• In contrast, only 14 percent of business purchasers see a real difference between suppliers and are willing to pay for that difference.
This research is very telling and can’t be ignored in the highly competitive B2B marketing environment. If you’re in B2B, identifying and addressing those personal values are key to helping you gain competitive advantage because most marketers in this space don’t understand this or how to do it. This chapter sets forth what those values are and how the processes of the brain, and the conscious and unconscious minds, spark emotions and behavior associated with those values.
(To delve more into this research, check out www.thinkwithgoogle.com, “From Promotion to Emotion: Connecting B2B customers to Brands.”)
Consciously and unconsciously, all human behavior is based on two emotional premises:
❯❯ The avoidance of pain
❯❯ The pursuit of pleasure
Everything we do is driven by these basic needs, socially, professionally, and personally. When marketers understand the pain their customers are consciously and unconsciously avoiding when purchasing their product category, they can much better align their messaging to be relevant far beneath the surface of the typical decision process.
Pain and pleasure in marketing terms are simply the fear and joy people experience as life events unfold or as they anticipate something bad or good happening in their lives. For example, when you choose to purchase auto insurance, you know that you’ll be covered against losing your car or substantial amounts of money if you have an accident and gain a sense of joy as a result. You also know that you can avoid a lot of pain as a result of coverage, and both of these emotional outcomes drive your choices to purchase the category and the brand you chose.
Neurotransmitters and how they affect choice
The most powerful forces that affect human actions related to finding joy or avoiding fear and pain are neurotransmitters, or the hormones that create strong emotional reactions to the stimuli people encounter daily in all areas of the world.
These neurotransmitters are
❯❯ Dopamine: Dopamine rushes occur when you anticipate a reward, such as a job promotion for doing good or a great deal on a new car, a great afterlife due to religious obedience, or reciprocal love. You feel euphoric, infallible, and ready to conquer your goals. This is the rush that makes people become addicted to drugs.
❯❯ Oxytocin: This hormone is known as the love hormone. When you develop connections with others and you feel that powerful sense of validation and reciprocity for how you feel about them, and being with that person makes you feel valued and loved, your brain releases oxytocin. This feeling is often described as falling in love, and it feels good. As a result, people seek loving bonds with others via social and professional hives, and when they find it, they often become loyal supporters. Research shows that when people experience an oxytocin rush, the part of their brain that governs judgment and fear is shut off.
❯❯ Cortisol: When you feel threatened physically, emotionally, socially, or financially, you experience a rush of confusion, insecurity, doubt, and fear. You respond by either fighting and taking on the challenge or by flying away as fast as you can to avoid the crisis and seek a safety zone, which often is just a state of denial. This is what triggers the fight‐or‐flight mentality that drives much of what people do.
❯❯ Serotonin: This is the hormone that helps stave off depression. It makes you feel calm and upbeat and gives you the ability to face your daily challenges with hope, optimism, and confidence. Listening to music that has the right schematic patterns and tones often creates feelings of love, nostalgia, comfort, or confidence, all of which influence serotonin rushes and your mood.
When marketers trigger these rushes, knowingly or not, they create feelings that compel consumers to behavior – either toward or away from the behavior they’re seeking to trigger. The challenge you have as a marketer is to create the rushes that create excitement for your brand, the experience and products you deliver, and not the ones that send people flying to the competition. Unwittingly, many marketers do both.
❯❯ Use testimonials validating your fulfillment of claims.
❯❯ Cite industry awards from third parties showing that you meet or exceed the industry standards.
❯❯ Identify and address fears related to your category and show consumers that you understand how they feel and why. Use empathy to let them know you’re just like them, because people tend to buy from others they deem to be like themselves.
Moving from USPs to ESPs
One of the most important things marketers must do today is to move away from USPs – unique selling propositions – to ESPs – emotional selling propositions. ESPs are the messages that get through because they appeal to the emotions, such as those listed in the previous section.
A brand’s ESP is a statement about how it fulfills a given emotion associated with its category. Understanding the emotional value you provide is key to your success in all forms of marketing – direct, social, personalized, mass, and experiences and events.
For example, if you’re selling luxury apparel, what is the emotional fulfillment your customers seek by wearing something with your label or insignia and by paying much more than a functional alternative would cost? These emotions that drive the choice to buy your product at your most likely elevated price likely include
❯❯ Feelings of glamor or beauty
❯❯ Feelings of confidence and personal respect
❯❯ Feelings of superiority to others who aren’t wearing similarly unique or expensive clothing
The final emotion of superiority often stays in the unconscious as it relates to the most powerful of all related emotions: survival. When you know you have something most others don’t, and that few can afford, you feel superior whether you realize it or not. And when you feel superior, you anticipate your ability to survive over others, and you experience a form of a dopamine rush that makes you feel joy about the products or experiences that set you above others. Much of this is unconscious but very real at the same time. That feeling of superiority and associated sense of survival drives some to purchase a $60,000 Gucci crocodile handbag.