Influence Of Emotions On Customer Experience And Types Of Value Proposition In Business Markets

Explain how emotions may influence the consumption experience, providing examples as discussed in the article “Emotional Cues that Work Magic on Customers”. How can marketers strategically use these emotional effects? 

According to the article Customer Value Proposition in Business Markets there are 3 types of value propositions. Explain and provide examples of the 3 types. 

Is more creative advertising more effective than less creative advertising? Explain the dimensions of creativity described in the article by Reinartz and Saffert. What aspects of creativity are most effective when combined in an advertising campaign? 

How Emotions Influence the Consumption Experience

1. The article talks about five key areas where the emotions influence the buying behavior of the customers. These five points are briefly enumerated as below:

Small Things Count:

Customers tend to give value to those areas which may invoke positive emotions among them. A feel-good factor is something the customers will look for while going through their buying experience. For example, the scent or music coming from a physical store may attract visitors or passers-by to at least drop by. A Smile by the flight attendant may help the business to get the business from the customers by way of him buying from the duty-free cart (Andrade, E. B., and M. Capizzani, 2011)  

Lesson

The business should prioritize customer service above all and attempt to turn any elements invoking negative emotions among the customers to a positive one. The management should pay minute attention to those small things that apparently may seek to be trivial, but may contribute significantly towards the top-line as well as sustainability of the business practices.

The Lasting Impact of Short-Lived Emotions:

There is a famous proverb that says "the first impression is the last impression”. However, it may not hold true all the time, but the once viewed and experienced emotions may have a lasting impact on the minds of the customers. There have been instances, where the once dissatisfied buyer of a product due to its quality issue has not been engaged in buying the same product the second time, even if the management rectifies the mistake and enhances the quality of the product (Bambauer-Sachse and Gierl, 2009). On the other hand, such short-lived emotions may have a positive impact of these is experienced in good mood. The authors have cited the example of Coca-Cola which has shown the advertisement of its product during the FIFA (Andrade and Capizzani, 2011). Such strategic move has helped the business to grab the attention of prospective customers.

Lesson

The companies should make effort to promote their offering when the customers will be in good mood and that really helps. The approach will basically be taking advantage of the customers’ good mood and thereby helping them to undertake the purchase decisions.

2. Negative Experience & Expression of Emotions Can Be Positive:

There have been instances where the bunch of negative emotions appeals to create positive emotions. Such happens primarily in case of advertisement of insurance companies. The advertisement shows lots of risks in everyday’s life ranging from life risks to financial risks and so on and then presents the insurance product which s assured to cover the individual from those risks. Such kind of appeal helps the customers to get inclined towards the products or services (Bambauer-Sachse and Gierl, 2009).

Strategic Use of Emotional Effects by Marketers

Lesson

Different corporate houses may capitalize on the negative emotions suitable for their offering. Like insurance companies, charitable organizations use guilt and sadness by way of depicting poverty and ask for donations. Other organizations may also adopt a similar kind of approach which may be best suited for their chosen market.

Biased Emotional Memories:

Customers’ experience at the end with the business may have a long-lasting impact on the subsequent buying decisions. It may so happen that the offering is not suitable for the customers. But, the smiling gestures by the salesperson or greeting or welcoming the customers for a subsequent visit may create a good memory in the minds of customers with a biasness towards the business.

Lesson

Firms should use these techniques to leverage such biasness and such hot/cold empathy works irrespective of buying pattern and behavioral traits of the customers.

Unanticipated Feelings:

People generally deviate from their planning and such phenomenon is not uncommon in buying decisions as well. Normally, the customers do not stick to their shopping list and end up buying additional items that are not anticipated previously (Andrade and Capizzani, 2011).

Lesson

Corporate hoses need to understand that the choice of buying the product does not occur while mapping the brain with the plan. Rather, there have been lots of unexpected emotions that may creep up while buying. Companies need to assess those emotions and use them appropriately in their marketing strategies.

There are three types of the value proposition as coined by the suppliers which re briefly explained below:

All Benefits:

This is the bunch of all the values that a prospective customer may get from the product if bought. In this approach, the business will frame the question for the supplier “Why should our firm purchase your offering" and the business will provide the answer through such offering (Anderson, Narus, and Rossum, 2006). Knowledge of own market offering is required in order to adopt such value proposition in own marketing strategy framework.

Example: A company selling high-performance gas chromatographs to various companies’ R&D divisions used to promote its products with all benefit assertion which actually were of no value to the customers.

