Emotion vs. Logic in Sales, Marketing and Advertising

All people make buying decisions based on emotion; therefore your marketing must use emotion to sell what people want, not what you think they "need" or want them to need.

Yes, this is really, actually true. Engineers, accountants, executives, attorneys, housewives, and ministers – PhD's, delivery truck drivers and farmers – and butchers, bakers and candlestick makers – We all fundamentally make all of our decisions based one motion, not logic. Logic supports our emotions and is used to justify our decisions after we have made them. Logic plays a part, but emotion is the core ingredient.

Show me a product that people have little emotion for and I'll show you a product that's hard to sell or has very thin profit margins. Show me an ad or brochure that doesn't provoke any emotion, and I can guarantee you that it doesn't work.

Some people think emotion has no place in business-to-business marketing. Those people are absolutely 100% totally dead wrong. You can use them to write instruction manuals and employee handbooks, but keep them out of your sales and marketing department. This sort of thinking is exactly why most business-to-business marketing is so dull.

The Cardinal Sin in Marketing: Being Boring

The greatest sin in marketing is being boring.The world is a busy, cluttered place with advertisements and messages everywhere. If your message is boring, you don't stand a chance. If you can't think of anything exciting about your product, then get a different product. But don't be boring.

Please understand, there's a difference between emotion and hype.Your message doesn't need to sound like late night television in order to provoke emotion. You need to figure out what your customers love, and what they hate, what keeps them awake at night, what gives them ulcers and what catastrophic events they dread. You've got to know what aspects of their job they're emotional about and design your products, services, and marketing to address those felt needs.

All great leaders and managers, all great marketers, all great teachers and all great product designers learn how to harmonize with the emotions of the people they work with and turn them on and off at will. This of all things is the greatest and most profitable art form in marketing, and always will be.