What Are Core Emotional Strategies?? And why might your brand need this concept???
Tell Me How You Really FEEL!
Rebeca often talks about the ways that Brand Strategy tends to overcomplicate things. So in this tellthetruths video she shares a concept she’s been noodling with — to try to boil down the emotional impact of a brand to one or two of the core emotions identified by therapists.
It’s a similar tool to using archetypes but one that she argues is a lot simpler and easier to use.
Check it out, then let us know what YOU think.
This video originally appeared in LinkedIn.
If you enjoyed this video, check out:
Naming Using Emotional Benefits
The Deep Truths You & Your Brand Need To Say
Why Is Your Brand Is Falling Flat?
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey guys, it’s Rebeca from BrandTrue. And today I want to talk about something that, a theory that I’m working on, which is around this idea of sort of core emotional strategies. Basically, the idea is that there’s a certain set number of emotions. That’s not the interesting part of it, that’s sort of known. Therapists have like these wheels of emotions, kind of like color wheels. But I think that we don’t tend to use them that much in brand strategy and in creating resonant brands. And I find it really helpful to think about them.
So, the closest tool is we sometimes talk about archetypes, but I think that archetypes have fallen out of favor over the years, in part because they’re not really helpful. Coca-Cola is the archetype of the magician. It is? I can’t really wrap my head around it, but when I think about core emotions and sometimes combinations of them that are at play in brands, I think it suddenly starts to get more interesting. So as I was playing around with this, I thought Skims, a brand I talk about all the time, it’s about confidence and it’s about sex, sex appeal. It’s kind of interesting to think about it that way. There’s all kinds of emotions or experiences like novelty or belonging or courage that when you start to just, you know, people write these long manifestos, that’s great. Brands need to do that. But let’s just boil down to a couple of ideas. Target is a brand that’s about novelty. Oh yeah, that’s why you go there because you’re going to find something different every time. I can see that.
Just, okay, call me crazy, but as much as this is what brand strategy is supposed to be about, I think we overcomplicate it a lot and we don’t talk about it in these very simple core emotional terms. And as I’ve been playing around with it a lot in the last year or so, people get really excited. It seems to be quite insightful for them. So I wanted to share it with you guys and see what you think. Let’s get into a conversation about it. Thanks. Bye!