3. Favorable Points of Difference

On the other hand, there are certain types of value proposition which basically compared own offering with that of other marketers and competitors and figure out the favorable points of difference between those two. In other words, the question for the suppliers, in this case, should be “Why should our firm purchase your offering instead of your competitor’s?”. This means that the business will make effort to show the competitive advantage of the offering as compared to what others are offering in the market. In this case, the knowledge of net best alternative is also required along with the knowledge of own market so that the customers are provided with full visibility about the own value proposition and its uniqueness in the market (Anderson, Narus, and Rossum, 2006).

Three Types of Value Proposition in Business Markets

Example: The article demonstrates about a recent example where a client sent companies involved in gas supply services request for proposal (RFP) stating that the final suppliers will be selected based on the most persuasive value proposition.

Resonating Focus

This is one of the finest approaches to the value proposition canvas. This approach proposes the product to be in conformity with other products in the market and also the “best “value proposition embedded in the product. The question pertinent for the supplier will be “What is most worthwhile for our firm to keep in mind about your offering?”. In the given case, the knowledge of the product offering superior value to the customers is required.  

Example: US-based packaging supply company Sonoco approached one of the customers engaged in manufacturing of consumer packaged goods stating that their packaging would add value to consumer packaged goods and thereby make the products with distinctive value proposition (DVP) in the market.

The advertisement is supposed to impact the customers’’ buying habit and convert them into the potential customers placing the order. There have been initiatives of making the advertising creative. However, these may suggest that creative advertisement may not be effective and lots of not so creative advertisement may turn to be effective for the business. Researchers have, therefore, need to find out the relationship between creativity and advertising and identified five dimensions of creativity that may be embedded within the advertisement in order to make it effective for the business. These five dimensions are briefly discussed herein.

Originality

• The advertisement has to be unique and original
• It should depart from stereotypical thinking
• "Coca-Cola Happiness Factory" is an example of such an original advertisement

Flexibility

• The advertisement should contain a diverse range of ideas.
• People generally look for varied subjects in one advertisement and hence the advertisement should be flexible for sifting ideas (Blythe, 2017)
• Jacobs Kronung: “Time For Chatting” is an example where different ideas are clubbed in some single advertisement (Reinartz and Saffert, 2013)

Elaboration

• The advertisement should be creative enough to elaborate the intrinsic idea behind it
• The promotion should contain numerous details with respect to the advertisement
• Unexpected details should be the value proposition
• Ehrmann Yogurt “Strawberry Tongue is an example where the women eating and licking strawberry and her tongue looking like strawberry itself are unique and unexpected detailing (Blythe, 2017).

Synthesis

• The advertisement should connect with unrelated subjects and then relate them to the intended subjects (Lichtlé, 2007)
• Wrigley's Juicy Fruit squish "juicy fruit ranch" is a classic example where a rabbit is chewing gum which brings two unrelated items together.

Artistic Value

• The advertisement should be visually and verbally distinctive
• The production value should be artistic
• Danone Fantasia “Flavor Trip” advertisement shows that a woman is floating on a flower petal through a sea of Fantasia yogurt, surrounded by flowers loaded with fruits.

Finally, it may be stated that the researchers have identified that the various combinations of these five elements have varying degree of success and usage. The mostly used combination is flexibility plus elaboration which does not render much value to the customers. On the other hand, originality plus elaboration is the most effective combination.

References:

Anderson, James C., James A. Narus, and Wouter Van Rossum. "Customer value propositions in business markets." Harvard business review 84 (2006): 1-4.

Andrade, E. B., and M. Capizzani. "Emotional cues that work Magic on customers." Behavioural Marketing 9 (2011).

Bambauer-Sachse, Silke, and Heribert Girl. "Effects of nostalgic advertising through emotions and the intensity of the evoked mental images." ACR North American Advances(2009).

Blythe, Jim. "Personality as reflected in creatives’ adverts." Personality, Design, and Marketing. Routledge, 2017. 64-73.

Lichtlé, Marie-Christine. "The effect of an advertisement's colorcolor on emotions evoked by the attitude towards the ad: The moderating role of the optimal stimulation level." International Journal of Advertising 26.1 (2007): 37-62.

Reinartz, Werner, and Peter Saffert. "Creativity in advertising: When it works and when it doesn’t." Harvard Business Review 91.6 (2013): 106-111.