Lecture 3 - Emotion

The emotional evaluation is natural and happens on two different dimensions (valence &
arousal).

Study from Pham et al. (2013): Does an ad that focuses on emotions rends higher rankings?

Two types of products:

o Utilitarian products have tangible features that offer functional benefits.

o Hedonic products have symbolic features that provide emotional pleasure.
 Most products are often on no side of the spectrum but share dual characteristics.

Emotion has a higher impact on ad ranking for hedonic products when compared to utilitarian
products. Hence, there is no point to play emotional ads for utilitarian products. Meanwhile,
you want to use emotions to advertise hedonic products (higher ranking  more purchases).

Automatic vigilance

People preferably respond to negative stimuli. This fast response manifests itself in different
ways:
o Capture attention earlier
o Are recognized faster
o Hold attention longer
 o Are more intense
o Evoke stronger responses
o Are shared more
o Are more memorable

 Facilitates avoidance of hostile stimuli (defense mechanism)

Emotional Blink

Meanwhile, for a short duration after perceiving a negative stimulus, people are unable to
perceive other stimuli.

Brands can thus market a negative stimulus to attract attention. Meanwhile, it depends on the
fit/market and brand image.

Categorical model of emotion

Basic emotions:
o Happy
o Surprised
o Disgusted
o Scared
o Sad
o Angry

There are fundamental emotions as these emotions can be perceived explicitly universally.
There are 22 muscles evolved in the 6 fundamental emotions. Hence, my understanding those
muscles, it becomes clear to identify those 6 emotions

Happiness

Happiness can be evoked by happy people, good looking, good mood, fancy location, colors,
they’re together drinking. But what brings them all together? Martini. Hence, the advertiser
wants the viewer to make a direct connection between Martini and happiness.
How else can marketers induce happiness? Invoke the words “happy”/happiness or display
happiness through smiles (giving human face-like features to products 
Anthropomorphism)

Surprise

People are risk averse. Hence, a negative surprise entails surprise leveraging a risk.

A surprise within an advertisement is also useful to avoid viewers to directly skip the ad.

xyz (surprise reduces zap at the beginning of an ad)

Disgust

They are typically intended to be humorous and are often targeted at young males. If they are
published by public institutions, their point is to directly disgust people.

Sadness

Anger

Conclusion

Different emotions have different effects on consumer behaviors (zapping, donations, etc.)
and all emotions are used in advertising.

Marketers can induce emotion via names, package designs, ads, etc.

Brands, products, and ads are automatically evaluated for their emotional significance.

There are two underlying emotional dimensions of valence and arousal, and six basic
emotions of anger, disgust, fear, sadness, happiness, and surprise.
Emotions influence brand and product evaluations.

Although marketers typically aim for positive emotions, consumers are automatically vigilant
for negative emotions.