Emotional Branding: How Do You Tap into this Secret Ingredient?

Ever wonder about the Power of Emotional Branding?

How do certain brands achieve it?

Emotional Branding: The Secret Tool?

Emotions are one of those ingredients few brands tap into successfully.

A few brands over the years have tapped into this, most often during the Super Bowl season of ads where every brand is swinging for the benches.

So when it came to branding New York’s premier landscape designer, it was an interesting challenge for several reasons:

• Steve is a straight-shooting New Yorker who needed guidance on how to talk about his brand
• Steve knows his craft better than anybody, but the story needed to be about what families, and particularly women, cared about (instead of talking about what he did and his craft, we needed to talk the stunning oasis and sanctuary he would create)
• We needed to separate Steve’s business from the often-stressful business of remodeling and construction and bridge it into the transformation he brought about using the medium of video, sound and story
• What elements would elevate this video from some “pitch” by taking the viewer on a journey?
• And lastly, how do we tap into the story so it became an effective use of emotional branding?

At this point, we had the story dialed in and Steve’s voice and distinction.

But what would add another layer to the emotional branding, so the viewer was captivated and immersed into what’s possible?

Surprising, in this case, it became (once the storyline and script were complete) the pace and the hypnotic soundtrack.

Dim the Lights. Butter the Popcorn. Take out the Tissues.

Ever notice how the music in a movie can instantly convey if the scene is going to be happy? Or impending doom? Or a quiet, stressful situation that was silently mounting?

All because of a collection of certain notes and chords. And pacing.

Well, that’s what happened here with Steve’s story.

We needed to transport the viewer to someplace special, someplace that eliminated the stress, someplace where the viewer could… unplug.

Take two minutes to not check email or your mobile device and see (and hear) for yourself:

Tips to Creating Emotional Branding

1. Know your audience’s trigger points. Older men instead of teenage boys respond to different triggers. Moms and their daughters each respond differently. Business owners compared to employees each have entirely different triggers. Know these.
2. Don’t be tentative about emotion. Be all in or go home.
3. Figure out what elements will drive the emotional impact of your brand message: music? Storyline? Characters? Concepts? Or some “pain point” that let’s the viewer know that you get who they are.
4. Establish the right “pace” for your story. For some, speed is the right element. For others, a slower pace hits the mark.
5. Be transparent and vulnerable in your branding.

Here’s to emotional branding that triggers your audience to see more, to know more and to do more.