Introduction
Domestic and international integrated marketing campaigns, acknowledge essence of emotion in realizing broad goals. Emotion consideration is essential, since it leads to consumer decision that determines trend of domestic and international firms. There are many ways in which emotion is aligned with process of marketing.
Focus is directed towards long term goals like brand loyalty, as opposed to short term outcomes such as increased sales. The essay will focus in discussing various ways in which emotion is integrated in domestic and international marketing campaigns.
Communication planning phase manipulates emotion perspective significantly. Emotion is manipulated in four key levels of marketing campaigns which are; consider, evaluate, buy, enjoy and advocate.
Communication Process
Communication occurs when information is disseminated and meaning is shared between two parties. Misinterpretation or misleading information distorts communication process. There are many ways in which communication can be distracted. Integrated marketing communication must be well planned to reduce incidences of misinterpretation and conveyance of misleading information.
Emotion manipulation is essential in communication planning. Marketing communications combine and enhance all elements in brand scope, by ensuring development of shared meaning among involved stakeholders. Integrated marketing communications ensure that there is emotional connection between products or brands and consumers (LaTour, 2006).
Audience decodes or interprets information disseminated by integrated marketing communication, in various emotional levels. Rational components like attributes of brand attract consumers. In this regard, information given to consumer should cater for consequences that will promote brand salience.
The second emotional level aims to cater for psychological effects or outcomes of brands. For example, a customer is likely to remain loyal to a brand based on satisfaction gained in earlier contact (Mattila 1999).
Implications of Emotion in Marketing
There are various explanations of why integrated marketing communications are aligned with emotion perspective. First reason is because there is reduced faith in efficiency of mass media as a tool of marketing. Mass media has been negatively and positively influenced by the society. As a result, consumers or target audience fail to acknowledge ordinary information disseminated through mass media.
In this regard, domestic and international integrated marketing communications adopt emotion connection, so as to be able to attract attention of target market. Increased competition has also improved use of emotion in marketing communications. Communication suppliers have to match increased demands of profitability by domestic and international firms.
Application of emotion has increased competitive advantage for both domestic and international firms. Further, there is need to connect all tools of marketing with target audience. Scholars postulate that emotion has increased efficiency of integrated marketing communications in domestic and international firms (O’Shaughnessy & O’Shaughnessy 2003).
Consumer’s Decision
According to many scholars, consumers’ decision is influenced by the way integrated marketing communications present their message and not necessarily content of information. Long term relationship like established brand loyalty, results from emotion connection between marketer and consumer but not rational effects. Consumer behavior is dependent on emotion dictated by heart and established by brain.
As a result, consumer decision is not consciously controlled by brain. Emotions are either positive or negative developments that occur after process of cognition. Consumers cannot make decisions without referring to emotion perspective (O’Shaughnessy & O’Shaughnessy 2004).
Levels of Emotion in Marketing
Consideration level is when a customer tries to gauge available products before making a purchase decision. Customers do not reason in a rational way at this stage. As a result, international and domestic integrated marketing communications should bring in emotion perspective. Communication campaigns should be in a way that consumers find a product, positive and better than other substitutes.
There are studies that tend to explore emotion frameworks that should be integrated in marketing campaigns. For example, Consumption Emotions Set (CES) defines 16 different emotions that consumers develop after cognition of marketing campaign. The set tends to define behavioral patterns of consumers, based on aims of marketing campaigns.
For example, satisfaction of consumers and willingness to recommend brand to others, are among key objectives of most domestic and international firms.
Notably, a consumer is likely to recommend a product based on emotion connection and not necessarily satisfaction after use (Palmer & Koenig-Lewis 2010). In this regard, emotions contribute more towards decision made by consumers than cognitive development gained after information is disseminated.
Domestic and international firms have adopted emotion perspective to counteract increasing commoditization and parity of quality. Studies show that brand differentiations as well as loyalty, are enhanced through emotion connection. Different emotions affect behavior pattern of consumers in various ways. For example, word of mouth is form of marketing communication that is directly influenced by emotion of pleasure.
On the other hand, emotion of gratitude is likely to lead to establishment of brand loyalty. When customers feel grateful in their interaction with marketing communication, they will tend to reciprocate by becoming loyal to brand (Richins 1997).
Effective planning of marketing is essential as issues that surround a product should be well articulated with emotions of consumers. Emotion connection should consider social and personal needs of consumers. For example, integrated marketing communication should ensure that consumers find pleasure in pricing strategy.
Emotions lead to establishment of brand loyalty due to interconnection between product and self actualization needs of consumers. The approach is meant to solve psychological and rational needs, as well as establish long term relationship between product and consumer (Singh 2006).
Emotion Transition
Consumer journey or decision can be interpreted as process from salience to brand loyalty. The process is categorized into four main levels, where emotion consideration should be adopted by marketing communications. Consideration, evaluation, buying and enjoying are the main levels of consumer decision (Zaltman 2003).
Emotion consideration has transformed marketing communications in both domestic and international firms. For example, marketers thought that consumers had broad knowledge of available products and cognitively select a product of purchase. Traditional marketing communications thought that relationship between product and consumer is the only possible outcome after buying process (Tanner 2006).
Emotion in Consumer’s Decision
Integrated marketing communications attach emotion approach. In consider stage consumers add or remove number of products that satisfy same need. Emotion approach focuses on how different brands are presented by marketing campaigns. Consideration stage extends to evaluation stage where final decision is made.
After buying process, consumers identify with product and develop either a positive or negative emotion. In this regard, emotion is critical in determining relationship between consumers and product. For example, if a customer is contented with service of a brand, bonding is likely to result to brand loyalty (Heath 2001).
