Here’s a case study on how GlaxoSmithKline is building an emotional strategy in its business
GSK was represented by Donna J. Sturgess at the World Innovation Forum.
Now more than ever before emotion is saturating buying decisions and marketing needs to tap into this and use new ways to research and connect with customers.
A recent study determined:
15% of decision making is rational
85% of decision making is emotional
Another Harvard study said that only 5% is rational. Major industries are clearly focused only on the rational. But marketers are clearly ignoring the 85% that really drives the buying decision. A good strategy should have 2 parts the rational and the emotional …. and don’t think the rational isn’t important …. it is – but it needs to come together with emotion to form a powerful bond.
For Example …. Imagine a woman who goes to Channel for shoes but buys towels for her home at Costco. It makes you wonder if we have segmentation all wrong? Perhaps people segment to brand rather than brands segmenting to people. Because in that example – She is behaving one way in shoes versus exhibiting another behavior for home décor.
Brands don’t segment consumers — consumers segment brands
You have to get up close and personal with your customers …. you will never get this kind of insights by reading a chart or a fancy spreadsheet.
By the way, the emotional side gets messy …. and most of us are incredibly busy and don’t feel like we have the time for this …. which is why only 8% of marketers have shopped with their consumers lately.
I am convinced this is the next frontier in marketing. When you are highly relevant and deeply resonate with your customer base you can thrive in tough economic times.
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- Do You Know the Value of Your Customers?
- Segment Customers and Price Accordingly in a Downturn
- ‘Stopwatch Marketing’: Synchronizing Marketing Strategies with Customers’ Shopping Styles
Tags: Emotion, Innovation
Paul – definitely agree that buying is much more irrational than we want to admit and that consumers can’t be universally segmented (if it was that easy, most of us would be unemployed). But, you can use research to your benefit and segmentation is actionable if you understand what you’ve got. Segmenting consumers gives you a set of pictures that allow you to better understand who your customers are, and ideally, that should enable you to more effectively market to them. Brands CAN segment customers, its just that they need to be segmented in light of that buying decision. A good segmentation shouldn’t be looking to define the shoe purchase and the towel purchase at the same time (sometimes I am a luxury consumer, other times I simply want a bargain). Finally, I think that the hope of connecting one-to-one with consumers using social media, is fool’s gold. The one-to-one connection is the job of sales, or customer service, not marketing. Perhaps, recognizing that areas like sales and customer service actually ARE marketing and not separate functions, would go a long way to making the job of CMO a lot more strategic.
Hi Paul:
We do a lot of work quantifying emotions in our work – online anthropology. One small nit to pick. Any blanket statement about the role of rational/emotional drivers across categories is going to be wrong. The relative role of each is highly category/product dependent.
For example, emotional benefits are much more important in luxury car purchases than economy car purchases where the rational benefits are more important.
Segmentation – while useful – should be organized around passions or mindsets to be useful.
TO’B
MotiveQuest LLC
Hi, Paul -
Can you cite the study where you got the 15%/85% stat? I’m interested in reading it.