Sean O’Connor, Marcel Slavenburg | 6 April 2016 | Qual360

The rest of the iceberg, exploring the roles of emotions in purchase behavior

Emotional connections between consumers and their brands

How is it that emotions

actually influence our

decision making,

particularly in the

context of a consumer

decision journey?

Is it simply about trying

to evoke a positive

emotion or is there

more to it?

How we view the decisionjourney has changed

How we view the decisionjourney has changed

In the latent phase, consumers are not in the

market and are primarily just passive recipients

of brand communication.

Prior to buying products, consumers consider

and evaluate brands, based off of:

• Triggers

• Recent experiences

• Interactions with touch points

How we view the decisionjourney has changed

Consumers use, interact and evaluate brands

and products, how they evaluate this experience

is based in part on expectations formed during

earlier phases in the decision journey.

Some consumers, who have a positive

experiences, become advocates and begin to

share their experiences and promote their

brands and products.

Ultimately, there are a few who bond:

consumers who develop an emotional

attachment with their brands and products.

How we view the decisionjourney has changed

How do the emotions associated with

the top three stages influence

judgment and decision making?

How do emotions actually play a role in the decision journey

Our model looks at three specific categories of

emotions that play a role in the decision journey.

Our ModelThese three categories of emotions influence what we

consider and how we evaluate it in making a decision

Case Study

The case study was set-up to find out how we are able to determine how

emotions actually influence decision making.

If we understand the source and influence of emotions, we are able to

recommend how and when to evoke desired emotions or appeal to specific

emotions.

Laros & Steenkamp 2005

18 - 65

Life Grid Method

Customer Journey Mapping

In our case study, we

interviewed ten consumers

with ages ranging from 18 to

65, who had recently switched

from cell phone subscriptions.

The interviews were semi-

structured and included

exercises, such as:

• Life Grid Method

• Projective Techniques

• Customer Journey Mapping

Target Group

Laros & Steenkamp 2005

18 - 65

Life Grid Method

Customer Journey Mapping

The Life Grid Method, is a structured

way with which retrospective data can

easily be collected with the aim to

improve the ‘accuracy’ of recalled data.

As Projective Techniques, we used an

image deck to articulate moods during

certain experiences and a deck of

cards with emotions from the Laros &

Steenkamp study. Drawn from an

extensive literature review, they

proposed 33 emotion terms, including

a hierarchy of whether the emotion is

perceived as positive or negative.

The Customer Journey Mapping

exercise focused on mapping touch

points in their decision journey using

iconic representations.

Method

Decision

Product

Emotion

Expected

Emotion

Learning 1

Consideration

Evaluation

Immediate

Emotion

A ‘trigger’ is the activation of a need state

that has emotional associations and

generally leads to:

• change in behavior

• being receptive to a first touch point

• start of the consideration phase

Reassurance

Need

Learning 2It is important to understand:

1. how people feel when they

start the decision journey

2. how they feel when they

interact with your brand at

various touch points.

Just as you want to consider

the context of other products,

you want to understand the

context of emotions.

By doing so, you can better

understand why consumers are

making decisions and tailor

your content, products or

recommendations accordingly.

Let's not forget that the little emotions are the

great captains of our lives and we obey them

without realizing it.

Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

Contact us

Sean O’Connor

Senior Research Analyst

s.oconnor@skimgroup.com

Marcel Slavenburg

Research Director Qualitative

m.slavenburg@skimgroup.com