We’ve often discussed the concept that consumers make decisions based on emotions, which they then justify by logic on this blog. A concept that few dispute yet few seem to put into practice. While businesses may understand how decisions are made, they are not confident enough to shift their culture to cater to the customer’s emotional triggers.

Any why would they; that would require courage, which we all know few businesses and business executives have. The courage to break from the mold of product spec sheets, SWOT analysis, feature-benefit statements and white papers detailing all the nifty features of their products.

Simply trying to understand the value that people place in doing business with their brands, beyond the necessity of using their products, requires the courage to place the business’ fate in the hands of its customers. Ooooh, scary.

“If we don’t make you cry, we fail” reports says Lorraine Twohill, Google’s vice president for global marketing. “It’s about emotion, which is bizarre for a tech company”. Indeed.

Tech, mobile and software companies in particular have been historically rigid in their fixation on speaking to the customer’s logical needs vs. emotional desires. However, recently Google starting paving a new path by replacing standard 15-second TV ads with one or two minute made-for-Web story telling.

“Google has been so dominant in its usefulness,” reports Peter Daboll, chief executive of Ace Metrix, a firm that evaluates TV and video ads, that they “now want to make you feel something about search, as opposed to just relying on it as a useful tool.”

What is the human emotion that needs to be catered to in order to make someone want to run a search on Google? Watch this story unfold:

Still, why would Google, the worlds dominant search engine with over 2/3 market share in the US need to consider doing something new or shifting what has clearly worked to date? Just ask Research in Motion, once the leader in smart phone innovation and market share about the importance of moving beyond spec sheets.

In fact, the more market share you earn the more important it is to communicate the impact your product has had on the consumers’ life. What was their life (in the B2C space) or their business environment (in the B2B space) like before they started taking your product for granted?
Other samples of Google’s move toward emotional connection in their marketing:

Google Plus

Google Chrome

It doesn’t matter which brought about this need for renewed human connection in marketing. The ever growing importance of the social conversation between businesses and their consumers, not to mention among the consumers themselves, necessitates a shift in a business marketing culture.
Courage.

By Sam Fiorella
Feed Your Community, Not Your Ego
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