By Prudence L. Gourguechon on 4/28/2010 10:48 AM
An article under the banner “marketing” in the May 10th edition of Forbes Magazine is entitled “Psychoanalyze This”. The subtitle reads, “Passionate media consumers may be receptive to ads that mirror their emotions”. The article describes a “new” trend in marketing (while acknowledging that the principles aren’t necessarily so new) that identifies the predominant emotions of consumers as they watch specific TV shows, visit particular blogs, read a certain magazine.
Then, this data on consumers’ emotions is fed back to advertisers and marketers with the idea that the marketing and ad executives will then craft advertisements targeted not just to specific populations (e.g. women) but to specific populations experiencing certain emotions (e.g. women who are in an empathetic frame of mind as they watch NBC’s Law and Order). (I addressed this emotionally tilted advertising in a blog I wrote for Psychology Today on the ads being shown during the Superbowl).
The market research company looking into this interviewed 20,400 consumers as they interacted with 578 media properties. My mind is still reverberating with that 20,400 number. How I would like to tap into that huge cohort and explain the usefulness of psychoanalysis.
Actually, psychoanalysis has an old relationship with marketing, going back to 1919 when Sigmund Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays, established the first PR firm and essentially founded the profession of public relations.
Over the next decades, people in advertising and marketing have showed sporadic interest in psychoanalytic techniques and ideas.
So the conclusion here is that many buying decisions are emotional ones, and emotions can be targeted (manipulated) for advertising efficacy and efficiency. The author of the Forbes article, Laurie Burkitt, writes that this shift to a focus on emotions represents “an against-the-grain view in this metrics obsessed age” Meredith Verdone, head of brand, advertising and research at the Bank of America, is quoted at the close of the article saying that “whoever understands people best will have a real competitive advantage”.
We psychoanalysts are happy to hear that. |