New Product Launch Success Depends on Evoking Distinct Emotions
By Christina Luppi
June 23, 2014
In this video, Dr. Reid explains the importance of understanding and measuring the specific emotions that your products and marketing evoke or alleviate. The talk on the psychology of advertising plots discrete emotions within a motivational framework of prevention and promotion goals.
When launching new products, Dr. Reid emphasizes that it is not enough to understand just whether your product and marketing are emotionally engaging, but rather that understanding the specific emotion you are evoking is critical.
Listen to how “boredom” differs meaningfully from “sadness” or how “pride” is distinct from “happiness.”
[fve]http://youtu.be/zxsVQeu3SIU[/fve]
TRANSCRIPT:
>> DR. REID: When we talk about emotion in new product launches, we want to talk about very specific emotions—not just general arousal. We want to get to the level of “discrete emotions.” Distinct emotions.
So we can describe emotion along two dimensions. One is “valence,” which is positive to negative, along the “x” axis there; and then one is “arousal,” and that’s just general arousal, from low to high. And you can describe emotion that way, but it’s really not sufficient.
You need to know the distinct emotion that you’re trying to evoke in your audience with the launch of your new products.
So for example, in the upper left-hand corner, you can have an emotion like “shame,” that’s highly arousing and negative… and that’s very different from the emotion of anxiety.
So if your product is trying to alleviate anxiety, you’re going to do something very different with your marketing than if you’re trying to alleviate shame. You can’t just go for alleviating negative, high-aroused emotion. You have to know the nature of that emotion.
Similarly, on the right hand side: pride, for example, is very different in nature than happiness. And if you’re trying to evoke happiness with your product, you’re going to market it differently than if you’re trying to evoke pride.
On the lower right hand side: relief, for example, is very different from a general state of calm. So if you’re trying to produce calm with your new product, you’ll be messaging in a different way than if you’re trying to prove relief.
And then finally, on the left hand side: if your product is trying to get people out of a state of sadness, you’ll develop the product differently, and you’ll market it differently, than if your product is trying to get somebody out of a state of boredom.
So understanding the distinct emotion that your product is delivering, and how you’re going to message around that, is critical for new product launch success.
When launching new products, Dr. Reid emphasizes that it is not enough to understand just whether your product and marketing are emotionally engaging, but rather that understanding the specific emotion you are evoking is critical.
Listen to how “boredom” differs meaningfully from “sadness” or how “pride” is distinct from “happiness.”
[fve]http://youtu.be/zxsVQeu3SIU[/fve]
TRANSCRIPT:
>> DR. REID: When we talk about emotion in new product launches, we want to talk about very specific emotions—not just general arousal. We want to get to the level of “discrete emotions.” Distinct emotions.
So we can describe emotion along two dimensions. One is “valence,” which is positive to negative, along the “x” axis there; and then one is “arousal,” and that’s just general arousal, from low to high. And you can describe emotion that way, but it’s really not sufficient.
You need to know the distinct emotion that you’re trying to evoke in your audience with the launch of your new products.
So for example, in the upper left-hand corner, you can have an emotion like “shame,” that’s highly arousing and negative… and that’s very different from the emotion of anxiety.
So if your product is trying to alleviate anxiety, you’re going to do something very different with your marketing than if you’re trying to alleviate shame. You can’t just go for alleviating negative, high-aroused emotion. You have to know the nature of that emotion.
Similarly, on the right hand side: pride, for example, is very different in nature than happiness. And if you’re trying to evoke happiness with your product, you’re going to market it differently than if you’re trying to evoke pride.
On the lower right hand side: relief, for example, is very different from a general state of calm. So if you’re trying to produce calm with your new product, you’ll be messaging in a different way than if you’re trying to prove relief.
And then finally, on the left hand side: if your product is trying to get people out of a state of sadness, you’ll develop the product differently, and you’ll market it differently, than if your product is trying to get somebody out of a state of boredom.
So understanding the distinct emotion that your product is delivering, and how you’re going to message around that, is critical for new product launch success.
