Download Mark Whiting, Moët Hennessy Measuring Emotions

Arts Marketing Association
Why? AMA Conference 2008
Mark Whiting, Moët Hennessy
Measuring Emotions
Mark Whiting is the director of marketing intelligence at Moët Hennessy, part of the LVMH
Group, which markets a portfolio of prestigious wine and spirit brands such as Moët and
Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and the spirits Hennessy, Belvedere and Glenmorangie. Mark has
a particular interest in measuring the emotional motivations of consumers. He runs a regular
workshop for Esomar, the World Research Organisation entitled Measuring Emotions: How
can we measure what consumers really feel about brands? Prior to joining the LVMH group
in 2001, Mark worked for Gallup Poll, Research International and TNS Sofres as well as in
the research department of the Financial Times.
In this presentation, he provided insights into methods to measure a consumer's emotional
response and how this can be used to develop effective marketing strategies.
How can we measure what consumers really feel?
‘What I like is to
feel emotion…
and I agree even
more when I see
the sales results’
Bernard Arnault,
LVMH
Emotion sells.
This has been
proved by the
brands which
work very successfully at a luxury level by understanding emotional
responses. Interestingly, luxury brands often use the arts to do this
because the result is usually emotion.
Moët Hennessy has placed great importance on its own design and
contemporary art partnerships and has had over 70 collaborations
with artists in the last three years. For example, Karim Rashid has
produced the perfect chair for drinking Veuve Clicquot in, Pharell
Williams delivers live concerts for Hennessy and there is a special
Jade Jagger ice dagger for Belvedere [right].
Consumers do not go through a rational process when choosing what to buy. It’s chaotic and
just like a game of snakes and ladders, falling in and out of love with products very quickly.
The ‘kodak’ moment is an important factor for example; the times in our lives which are
significant, the associated products having significance for the rest of our lives.
Emotions are what make us human. We share a few with the rest of the animal kingdom
though human emotions are much more complex.
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Arts Marketing Association
Why? AMA Conference 2008
‘Emotions guide, enrich and ennoble life; they provide meaning to everyday
existence; they render the valuation placed on life and property.’ (Cacioppo)
The word ‘emotion’ comes from the Latin ‘ex’ (out, outward) and ‘motion’ (movement, action,
gesture). Therefore it is about outward expression. Feelings come from within, but emotions
are about letting others know about them.
‘Emotions are valenced reactions to personally significant events, including
physiological reactions, behavioural reactions, cognitive reactions and subjective
feelings.’ (W Gerrod Parrott)
Antonio Demasio, as outlined in his book ‘Descarte’s Error’ has shown how people who have
impediments to their cerebral cortex which prevent them from experiencing emotions have
completely chaotic lives because emotions actually help us to make decisions.
‘Far from emotions interfering with rationality, the absence of emotion and feelings
can break down rationality and make wise decision-making almost impossible.’
(Antonio Demasio)
Emotions and Brands
A brand is the sum of each consumer’s impressions (emotions) concerning the product,
packaging or logo. This is one of the reasons why Moët Hennessy will try hard to create a
‘theatre’ around its brands such as the arrival of the champagne bottle at the table which
makes you the centre of attention.
Nowadays most products work, so the only way of creating differentiation is to use emotion.
The emotions generated by products reinforce the pleasure of purchasing, of possession and
of use and the emotional quality of products is becoming increasingly important in
establishing an edge in the market.
‘We now accept that human beings are powered by emotion and not by reason.
Emotion is an unlimited resource. It controls our rationality, our decision making. It’s
always there - waiting to be plugged into. And there are no limits to its power.’
(Kevin Roberts, CEO, Saatchi and Saatchi)
Marc Gobé uses the word ‘emotional branding’:
‘Branding is not only about ubiquity, visibility and functions; it is about bonding
emotionally with people in their daily life. Only when a product or service kindles an
emotional dialogue with the consumer, can this product or service qualify to be a
brand.’
It is estimated that each of us has 10,000 brands in our heads but how many are important to
us? Are they pixels or a full picture? When we recollect our favourite brands we are likely to
be able to remember/imagine how we experience them. Our brains filter out irrelevant
information, letting in only what is different and useful.
