Being direct... AdVantage Sep 2004
Do people respond because they think… or is it because they feel…?
Advertising usually worries about the rational ahead of the emotional - probably because we can
'understand' reason! It may just be that we're missing the point!
One of the great challenges of living in the 21st Century is the slow but steady de-construction of many of the 'ways of the world' that we have all taken for granted for so long. An example of this is the realisation that media audiences no longer seem to be salivating at the thought that your fabulous new ad is going to tell them something they really ought to know.
For example, the other night on Carte Blanche, there was an extremely interesting segment about the role of emotional intelligence on ALL aspects of human life. The Index of Emotional Intelligence (as originally developed by Daniel Goltman) has long been the subject of many books and papers, but in a nutshell declares that there are five key factors at the cornerstone of human emotional intelligence. These are (1) Self-Awareness and Self-Control; (2) Empathy - listening to and understanding others; (3) Social Expertness - social bonds, collaboration and conflict resolution; (4) Personal Influence - influence of others, influence of self; (5) Mastery of Purpose - know purpose, take actions towards purpose.
Then, perhaps coincidentally, I am currently reading Giep Frantzen's book on Brands and how we process information about them, called 'The Mental World of Brands', and in the first part of this book, the author talks a great deal about how the human brain actually works.
I don't want to bore you with medical detail, but this is vital background to how we process advertising imagery: '…Everything that we see, hear, taste and touch comes from the senses into the brain though the thalamus. This structure is located at the top of the brainstem. The bottom of the thalamus is fused with the hypothalamus. This small organ regulates important body functions such as changes in our heartbeat and breath, body temperature and water balance (sweat), which are coupled with severe emotional reactions…'
'…The part of the brain that is responsible for our emotional reactions is the limbic system. The limbic system is a very complicated body of interconnected structures that are responsible for our emotional reactions, and also play an important role in the selection of stimuli for our attention, and in the formation of long-term memory. One of these structures, the almond-shaped amygdala seems to be especially linked to our emotional reactions…Just as the thalamus can be seen as the gateway to all sensory information, we could characterise the amygdala as a permanent sentinel that carefully analyses every incoming signal and evaluates its emotional meaning…'
The matter of whether a direct emotional reaction takes place ahead of any cognitive reasoning to rationalise such emotions - is where the experts still have many questions. So, the role of 'automatic' emotional reaction to communication stimuli in advertising could indeed be more important for response, than the usual copy focus on 'rational reasoning' contained in so many ads.
The point about all of this for me is a relatively simple one: when we didn't really understand the physiology of this process, we simplified our understanding of it into a linear relationship between stimulation and effect. While stimulation may well still have an important role to play in communication, the responses/reactions to stimuli will vary from individual to individual, essentially because emotional response will be different from person to person.
I find this subject hugely fascinating as it provides some subtly different perspectives on the teaching and experience of a lifetime. Giep Frantzen's 'brand elements' provide a vision for his book and is worthy of repeating here, together with the usual suggestion that you get onto your favourite bookselling website and get yourself a copy:
(1) A brand exists only in the memory of people. (2) A brand is a sign of recognition (labels, names, logos, and colours). (3) A brand evokes associations in people and (4) A brand is linked to commercially saleable goods or services. While some readers may say that the above is pretty obvious, I suspect that it may well be in the subtleties of how we really could understand and use emotional stimuli - that the real opportunities lay.
Last word from Frantzen: '…Cognitive evaluations seldom lead to a balanced judgement over a brand. Emotional associations act as heuristics in the decision-making process. In choice processes, they lead to a reduction of a number of alternatives and to an ultimate choice based on 'gut feeling'. A brand emotion is a dominant choice criterion…'