“Who are you going to believe: me or your own eyes?”  - Groucho Marx

In About Face, Dan Hill makes a clear and compelling argument for the use of emotion in advertising and it’s power to drive changes in behaviour. The book is full of useful examples and anecdotes and some statistics too. In one study by Omnicom, emotional engagement with customers resulted in 20% higher return on investment than mere awareness in advertising.  In another review by Pringle and Field (based on 880 case studies from the UK’s Institute of Practitioners Advertising Effectiveness Awards), ‘soft sell’ ads that inspire strong emotional responses in their audience make more money (almost twice as much as ‘hard sell’ ads with more fact-based and rational arguments). And more emotional ads also reduced price sensitivity, created greater differentiation and were more important in more mature markets. Read more »

The evolution of emotions

Although some key emotions can be clearly seen on our faces (read more here), our emotional lives are complex and intricately bound into the behavioural strategies we have evolved over thousands (perhaps millions) of years to improve our chances of survival and success. Each emotion tells a story about our immediate goals, our perception of the context we find ourselves in, and our interpretation of the events in our lives. Read more »

CNBC have an interesting slide show (click here) and article on Growing Trends for Chinese Consumers and it’s worth sharing them even though some are well known (some are more surprising). The trends are macro-economic, and provide insights into the changing Chinese marketplace and consumer. Read more »