What is the meaning of Emotional Mapping?
The simplest definition is usually the best and we will dig into the details as we walk you through the value and the method to create an emotional map for your business.
An emotional map is a qualitative research tool that is used to identify the emotional benefits of a brand.
The Importance of Exploring and Identifying Emotions in Marketing:
It can oftentimes be hard for consumers to articulate the emotional benefits of a brand but through asking the right questions about the vision the company has for itself, how it shows up for its customers as well as consumer research it can be possible to create a cohesive emotional map.
The first step of the emotional mapping process is asking the right questions to the company to begin to understand the core values they hold and then those will be expanded upon.
Some of those questions can entail:
- What is your mission? What are your three most important goals?
- What are your best product attributes and what is their priority?
- What are your top benefits to the customer and what is their priority?
- What emotions drive your customers?
- What is their “Why”?
- What are the biggest barriers in your future?
When you are brainstorming all the answers to these questions you can order them by importance and as you discuss and did into these more you are able to craft what matters in terms of emotions to the customer. Write all the attributes and benefits you can possibly think of when it comes to looking at your business. Nothing is too small in the stage of the emotional mapping. Once you have these questions answered from internal review then these questions will go out into the customer market in order to get feedback.
A Case Study: Avanta Small Business Law
We are going to be looking at a case study from one of our clients Avanta Small Business Law and how we planned out their emotional map. Looking at just one of their 4 brand pillars we will take you through our process from the overarching value and how it can be broken down into pieces that are able to be marketed and felt by the clients and potential clients looking into their services.
From asking some of the following questions to begin the emotional map we will walk through how the information gathered can be transformed into a full map.
- What are the main attributes the customer thinks?
- What benefits the customers get from their company
- What are the emotions that people feel when they first buy the service?
- What business are we in with this new product line & direction?
- Who is your target market?
- What do they look like?
- What are they specifically looking for in these new products and services?
Pillar #1: Avanta has been in business for over 20 years. This experience has helped us acquire the knowledge needed to help entrepreneurs build their businesses. Professional and highly competent in business set up in laws we provide a passionate partner to help you set up your business solve problems and find solutions. We know what it takes to run a business and have developed the thoroughness and worth of dick to match that of our clients. You can have trust and confidence that Avanta knows what we are doing and that we appreciate the importance of your business. From looking at this first core pillar of their brand we are able to pull out the emotions, the benefits and the attributes that go along with this brand that can be represented in a more cohesive way towards the consumer.
The breaking down pillar one we are able to look first at the emotions what are the most important emotions that a consumer should be feeling from this brand those are as follows:
- Trust
- Confidence
- Important
- Appreciated
The benefits:
- Expert and knowledgeable
- Passionate about providing best solutions
- Specialist in setting up legal entities
- Excellent at communications.
The attributes:
- 20+ years of experience
- Great work ethic
- Thorough
- Informative
- Professional/competent
Having laid out each step of the pillar from the emotions to the benefits to the attributes you are able to pull out what the key themes of the brand should be. This can be identified with words, messages and concepts that continue to come up time and time again. By creating the key themes you will be able to create content around 9 key ideas. Define what your audience is looking for this is the next step of the emotional map. For brands understanding their key themes, their values, their attributes, their emotions will allow you to connect to the consumer on a deeper level.
The Power of Using Emotional Mapping in Marketing
Tapping into how consumers should feel when they are engaging with your brand.
You can’t just be the best of the best on paper or even in practice without some type of emotion being attached to those statements.
When we are looking at our case study above on small business law we can see that they understand how to connect with their clients. They have 20 years of experience, they have a great work ethic, they understand entrepreneur law, they understand small business law. All these things add up which allows the client to come in feeling that they will be protected. This helps clients to feel that their questions will be answered and any fear they might have of building a relationship with the company to be reduced. With the wealth of knowledge about the feelings of your customers, you are able to align your messaging top to bottom so that everyone will know exactly what you stand for.
Ask yourself the harder questions and allow yourself to explore without holding back. Brainstorming, asking the right questions, and pulling the most important things out and arranging them to build your map. Emotional mapping can lead to deeper insights that quantitative research could not give you.
If you are looking to upgrade your brand, your messaging, even just your logo and you are looking for help. We have helped over 400 brands just like Avanta do exactly that and we are ready and able to help you do the same.