Studies show that efforts applied by consumers in seeking information concerning brand is more likely to affect decision making pattern, than persuasion made by marketers. As a result, emotion perspective must be utilized before consumers get to consideration level. Emotion is intensified as consumers advance in levels of decision making.
For example, emotions applied in level of enjoy and advocacy, are more intense than that of consideration stage. Emotion that develops in stage of enjoying and advocacy can be either positive or negative. For example, if a consumer who uses a particular skin product is contented, she is likely to find more information concerning differentiation of brand (Yu & Dean 2001).
Integrated marketing communications ensure that consideration and evaluation stages are successful, thereby leading to positive development of emotion that is essential in word of mouth marketing strategy. Marketers ensure that they remain emotionally connected with needs of consumers before, during and after sales (Fournier 1998).
Emotion is manipulated at consideration stage, so as to persuade target and potential market to get involved in a relationship with product. Brand salience involves application of different methods in product marketing strategy, with an aim of influencing consumers’ behavior especially during the purchasing action situation. On the other hand, brand knowledge refers to awareness power in possession of consumers.
The two issues have been misinterpreted over time and have led to various publications by scholars in a gear to clarify on difference.
Brand knowledge means that consumers are aware of product and would mention it under its category if asked to list similar products, but is not necessarily likely to consider it as an option when purchasing. Salience on the other hand, means that a customer considers a product as an option when purchasing depending on various attributes and not necessarily knowledge (Elliott 1997).
Emotion and Brand Salience
Some scholars argue that brand knowledge promotes brand salience, while others claim that brand salience would trigger urge for brand knowledge. Theories have been adopted and modified with an aim of explaining how brand salience would lead to brand success.
For example, Associate Network Theory (ANT) postulates that brand salience is as a result of memory process of consumers, based on emotions developed. ANT subdivides memory process into three vital steps, which together lead to recall power and brand salience that constitute to ultimate success (Du Plessis 2005). International and domestic firms, apply emotion in process of memory in marketing communications.
Encoding process is comprehension of message concerning the brand after first exposure. Marketers and managers need to treat this stage with great caution, as many consumers are willing to try a product after first exposure before rating or developing any attitude (Rotfeld 2005). If a product meets consumers’ expectations in first exposure, it is more likely to be successful as compared to one that does not.
Further, encoding stage deals with sensory memory for example, association of a particular product with a distinctive scent. Emotion that develops in consumers after first exposure is crucial and affects the nature their long term relationship with brand. Scholars postulate that bigger brands are more likely to be salient, than smaller ones (Danaher & Rossiter 2011).
Further, large firms tend to consider emotion perspective more than small firms. Different consumers have different reasons, as to why they consider different products for purchase. For example, some consider health first while others consider pricing first. Bigger brands are more likely to have many products with different attributes liked by more people than smaller brands.
High brand salience of large firms is achieved by intensifying emotion development. Differentiation is proportional to level of emotion manipulated in brands. Brand salience is associated with more positive emotions developments in consumers, which result to higher chances of covering large target audience (Branthwaite 2002).
Maintenance stage is the next memory process, which defines consumers’ strength to store an attribute or information of a product. Marketers should not expect consumers to store information over long period of time, thus adverts are key enforcers of message maintenance which promote brand salience. The marketing information should trigger positive emotion, since it is likely to be stored more than information gained.
This stage advocates for short term memory and postulates that, events of recent past are more likely to be remembered when compared to activities that took place long ago (Brandt & Nairn 2006). High enhancement of stored message increases emotion development and salience of a particular brand.
The retrieval process is last step that Associate Network theory talks about. In this regard, stored message needs to be retrieved during the purchasing action so as to lead to salience. International and domestic marketing campaigns adopt external stimuli linked with emotion, which persuades customers to think of a particular product and not the other.
Marketers and managers need to step in and brand their product in simplest and relevant way possible. Brands need to trigger positive emotions among consumers as easily as possible. Consumers link shapes, colors and packaging with different emotions developed (Bagozzi & Nyer 1999).
For example, if a consumer is contented with a coke drink, he is likely to emotionally bond with red painting that has been used on coke can. Marketers therefore need to design messages that will trigger certain stimuli as quick as possible, since brand salience is a competitive process.
Brand salience primal objective should focus quantitatively as well as qualitatively, to ensure success of a product. The quantitative approach deals with increasing number of people who think of a particular product and considers it as an option in a purchasing instance. Further, it deals with number of times a consumer thinks of product. High quantitative brand approaches result to increased chances of product’s success.
Qualitative brand salience features strength and relevance of a product at a particular time and environment. Strength of a product involves power of desirable attribute, which drives a consumer to consider a particular product and not the other. Relevance of a brand outlines the feasibility of consumer’s emotion in considering a product for purchase over the other for example budget (Albers-Miller & Stafford 1999).
Conclusion
Emotion approach fosters brand salience that is vital in success process of a particular product. Domestic and international firms utilize emotion in various levels. However, emotion is a new phenomenon that had been ignored and disregarded in the past. Focus was being drawn towards brand knowledge and not emotion development.
Studies have however shown that most consumers do not necessarily purchase a product because of how well they are versed about it but on the contrary, due to relevance, attributes and strength of emotion they attach towards a particular product. Emotion is essential in facilitating communication process that leads to establishment of long term implications.
The existing literature surrounding this topic has not been seconded by many factual studies as expected. Most of factors are correlated and efforts should not be geared towards their disintegration.
Focus should not be on establishing independent marketing variables, but instead on how best they can be organized and implemented to come up with ultimate goal of success. Despite the fact that domestic and international firms adopt emotion in their marketing campaigns, index of manipulation needs to be increased.
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