Comments on: Connecting to Customers Using Emotion

By: Sheri Johnson

Sheri Johnson — Thu, 21 May 2009 19:30:42 +0000

Hi, Paul -
Can you cite the study where you got the 15%/85% stat? I’m interested in reading it.

By: Tom O'Brien

Tom O'Brien — Mon, 11 May 2009 21:38:37 +0000

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

By: Keith Bossey

Keith Bossey — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:27:49 +0000

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.