Why brands need to create an emotional impact to succeed in HR
According to the neurologist, Donald Calne, “The essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions." *
Even if it’s subconscious, emotions shape our responses and behaviours surrounding different events. It’s for this reason that brands must create an emotional impact to help influence the actions of their audiences.
Without compelling the right emotions, brands may struggle to convince their target customers to work with them or buy from their business.
But how does this work?
Truly comprehending how human emotion drives action involves some in-depth and very clever understandings of neuroscience and the human mind. But put simply, it works something like this...
When we experience a stimulus (an event, object or thing), it generates subconscious emotions, making the body produce responsive hormones. These then enter the bloodstream and create our feelings. The way we feel about certain things makes us respond differently and act in specific ways.
Why is it so important for businesses?
Because of this, no matter how much we believe we are rational beings, all humans are, to some extent, driven by emotions.
Brands can and will continue to use this facet all over the world, some to a better extent than others. If they can create the right feelings in their audiences, they can encourage positive responses, perhaps relatability, fondness or customer loyalty.
Now, swaying the emotions of customers doesn’t have to mean creating overt and obvious displays of emotions. Businesses don’t need to make their customers laugh out loud or burst into tears to produce a compelling response. Feelings and expressions can come in all sorts of forms: creativity, innovation, reassurance, for instance. Often, people act on emotions they don’t realise they’re having. So as long as businesses know what makes their audiences tick (no matter how subtle) they can work with emotions to influence action.
In business, a large part of influencing customer emotions is to build a shared emotional connection. If businesses and customers can relate to each other due to shared emotions, feelings and beliefs, then loyalty grows. Audiences become more willing to use a certain service if they believe a brand’s emotions and values align with the way they wish to live their lives and the business understands how to help their problems.
But why is this especially important for HR?
We all know that HR is human-focused, supporting work-related engagement, productivity, trust, paternal care and so many other elements.
If suppliers to the HR market lack an emotional impact, they will struggle to influence and subsequently build an emotional connection with HR because they aren’t showing they truly understand their needs.
In HR, influencing emotion is important, not only because on a neurological level does it sway buying decisions with subconscious feelings, but it also demonstrates expertise in understanding humans.
And today? Businesses also must know which are the appropriate emotions to tap into to influence audiences under COVID-19. HR will want suppliers that can evoke trust and provide reassurance because the market has been and may continue to be so uncertain. Understanding what is relevant is key to knowing what feelings will produce certain actions at a given time.
In the end, successfully creating appropriate emotions depends on perfecting the brand promise, messages, tone, style etc. These elements can work together in harmony to create customer engagement and connection.
If you want to know if your brand is influencing necessary emotions, we’re currently offering free brand evaluations for HR-related businesses. Find out how well your brand delivers trust, reassurance and relevance for its customers, as well as how clear and visible it is to audiences. Gain insight into what your brand needs to stand out. Learn more here.
* Within Reason: Rationality and Human Behavior - Donald Calne