I heard an old song from the disco era recently. In 1977, one-hit-wonder Emotion by Samantha Sang, backed up by the Bee Gees, hit the airwaves. When I heard it the other day, it brought back memories of silk shirts with open collars that resembled wings hanging over wide lapelled polyester leisure suits and shoes stacked so high you nearly needed a stepping stool to get into them - fashion that should forever be banned from becoming popular again! Emotion - the feeling, not the song - is universal to all of us who have a pulse. It may impact one person more than another, but it gets to all of us. Even the most stone-faced, unfeeling person is impacted by emotion. That is never more evident than it is in marketing.

As far as purchasing habits go, there are two types of buying: emotional buying and commodity buying. Most of the items we purchase are from an emotional buying mentality. In some way or the other, making a purchase makes us feel good. It may be that it makes us happy, excited, or fulfilled because we have pride in doing something meaningful with our money. Psychologist Paul Eckman has made a career out of studying emotions. He categorizes basic emotions into six groups: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise. These, he has found, are universal regardless of where you live, your background experiences, beliefs, gender or any other demographic. Marketing that is being effective uses an emotional appeal. One big mistake that companies often make is taking the emotion out of marketing. If you have a very technical, utilitarian product, you may be tempted to think that your marketing needs only to state the facts to sell. Emotion still plays a major role in selling these types of products. For instance, let's take a look at car tires. They are about as functional as it gets. You have to have them if you drive a car. Few people have gooey feelings about their tires. Yet, look at the emotion in marketing them. Take a look at the baby riding in a Michelin ad. It is both funny, but also tugs at parental emotions to protect the children - a common theme in marketing. This Firestone ad will leave you with good feelings about your old car.  One of the greatest emotions is fear and  that is exactly what this ad is targeting - take a close look at the mother putting her protective hand over her son in this Goodyear commercial. 

The other purchasing habit is commodity buying. This is reducing your purchasing thoughts to the cheapest price. You don't think about one brand being superior to the other, you hold all brands to be equal. Emotion is taken out of the equation in commodity purchases. Gasoline is sold as a commodity purchase. Some gas brands have tried to combat this with reward cards and convenience store sales of "happy" food (donuts, soda, beer, candy bars, fast food.) However, put two gas stations side by side, with Station A having reward cards and shelves full of C-store consumables, while Station B has none of the extras, but is selling gas for 4 cents less than Station A, where will you make your purchase? Do you even have to think about it? The purchasing decisions for gasoline comes down to the cheapest price. Compare that to another purchase you make on emotion. Go to the grocery store and walk down the soft drink aisle. Pick out your favorite brand of drink and imagine a generic drink sitting beside it with a price that is 4 cents less. Which would you choose? Even if you buy the cheaper generic drink, you have to think about it, don't you? You have to rationalize why making a sacrifice of something you love will be worth it. Did you see the word I just used? I said you loved your favorite brand! You see, brand loyalty is built upon emotion. We describe the brands we prefer as those we love, and the ones we don't like as those we hate - the extremes of emotion!