Millward Brown researched the attachments felt by consumers to a sample of 6000 brands
between 2001 and 2003 and found that products which generated a high emotional response
were both more memorable and had a higher market share.
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Arts Marketing Association
Why? AMA Conference 2008
As Marc Gobé says:
‘The biggest misconception in branding strategies is the belief that branding is about
market share, when really it is always about mind and emotions’ share.’
Luxury brands have a natural advantage when it comes to creating emotions, but the really
powerful luxury brands have earned their success by mastering the process of creating
emotions. Mastering emotions first of all requires an understanding of consumer needstates.
In the luxury world this is usually broken down into four groups.
“People I know
value my opinion
on adult beverage
brands”
22% agree
“I like to treat
myself”
38% agree
“I enjoy it when
others notice my
purchases”
15% agree
“I pay attention
to status
symbols”
10% agree
Beyond this, it is necessary to understand ‘luxury codes’ – the shorthand which can be used
to express brand values - and carefully thought through retail environments appropriate for
each of the four groups.
The Difficulty of Measuring Emotions
‘The existence of the unconscious and its effect on human behaviours is irrefutable’
(Candace Pert, The Molecules of Emotion)
It’s difficult to measure emotions:
•
•
•
•
The power of the unconscious
The complexity of emotion and the difficulty of language
The dullness of brands (vs. important life events)
People don’t say what they mean or mean what they say
Neuro-science teaches us some useful things about how our emotions work. For example:
•
•
•
•
•
•
To use inference to determine the effect of unconscious motivation
To use indirect questioning to move the focus away from the stimulus (advertising,
packaging) to the object of the stimulus (the affective response to the brand).
To stop relying so heavily on conscious recall, since learning may be implicit as well
as explicit
To treat verbal self-reporting with extreme caution as a means of explaining affect
To remember that preference is not the same as considered choice – avoid asking
people to explain or justify their decisions
To observe as well as ask, because emotions are public, feelings are private
In short, neuroscience teaches us that market researchers are doing many things wrong and
we need to change the way we evaluate brands.
36
Arts Marketing Association
Why? AMA Conference 2008
Rethinking Research
Too often, research questionnaires are simply a long-list of over rational questions, often
pointing to the same conclusions, asked from a slightly different angle over and over again.
The old style brand equity research will ask the consumer to rationalise his relationship with
the brand, so they either agree with the statement ‘Moët is fabulous’ or disagree with the
statement because they don’t understand the emotional sense of ‘being fabulous’ from our
rational question.
The new brand equity research asks the consumer to describe not judge, measure
emotions not rationalisations and doesn’t confuse them with marketing jargon like
‘fabulous’.
Gerald Zaltman (‘How Customers Think’) says there is no firm basis for using focus group
research:
•
•
•
•
•
•
They are not well grounded in insights from biological or social sciences – group
therapy is the closest model
They do not allow moderators to build trust
Optimal number for group interaction is 3 – incremental respondents add little
Average air-time per respondent in a group is 10 minutes – too short to achieve real
depth of mutual understanding
The 10 minutes has to cover multiple topics
One-to-one hour interviews are more likely to give depth of understanding built on
trust
A Multi-Dimensional Perspective
Instead, Moet Hennessey has ‘dark, noisy and real’ focus groups which are more like parties
(though with some structured questioning involved). Ethnography is also incredibly important,
as referenced in Siamack Salari’s presentation.
So instead of traditional techniques which produce one-dimensional visions of the brand, a
more sophisticated approach enables research to look at the brand as a system. Frequently,
this involves using narratives to enable a better understanding of emotional responses to a
product. In the example below, eighteen months was spent engaging with people about
various champagne brands.
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Arts Marketing Association
Why? AMA Conference 2008
These are two examples of perspectives which came out of the research, which provide a
very rich idea of how people feel about the brands.
Conclusions
•
•
•
•
Emotion is a key element of marketing success
Generating positive emotional associations as part of a balanced strategy should be a
key goal
Measurement of marketing’s emotional power is both necessary and possible
It’s not the obvious easy techniques that work – indirect research is required
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