You may be asking: Why is it so important to create an emotional connection anyway? After all, if the market loves your product and it fills a need, they will buy it.

You are right. They will buy ‘the product’ if it fills a pressing need.

But, if there are five other products that fill the same need, the market will buy that product, but they might not buy your brand of that product.

Few weeks ago, I wrote about the value of emotional connections. In the post, I explained that there is a much deeper significance to how consumers base their buying decisions. Many times, consumers place emotions over rationality when making decisions. They may know your brand and even trust your brand enough to buy, but if you share their beliefs, values and understand them, they will fall in love with you and be willing to go the extra mile for you. That is the difference between a good brand and a strong brand.

Note that the consumer does not care about you until they know how much you care about them (adapted from John Maxwell’s famous quote). I call it the Love theory. There is a reason why some brands enjoy a cult followership and certain brands enjoy top of the mind awareness in various countries, cutting across varying cultural beliefs and values. Remember the brand that sells happiness? Coca-Cola? Who doesn’t want to be happy? Happiness is a universal language.

So to help you create the same effect, here are four steps you can work on to help you build an emotional connection with your target market:




1. KNOW YOUR DECISION-MAKERS LIKE YOU WOULD YOUR BEST FRIEND

Who would most likely buy your product? And I just don’t mean who will use it, but who will buy it? For example, if you produce baby food, your target market for any marketing effort are not babies, they are the moms who make the decision.

So, back to the decision makers: Are they male or female? Age range? Where do they live? What can they afford? How much do they earn at the end of a year? Why do they buy the product? At what stage are they likely to go looking for your type of product?

Understanding your target market is only a first step that will help build the foundation of an emotional connection.

Note: It is important to narrow your target market as much as possible so you spend resources on people who really need your product.



2. WHAT ARE THEIR VALUES AND BELIEFS?

Now you know who would most likely buy your product. Next, it is important to understand the psychological drivers of your target market. Regarding your product, what are the values and beliefs that are generally held within the target market?

Take for instance, the Old Spice commercial below, why do you think it gained over 28million hits on Youtube? Do you think it ties to the fact that the brand was selling a fantasy? What fantasies or dreams do your audience have? What are their fears? What challenges them?

List these out. We will call these the psychological drivers.



3. WHAT PHYSICAL FEATURES IN YOUR PRODUCT PROVIDE THE MOST BENEFITS TO YOUR TARGET MARKET?

The third stage is to look inwards at your own product. Sure there are many features that provide different meanings to your target market, but there is usually one feature that provides the most benefit. What is that feature?

For example, if you produce battery operated fans, you may have long battery life and options for battery and electricity usage. If you are in Nigeria, which of these features would provide the most benefits to your target market?

Remember that these benefits have to be in context with your target market outlined in Step 1.



4. LINK THOSE BENEFITS TO SHARED VALUES AND BELIEFS TO DETERMINE EMOTIONAL CONNECTION

Finally, connect these benefits to the answer in stage 2. This is the link and where the connection most likely lies in. Ask the most important question of all: how does this If you have done a great job in the previous stages, this won’t be difficult and you should experience a Eureka! moment.

Don’t just stop there however. You have to build your brand and marketing strategy and advertising to reflect the emotional connection with your target market.


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