We people are driven by emotions. We are slaves to our emotions. We do what we do because of how that doing makes us feel. Buying stuff we need is also heavily driven by what emotions we feel when buying that stuff. No matter how much we like to think that we are rational beings, we make buying decisions with our heart and then rationalize those decisions with logic as an after thought.

I might buy my soap with emotions but not my accounting software

It would seem that corporate purchases, big or small, that we make on behalf of our company are a result of deep study and analysis of all the options available i the market. but the reality is we gravitate towards certain products because someone we respect uses that product. Or because your cool friends use that product in their cool company. Or the marketing of that product evokes in you a sense of safety and escape from fear.

We are all emotional beings and emotions are what keep this world going. If you are on the other side of the table trying to sell your product to people who need them, you need to start taking emotions into consideration if you to make any serious headway into the wallets of those customer through their heads.

What are the emotions that can lead to buy or no-buy decision?

1. Happiness
2. Pleasure
3. Fear
4. Jealousy
5. Anger

Let us explore each of those emotions and see how can product marketing can tap into each of those emotions to either get the buyer to love the product or to hate it.

1. Happiness

A product can increase happiness or decrease happiness in a person. There are numerous sources of happiness. Satisfaction, accomplishment, meeting a loved one, having a full meal after a long break and so on. If you can position your product in a way that it speaks about the happiness that the buyer can get once he purchases the product you are half way there. If the communication about the product benefits talks directly to the happiness that the buyer can get or if it talks about all the sources of happiness that the buyer might encounter with the purchase and use of the product that too leads to a transaction where the buyer is buying happiness from you not really your product.

2. Pleasure

The five human senses are the five gateways for us to experience pleasure. Pleasure is a feeling that gives you a positive hum in your body. What are the pleasure that using your product can lead to? How can you communicate this in your messages. What aspect of your product can help the user feel pleasure of one kind or the other.

3. Fear

Nobody likes to feel fear. For everyone fear is not something they want on their feeling menu. So your product has to do something to mitigate the fear that the buyer feels very strongly. By using your product your customer should feel safe in the knowledge that you product got his back. You should be able to map the exact fear that plagues your customer and communicate how your product gets rid of that fear. How your product fights that fear.

4. Jealousy

I am jealous of people who have stuff that I want. I am jealous of people who have stuff that I don’t want, but I am jealous of what they feel by possessing those things that I don’t want. Your product may be an aspirational product for some, they might be abel to overcome their jealousy of other by possessing your product themselves. How can you be subtle about talking how the buyer can stop feeling jealous and start feeling happy in the warmth of the possession of the product.

5. Anger

What kind of scenarios is it where anger can lead to buyer to pay money for a perfect and take it home. Again there are many sources for Anger and huge contributor for the birth of anger in a person is fear and jealousy. if nobody likes to be in constant fear or be plagued by uncontrolled bouts of jealousy, then these two feelings can easily escalate into angler. is it possible to fuel the anger felt by the buyer to push him to buy your product?

Should you Reinforce the positive emotions or the negative emotions?

What works better? Can you compel someone into action by reminding people of the positive emotions that will come to them if they buy your product. Or is more easier to compel someone to buy, by showing how the negative emotions can be avoided by buying your product?

The intensity of the emotion plays a major role. You cannot expect people to act to mild and passing emotions that don’t even register int he customer psyche. The more intense the emotion the easier it is for your address it in the form a product or service. The more intense the emotion the more likely that the customer will part with his cash in exchange for a way to satisfy the emotion.

Irrespective of the positivity of the emotion, your job as a marketer is to make the customer aware of the emotion that he may be slightly aware of and bring it up to the top of his mind.

Make Emotions Your Friend

Geoffrey James writes about 6 Emotions That Make Customers Buy. According to him he says it is not enough to know what information to provide your customer, but also what will be the emotional effect on your customer, after getting the information that you plan to convey. Because it is not the information that sells your product but the emotion that is born out of that information.

Keshav Sundaresh who is a high potential Business Development Professional talks about emotional story telling in this slide deck:

Useful Links:

• Emotions Are Key To Sales Success
• 10 Common and Effective Sales Triggers