Product Recall

Putting Your Money Where Your Emotions Are

Co-posted with Lisa Lococo, consumer behavior analyst

If I asked you where you were when Barack Obama was inaugurated (assuming you were celebrating), where you bagged your first deer (assuming you hunt), or where you got engaged (assuming you were, are, or will be married), I’m sure you would have the answer on the tip of your tongue. However, if I asked you what you did last Monday, you’d stall before answering, if you could remember at all. Emotions affect memory—the more intense the emotion, the more vivid the memory.

Gallup and Robinson, Inc., conducted a study involving automobile commercials, and found that the rate of product recall was significantly higher for emotional commercials than for either rational or mixed ones. A similar study performed by Thorson and Friestad found the same, stating, “…the intensity of consumers’ emotional responses influenced attention, advertising and brand liking, and learning.” (page 6 of “Reconsidering Recall and Emotion in Advertising”)

But tugging on just any old emotional strings will not work. Research suggests that arousing positive emotions works best. In a study conducted by Isen et al., participants were asked to study a list of words that were positive, negative, or neutral in order to induce that state of mind. Those who studied positive words were much more likely to remember the words later than those who had studied either neutral or negative words.

Second, make sure the emotion fits the brand—that your product is tied to the right emotional response. Otherwise, catchy ads can be recalled, but with unintended consequences. Remember the ad with Conan O’Brien that played during the 2009 Super Bowl? Lisa Lococo recalls her Consumer Behavior class the next day, in which Professor Charles Schewe polled the students. Conan’s commercial was the most memorable ad played during the Super Bowl. However, no one in the class could remember the product. Though the ad was entertaining and memorable, the viewers’ emotional link with Conan overpowered their attachment to the product being advertised. (Sorry, Bud Light.)

Lastly, emotions are not used at the expense of reason. Emotions interest us in a product. Then we justify our interest by seeking facts that support our feelings. That’s how the mind works, and it may help your advertising. We might like how a car looks or the status it affords, but that may not be enough to make us buy one. That is when the manufacturer needs to supply some practical information, such as the car’s top safety rating. . Mark Penn knows something about this. He is a top pollster and is CEO of the PR firm Burson-Marsteller. In his book Microtrends, he says, “The rational side of people is far more powerful in many areas of life than the purely emotional side.”

Bottom line: Emotions can be a powerful bridge to consumers, providing you build it the right way.