Emotional Marketing & Neuroscience of Emotions

Today I want to bring some neuroscience into the issue of emotional marketing and in particular a series of videos on the neuroscience of emotions.

Common Thoughts Linking Sales & Marketing To Emotions

"People buy on emotions and justify with logic"

"Selling is the transfer of emotions"

Many of the best known sales methodologies focus on finding the pain - Sandler Sales, SPIN, Tony Robbins, Peter Thomson etc - because pain creates an urgency, even a compulsion to solve the problem and make the pain go away.

But how much do we know about emotions?

Particularly for men, being seen as emotional is often seen as a weakness and the opposite to the "professional image" you may want to project.

So to use the power of emotions and to create emotional marketing, we have to:

1. Get in touch with our own emotions - the more we understand and recognise emotions in ourselves, the better.
    
   
2. Recognise emotions in other people and learn how to create or influence emotional responses.
    
   
3. Understand the power of emotions.       

Understanding emotions is also the source of empathy - the ability to understand and share another's emotions - and rapport - being on the same wavelength as someone else.

Once you have created this rapport or bond with your prospective customer, you are able to lead them to more effectively making a decision.

Once word of warning - this stuff can be used to manipulate.

However provided you are keen to help your prospective customers to act in their best interests and not yours, then you can use persuasion and emotional marketing without guilt.

I was pleased to find these videos on the Neuroscience of Emotions

Neuroscience of Emotions Complete Video

I found this video with Dr Phillipe Goldin from the Google Tech Talks which goes into the neuroscience of emotions as deeply as many of us would wish.

Because it is 62 minutes long, I have posted the full video and the links to six shorter videos of the same content so you can choose how to watch the presentation and so you can break it down into more manageable pieces.



Neuroscience of Emotions Video1

Sorry but the facuility which lets me embed videos has been disabled but the links take you back to YouTube.

Neuroscience of emotions 1

In this first video, we are taught that animals need emotions to survive - eg fear and aggression and our emotions come from our animal past.

There are six primary classes of emotion - happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, disgust and anger.

There are three background emotions or moods which are on a scale:

• well being vs malaise
   
  
• calm vs tension
   
  
• pain vs pleasure

There are also secondary emotions which come from the social relationships and include embarrassment, jealousy, guilt, shame and pride.

Emotional feelings are expressed through facial expressions (consistent across cultures).

Emotions are a source of information and feedback for thinking and decision making.

Emotions exist on a range and at the extremes can create big problems.

The video then goes on to look at some of the brain structures (very briefly) and how emotions can be measured.

 

Neuroscience of Emotions Video 2

Neuroscience of emotions 2

More technical stuff about how the brain reacts to an emotional trigger - social feedback, music, facial expressions, electric shocks (?) and people's own negative self beliefs.

Thinking can change emotion and can be used to regulate emotions. The video then goes into the different states of emotional regulation.

It then moves into brain anatomy and how it responds to emotions.

The video then briefly covers emotional intelligence and multiple intelligences. 

Neuroscience of Emotions Video 3

Neuroscience of emotions 3

This video starts with empathy and its link to imitating behaviour and actions. It seems that our brain mirrors actions that we see others take.

It then moves on to trying to understand others - their intentions, desires and beliefs.

It then moves on to compassion - a deep awareness of the suffering of another combined with a desire to relieve it (so from a sales perspective you help your prospect find their pain, feel it and then act compassionately by providing a solution).

Neuroscience of Emotions Video 4

Neuroscience of emotions 4

Video 4 starts with a look at mental states but then gets into neuroscience technical stuff then doesn't link so clearly into marketing and sales.

It then starts a Q&A session.   

Neuroscience of Emotions Video 5

Neuroscience of emotions 5

Neuroscience of Emotions Video 6

Neuroscience of emotions 6

 

Other marketing blogs - Marketing 1, marketing 2, marketing 3 marketing 4 marketing 5 marketing 6 marketing 7