Rational or emotional marketing during the COVID pandemic?

Ardath Albee (Marketing Interactions) and Gurdeep Dhillon (Adobe Digital Experience) spoke about the use of emotional intelligence in content marketing at the recent Demand Generation Summit organized by Content Marketing Institute.

“We have an opportunity to rethink the way we’re presenting our products – to make them more interesting and to change the whole conversation and dialogue around them,” said Ardath. “The more you can do with that, the more trust you’re accumulating.”

Social intelligence is the ability to know yourself and others. Social intelligence develops from experience with people and learning from successes and failures in the social environment. It is more commonly referred to as “tact”, or “common sense”. Social scientist Ross Honeywill believes that social intelligence is an aggregate measure of social awareness, evolved social beliefs and attitudes, and an ability and appetite to manage complex social change. Psychologist Nicholas Humphrey believes that social intelligence is, rather than measurable intelligence, what defines who we are as human beings. Emotional intelligence is the ability of individuals to recognize their own emotions and those of others, to distinguish between different feelings and to label them appropriately, using emotional information to guide thinking and behavior and to manage and / or adjust emotions to adapt to environments. or to achieve their own goals.

In the case of marketing, emotional work is the process of managing feelings and expressions to meet the emotional requirements of this profession. Marketing professionals need to regulate their emotions in content, building their customers’ trust by demonstrating an awareness and a better understanding of the positive results and experiences that the public wants to obtain.

The current pandemic can change marketing methods, amplifying existing emotions, but also developing new emotions that affect decision-making and focusing on a specific empathy. Marketers need to adjust their content priorities to meet new audience questions and emotional needs. COVID-19 has highlighted business issues such as competitiveness, but also personal, emotional issues such as health, job security, family safety and financial uncertainties. Content Marketing Institute presents a comparison between commonly present emotions and concerns (achievements, career advancement, confidence, pride, assurance, certainty, autonomy and relatedness) and the amplification of specific emotions and concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic (uncertainty, risk, safety / security, and reassurance).

During this period, relational marketing becomes decisive in customer relationships, emphasizing customer retention and satisfaction rather than sales transactions. Relational marketing recognizes the long-term value of customer relationships and extends communication beyond intrusive advertising and promotional messages. for sales. It responds to the current demands of customers looking for brands that help them feel more confident and control their priorities, helping them to answer larger questions such as what the future holds for them and how they will cope with it. “What they really want now is insights that are going to help them make decisions at a time of great uncertainty,” says Ardath.

The tips of the Content Marketing Institute for marketing specialists in the current period can be summarized as follows:

• Understand how decisions are really made, through both intuitive and rational thinking
• Start with truth about the products and services promoted
• Reframe the value of your brand experience
• Take a positive stance, as a wave of hope in the current pandemic.
• Focus on incremental improvements that have momentum, with simple steps and substantial changes.
• Address their personal priorities – not just business ones.
• Fill the empathy deficit.
• Emotion unlocks the power of personal connection.

People can be influenced by empathy, a position also held by Iain King, who suggested that the evolutionary basis of empathy means that people can consider the interests of other individuals, but only on a one-to-one basis, “because we cannot than imagining another person in our minds at some point.” King uses this perspective to adapt utilitarianism and help reconcile Bentham’s philosophy with the ethics and ethics of virtue.

Emotions help to develop interpersonal relationships. This approach aims to develop a richer contact with a customer, offering a more personalized marketing campaign, using experience to create stronger links. A main focus on a long-term relationship with customers differentiates relational marketing from other marketing techniques.