Why you absolutely need to tap into customers’ emotions
If you haven’t already, read Switch, by Dan and Chip Heath. The book dissects how to promote change – and what is marketing if not asking people to change: to stop doing what they are doing with your competitors and do it with you. To be successful changing someone’s behavior, they say, you need to motivate both the rational and emotional needs – and then remove all obstacles in the path.
The book uses the analogy of the elephant and the rider to explain the thesis. The analogy, developed by University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt in his book, The Happiness Hypothesis, says our emotional side is an Elephant and our rational side is the Rider. The Rider holds the reins and looks like the one in charge. But imagine what happens when the Rider and the Elephant disagree and want to go in different directions.
The Rider is the brains of the operation. The Rider takes in a lot of non-emotional information. The Rider analyses, sorts, compares, contrasts, and makes a plan. The Rider might not want to change a direction, but can often understand that a change is necessary and so makes a plan to make sure the change is as simple and painless as possible.
The Elephant is the doer in this team. The Elephant is very big and very strong; he’s guided by feelings and instinct. The Elephant’s instinct is to feel safe, loyal, peaceful, comfortable. So imagine what happens when the Rider wants to take the Elephant in a new direction – one that feels uncomfortable, risky, potentially unsafe. Well, let’s say the Rider is at a disadvantage.
So no matter how good the plan, unless the Elephant is motivated – and the path is clear – it will be difficult for the Rider to get the job done.
The question is, then, in what ways can we, as marketers, motivate that Elephant? Drumcircle has got some tools and techniques to do just that. To get a copy of our whitepaper, “How to manage the elephant”, shoot us an email.
