Captian Kirk Vs Spock
An Exploration into Emotional Commerce
When was the last time you switched a strongly held opinion, any opinion, because of data? In the heat of an argument, the opposing side presents you with a salient fact which makes you admit defeat and switch sides.
If you are like most people, and chances are you are like most people, your opinion hasn’t switched because of data in a long time. In the book Influence, Robert Cialdini discusses the case of cult members increasing their faith in an upcoming apocalypse AFTER their prophecy was proven false. Numerous studies document this Backfire Effect that data and facts do not persuade, in fact, they entrench previously held opinions…even if the data is you are still alive.
Still not on board? Perhaps a well-documented study from 2008 could help break cognitive dissonance as it showed decisions were made prior to the mind realizing they were made. MRI scanners can see understand a person's actions prior to the person.
But if that anecdote switched your strongly held opinion it'd probably go against the opening paragraph. 😁
When it comes to how we buy we all desire to be Spock with our minds firmly in the driver seat and our hearts along for the ride. Purely rational as we review YouTube videos about the product offerings and calmly weighing the pros and cons to a certain choice.
Yet time and time again science shows we are Captain Kirk. Our hearts driving the decision making and our mind justifying all the right and wrong turns the heart made along the way. More than likely we decided on what to buy first, and then found product reviews to help our confirmation bias rather than destroying it.
Logic is the story we tell ourselves after a decision is made.
There are companies that know this truth. That are bold enough to risk their business strategy on speaking directly to a consumer’s heart. They stopped selling the product long ago and started selling the emotion. This is how we get a $30,000 Rolex, $500 Yeezys, and a $32 brick from Supreme.
We should consider that the e in eCommerce is a bit out of date. Everything is electronic now, it is no longer a differentiator for your company. The brands that differentiate now speak to one's emotions. Those that understand emotional Commerce have built strong moats in their business and are allowed to charge a hefty mark up for speaking directly to a person's heart and not their mind.
What exactly is emotional commerce? Find out more here!
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Thanks to Stefan Cosma for sharing their work on Unsplash