The New Reality: Why Retailers Need To Operationalize Emotion

Alan Zorfas Co-Founder/Chief Product And Marketing Officer, Motista

The retail industry needs answers--big answers. The ability for retailers to grow profitably depends on their ability to differentiate on “emotional connection.” According to Shop.org’s eHoliday survey of retail intentions, retailers are relying more on discounting for the holiday season and all year long. Meanwhile, we’re seeing more announcements of top-brand retailers like Talbots, Gap, and others downsizing the number and size of their stores. 

This new reality underscores the need for a new source of differentiation beyond price. And that source is emotional connection. Retailer marketers must figure out how to get into the minds of their consumers in ways that really matter. When they do, they will see a significant lift in business results. Recent data from Motista shows that customers who feel emotionally connected to their retail brands are three to four times more likely to pay more, tell a friend, shop their stores more often, and rate the brands online than customers who are merely satisfied:

Outperforming competition on these metrics is the difference-maker. Yet this picture of parity is what most retailers are looking at when measuring conventional satisfaction attributes. Motista recently compared two major apparel retailers on satisfaction metrics and found that they had statistically identical scores:

These attributes are at parity and consumers no longer weigh them in their choices. No answers here.

All retailers, of course, are tapping into emotion during the holiday season. Advertising and imagery often attempt to evoke an emotional response from wanting consumers, but retailers shouldn’t mistake these traditional approaches alone as what it takes to connect with consumers. The customer “experience” today is much more dynamic, traversing in-store, Web, and mobile. To win, retailers need to “connect” with what specific segments of consumers really want in their lives.

For example, a leading home furnishings chain learned that a high-value segment of women were most motivated to shop with them and pay higher prices when feeling more “creative” during the shopping experience. When this retailer looked at new connection intelligence across a number of customer interactions, they learned that certain high-exposure touch points fell far short of conveying “creativity” to this segment. With this intelligence, the retailer quickly adjusted and boosted results:

So how do retailers get inside the mind of the consumer, know which connections matter, and improve results? Should they try harder? Get more opinions? Commission an expensive, one-time project to delve into emotion? These approaches don’t cut it in today’s fast-paced retail environment. Today, innovative retailers are relying on new sources of intelligence that get into consumers’ minds in a highly actionable way. Aligning emotional connection with specific segments and goals, and then knowing where to invest across the marketing and customer experience spectrum, with current intelligence in-hand is how you “operationalize.” 

The key for retailers that have not yet jumped into the area of emotional connection is to take the first step. And the first step is: the intelligence. Knowing how consumers are connecting with your brand, what motivates them, and where in the shopping experience they “feel it” will lead you to results beyond expectations.

Also by Alan Zorfas: "Marketing’s Most Powerful Lever Remains Elusive"

About Alan Zorfas

Alan Zorfas is co-founder/chief product and marketing officer of Motista. Prior to Motista, Alan spent 25 years in senior roles within leading advertising agencies, including Mullen Advertising/Interpublic Group and DDB, where he started and ran the agency’s Integrated Marketing Practice. Alan also served as chief strategy officer and an executive committee member of Earle Palmer Brown (EPB), a network of high-growth agencies. During his career, Alan has closely consulted leading brands across industries, including Citigroup, DuPont, ExxonMobil, Novartis, Timberland, and Volkswagen.