that sports a Mohawk, spiked collar, nose ring, and anklet.

Chapter Two describes the unique characteristics of the major subcultures inAmerica and how marketers should be responding to their needs. Latino‐Americans, Asian‐Americans, and African‐Americans represent tremendous buying power, yet their unique cultures necessitate messages which have personal meaning for these groups and that are tailored to reflect these cultures if marketers are to connect on an emotional level. Chapter Three discusses women as consumers and how brands can connect emotionally with them, and Chapter Four gives cogent examples of relationships companies are forming with the gay community.

In Section II, Gobé examines an area of branding that has been largely unexplored but is gaining momentum in marketing and plays an important role in emotional branding, which is sensorial experiences. The interplay of music, color, images, scents, and tastes can create a memorable emotional brand contact that enhances brand preference and loyalty, according to the author. More and more retailers are discovering the impact of the senses on creating a brand personality. Barnes & Noble was one of the first national retailers to realize that there is an affinity with its brand, books, and coffee shops. Other retail examples are given by Gobé to illustrate the effective use of the senses to create memorable links between the stimulus and the brand in consumers’ minds. For example, retailers such as GAP and Eddie Bauer are investing in customized music programs tailored to the brand’s image. The impact of color also plays a role in brand identification. The selection of orange and purple by FedEx are 2 colors which clash the most in the spectrum and were selected precisely to grab attention and add to the brand’s identity.

The first two sections provide the foundation for Section III, which explores the best way to bring a brand to life and imbue it with emotions that people can identify with and love. Gobé relies on his years of experience in creating brand identities and repositioning companies to outline what he believes to be fundamental tools to add power to brands. Utilizing many examples of successful corporate branding, Gobé illustrates the importance of design in creating an emotional link with the customers. This design component permeates all areas of marketing, from the design of the corporate logo to the packaging, the advertising, and the store design, thus creating a brand identity program that reflects a highly personal statement about the brand’s philosophy. Gobé explores each of these areas with a wealth of examples in this section’s seven chapters, emphasizing the connectivity of these brand strategy components.

The final section discusses the future of emotional branding and how marketers can effectively use the Web to create brand identities. Gobé also shares his company’s most successful branding tools such as the SENSE1 program, which personifies the brand and has been used successfully in creating an emotional brand for Victoria’s Secret, AnnTaylor, and Godiva among others. The final chapter gives projections for future cultural trends that will have important significance to marketers in the new millennium.

In Emotional Branding, Gobé has done a masterful job of describing how to bring a brand to life and to imbue it with emotions. The book is easy to read and replete with examples to illustrate how to embark on emotional branding. While many marketers may be aware of the role that sensorial experiences play in building a brand, the strength of the book lies in the many examples of how companies are incorporating these design tools to develop brand personalities and how to reshape corporate thinking in order to create these connections with consumers. Gobé has done a credible job of emphasizing the need to move beyond brand awareness to make an emotional connection and gives plenty of tips on how to do just that. Emotional Branding also contains ample citations from academic and business journals, and the inclusion of an index is useful for referencing topics. This book would prove to be a useful addition to any marketing practitioner’s library and a potential supplement to any courses on branding or marketing.