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Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
V. Developing the
Integrated Marketing
Communications Program
Emotions
Personality
Product benefits
9. Creative Strategy:
Implementation and
Evaluation
Advertising researchers and agencies have given considerable thought to the relationship
between rational and emotional motives in consumer decision making and
how advertising influences both. McCann-Erickson Worldwide, in conjunction with
advertising professor Michael Ray, developed a proprietary research technique known
as emotional bonding. This technique evaluates how consumers feel about brands and
the nature of any emotional rapport they have with a brand compared to the ideal emotional
state they associate with the product category. 12
The basic concept of emotional bonding is that consumers develop three levels of
relationships with brands, as shown in Figure 9-2. The most basic relationship indicates
how consumers think about brands in respect to product benefits. This occurs, for
the most part, through a rational learning process and can be measured by how well
advertising communicates product information. Consumers at this stage are not very
brand loyal, and brand switching is common.
At the next stage, the consumer assigns a personality to a brand. For example, a
brand may be thought of as self-assured, aggressive, and adventurous, as opposed to
compliant and timid. The consumer’s judgment of the brand has moved beyond its
attributes or delivery of product/service benefits. In most
instances, consumers judge the personality of a brand on the
basis of an assessment of overt or covert cues found in its
advertising.
McCann-Erickson researchers believe the strongest relationship
that develops between a brand and the consumer is based
on feelings or emotional attachments to the brand. Consumers
develop emotional bonds with certain brands, which result in
positive psychological movement toward them. The marketer’s
goal is to develop the greatest emotional linkage between its
brand and the consumer. McCann-Erickson believes advertising
can develop and enrich emotional bonding between consumers
and brands. McCann and its subsidiary agencies use
emotional bonding research to provide strategic input into the
creative process and determine how well advertising is communicating
with consumers. McCann-Erickson used emotional
bonding research as the basis for its award-winning “Priceless”
campaign for MasterCard International. When the agency took
over the account a few years ago, MasterCard was perceived as
an ordinary credit card you keep in your wallet. The challenge
was to create an emotional bond between consumers and MasterCard
without losing the brand’s functional appeal. McCann-
Erickson developed a sentimental campaign that uses ads that
take the sum total of an experience and declare that it has no
price tag. Each commercial and print ad ends with the theme
“There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else
there’s MasterCard” (Exhibit 9-8).
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
Figure 9-2 Levels of
relationships with brands
Exhibit 9-8 MasterCard’s
“Priceless” campaign
creates an emotional bond
with consumers
273
Chapter Nine Creative Strategy: Implementation and Evaluation