Having an emotional bond gives a marketer a license to go places with a consumer they wouldn’t be welcome otherwise.
As an example of this, Bob Wallach, senior vice president of marketing, refrigerated division, ConAgra Foods, cited the Walt Disney Company. Disney used the warm feelings the public had for its characters to make the leap from movies to theme parks to a myriad of other opportunities like cruise ships.
During a panel on building a brand that resonates at the MIT Sloan CMO Summit on Wednesday, Rick Dow, CMO of Midas said emotional resonance is vital, “because there’s no ties in business these days.
“Clients that believe in emotional branding let us do our best work,” said Paul Tilley, senior vice president and group creative director, DDB Chicago. “When people buy Coke, they’re buying Americana. When they buy tickets to DisneyWorld, they’re buying magic.
Tilley agreed with Wallach on the point that effective branding lets you make leaps, because the consumer has an idea what to expect. If Pepsi opened an amusement park, he said, you can imagine what that would look like. Likewise, if Nike created a soft drink, you have an idea of what that would be.
ConAgra is using emotional resonance to promote its longtime brands Redi-Whip and Butterball. For the dessert topping, Wallach said the company used the tagline “Let the Fun Out,” and showed images of people being silly with the product, rather than just putting it on a piece of pie. For Butterball, the brand’s holiday “turkey talkline” was emphasized, stressing that the company was there to help make sure the family dinner turned out well.
Midas looked to leverage a “legacy of trust” in its advertising campaigns, portraying the mechanics at the local shops as heroes who do the right thing for their customers.
One spot showed a woman hooking her mechanic up to a lie detector, testing him with questions like “Will my car be ready on time?” and “Will you sell me anything I don’t need?”
After getting the right responses, she asks one more question: “Do you like Broadway show tunes?” The manly man answers “no” and the buzzer goes off, showing he lied. “I just wanted to see if it worked,” she says, satisfied.
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