No
Phil Rumbol, Marketing director, Cadbury
All communication stimulates an emotional response - it's impossible for us to react to anything entirely logically. Moreover, emotions don't have to be positive to be effective: shame, irritation and anger can lead to behavioural change.
An ineffective emotional response is a weak one that fails to stay with us, that we neither share nor act upon. This is where formulas can get in the way. For years marketing theory has taught us that while engagement is important, it's secondary (like a sugar-coating) to the message. Assuming that people are waiting to digest and decode what brands want to persuade them of has led to thousands of 'likeable' ads in the research room having little impact in a media-cluttered world.
With Cadbury Dairy Milk, emot_ional response was the foundation of a campaign which has been taken on by popular culture, outperformed its category in terms of ROI and driven share growth.
No
Andrew Knowles, Managing director, JKR
The only successful formula in design is to avoid the formulaic.
Principles, on the other hand, are useful: they provide context and criteria against which to judge work.
A philosophy that places the emotional engagement of the audience at the heart of the design will generally appeal over functional design, given that we make most of our choices on impulse. Lovers of logic take note, economist and psychologist Daniel Kahneman won a Nobel prize for show_ing that, when it comes to the moment of choosing, people choose irrationally.
Nestl沤 is to be praised for sponsoring such a touchy-feely approach to its product and packaging design. Internal design teams within big corporations are prone to an exaggerated faith in functional features. It is to be doubly praised for choosing (without any apparent hint of irony) Black Magic as the first product to be on the receiving end of this design.
Maybe
David Pemsel, Group marketing director, ITV
I worry about having a formula for anything relating to branding, particularly when it's about stimulating an emotional response. An oft-asked question is, 'If this brand were a person, who would it be?' So, is there a formula for stimulating emotional responses in people? Yes and no.
If I attempted to create an emotional response from my wife in a formulaic way, then I'm not sure how long we would remain together: dim lights, cue soft music, rose petals, wet the eyes = divorce.
That said, many studies have explored the relationship between consumers and brands and there is clearly loyalty and emotional strength that go well beyond reason. Marketers can use a number of different tools to make that bond stronger and create greater loyalty, but consumers smell predictability and laziness.
In my view, the most critical component to any brand is relevance.
If people get what you are, and why, then you have an absolute right to
seek the emotional connection. If
not, don't bother.
No
Julie McKeen, Marketing director, TBWA\London
Why would anyone strive to establish conventions in any medium in which their brand operates? It can only lead to a triumph of mediocrity. Of course, every brand's ambition should be to provoke an emotional response. How_ever, communications that achieve this are driven by asking the right questions, not by thinking they already know the answer. Questions such as 'who do we want to be?', 'what do people want from us?', 'how can we help them understand us better?', and 'how do we break the conventions in the market?'.
To be engaging is to stand out from the crowd, be disruptive, and say something relevant, interesting and useful. With the right questions and a little bit of innovative thinking, the solution will present itself.
'Here's the answer, now what's the question?' is the communications equivalent of 40 identical new-builds on the outskirts of the M25; a blight on our cultural landscape and of little real interest to anyone.