Report

Excerpt: Thoughtful Brand Building—Adding Emotion To The Value Equation—You might as well call it "marketing with care." It's an approach that's been gaining traction with increasingly guarded teen and college shoppers. Since the start of the year we have noticed a marked increase in the percentage of teens and college students who are essentially overlooking marketing messages centered on price and value in favor of experience and interaction. Without question, it would be more than fair to say this audience segment is kind of an anomaly as their behavior isn't exactly mirroring the mindset of the mainstream American consumer right now. 
 
In no small part the paradigm shift towards emotional marketing is being driven by the power of social and participatory media. By this point almost all of us know that an onslaught of messages and interruptions probably isn't the best way to get your brand into the heart's and mind's of the youth consumer, rather it's about inviting them to participate. What's more, it's important to differentiate between emotional marketing and cause-based marketing. While cause marketing typically involves some sort of cooperative effort between a brand and a non-profit group or organization, emotional marketing is exclusive to the brand. It's our belief that effective emotional marketing jumps ahead of standard metrics like brand awareness and recall to more valuable long term dynamics like trust and reliance.