The time has come for us to change the way we think about marketing so we can execute it more effectively within our new marketplace. More specifically, the mission for marketing must evolve from generating transactions that sell goods and services to building emotional relationships that are then leveraged to sell goods and services.

1. THE POWER OF EMOTIONAL MEANING
HOW SUCCESSFUL BRANDS WILL ACHIEVE
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN THE FUTURE
Christopher Brace and Prisca Tsai

2. 1. Some Key Differences between a Happy Life and a Meaningful Life, Journal of Positive Psychology.
2. Ibid.
One thing marketers can probably all agree on these days is how quickly our environment has changed. Mass targets and
messaging are no longer the key to a brand’s success, fixed distribution channels have been replaced with borderless shopping,
and consumers and shoppers are barely recognizable as compared to only 10 years ago. These are just a few of the changes
we’ve experienced, but one thing that has not changed is how we execute marketing. We’re still using an approach that was
established back when three-martini lunches were still in fashion. The time has come for us to change the way we think about
marketing so we can execute it more effectively within our new marketplace. More specifically, the mission for marketing must
evolve from generating transactions that sell goods and services to building emotional relationships that are then leveraged to
sell goods and services.
There is another important shift we have already experienced, one that has significant implications for marketers: a move from a
need-based society to a want-based society. While it is the need for food that drives shoppers to the pasta aisle, when faced with
a multitude of options, it is an emotional want that drives their brand choice. Having all our basic human needs satisfied, we
naturally gravitate towards higher forms of satisfaction: emotional wants. Today’s consumers and shoppers expect a lot more
from brands and from life in general. The sense of happiness they once felt from having their needs fulfilled is no longer enough;
now they strive for something more substantial – emotional meaning. One might think that it’s out of a marketer’s scope to
provide something that self-actualizing, but that’s exactly why we need to change our thinking about how marketing relates to the
world around us. More than ever before, the different aspects of our lives are intertwined and every interaction we experience,
with an individual or a business, has the potential to make an impact. Therefore, brands have a choice: seek to be meaningful
and play a significant, ongoing role in the lives of consumers and shoppers or remain in a transactional relationship, only
remembered when needed. Evolving from delivering happiness to delivering emotional meaning requires we fully understand the
distinction between these two concepts.
HAPPINESS AND MEANING
Happiness is “rooted in having one’s needs and desires satisfied.”1
In other words, people are happy when they get what they
need. In the context of marketing, this means delivering product attributes and benefits that meet consumers' and shoppers’
needs, which is the focus of marketing today. While making people happy certainly contributes to a brand being liked and
trusted, it doesn’t go far enough. Delivering emotional meaning is how brands will build real competitive advantage in the future.
Meaning involves “understanding one’s life beyond the here and now.”2
Meeting a need is linked to a specific moment, but
bringing meaning to one’s life has no boundary of time. For a brand to be meaningful, it must reflect consumers' and shoppers’
emotional truths relevant to the brand and its category. Emotional truths are what drive our wants and link our past, present, and
future, providing a necessary source of stability. We like to use this metaphor to bring this concept to life. Imagine you are
walking down the cereal aisle, with box after box as far as the eye can see. Now imagine each package as a mirror that reflects
one of the following images: a perfectly clear reflection of you, a blurry reflection of you, or a perfect reflection of the brand itself.
To which package will you most likely be drawn? Most of us will be drawn to the package that reflects the clearest image of
ourselves.

3. THE ROI OF MEANING
With that being said, happiness and meaning are by no means exclusive of one another. On the contrary, they should
complement and strengthen each other to increase the brand equity. As brands strive to deliver happiness (i.e. provide relevant
features and benefits), they must do so in the context of an emotional want. This link to emotion is what elevates features and
benefits from rational reasons-to-believe to differentiating aspects of a brand’s equity.
3. Some Key Differences between a Happy Life and a Meaningful Life, Journal of Positive Psychology.
4. We acknowledge that across studies, the definition of meaning may vary slightly. But the common denominator to all these studies remains the deep and meaningful emotional connection
that is achieved between a brand and consumers/shoppers.
5. Gallup State of the American Consumer Report, June 2014
6. Havas Meaningful Brands Study, 2015
7. Ibid.
8. The New Science of Customer Emotions, HBR, November 2015
9. Gallup State of the American Consumer Report, June 2014
10. Ibid.
11. Meaningful Brands Outperform Markets, But Remain Rare, The Holmes Report, June 2013
12. Ibid.
“Life is in constant change but strives for stability and meaning are important tools for imposing
stability on the flux of life.”3
When faced with a new concept or idea, there is a natural tendency to demand proof that it’ll work before embracing it.
Most companies do not want to be the first to take a bold and risky step. As it turns out, there is substantial evidence that
leveraging emotional truths to bring meaning to the lives of consumers and shoppers yields a higher return on investment
than solely meeting a need. For example:4
• 33% of people with an intimate connection to a brand are willing to pay a 20% premium.5
• Meaningful brands gain an average of 46% more share of wallet.6
• Meaningful brands outperform the stock market by 133%.7
• Consumers/shoppers who are emotionally bonded to a brand are 53% more valuable than
those who are just highly satisfied.8
o In the Hospitality industry, these consumers spend 46% more per year.9
o In the Consumer Electronics industry, they spend an average of $84 more per shopping trip.10
While enough companies and brands have evolved to offer meaning to quantitatively prove their value, there is ample white
space to be filled. Only 20% of brands worldwide are seen as having meaningful impacts on people’s lives.11
In the U.S., only
9% of brands are perceived as such, as compared to 27% in Latin America and 39% in Asia.12
At the industry level, great
opportunities exist within consumer packaged goods as it falls within the poorest performing categories.

4. THE FUTURE IS NOW
Let’s look at two brands already leveraging the power of emotional truths to differentiate themselves through meaning: Dos
Equis with “The Most Interesting Man in The World” and Dixie with “Be More Here.” Neither of these brands mention the benefits
and attributes normally used to differentiate these types of products. In their respective categories, these product-based
reasons-to-believe are so well understood and expected, they no longer require explanation. Do people need to be told that
beer is a refreshing beverage made from hops? Probably no more than people needing to be told that paper plates are sturdy
and soak-proof. Rather, each brand elevates its positioning based on emotional truths, differentiating itself and building a
competitive advantage based on meaning. Competitors can easily match attributes, but matching emotional meaning is much
more difficult.
While differentiating solely on emotional meaning is relevant for some brands, it may not be for others. Take Swiffer as an
example. This is a category in which the product benefits and attributes still need explaining. Their ad, “Lee and Morty,”
illustrates how features can be linked to emotion so they are elevated from rational reasons-to-believe to differentiating aspects
of the brand’s equity. When discussing the best path for your brand, remember that it is never an “either-or” decision, it is only
and always a choice of how much emotion versus rational benefits and attributes.
When pursuing the path of emotional meaning, there is a trap marketers should avoid. We must recognize the difference
between an emotional territory (a broad and general space) and an emotional truth (provides a specific point-of-view on an
emotional territory). The paper plates category provides two brands we can use for comparative purposes. Chinet’s ad
“Rediscover The Lost Art of Getting Together” leverages the emotional territory of socialization. Dixie ("Be More Here”), on the
other hand, brings a specific point of view by adding that socialization is about listening to people’s stories so you connect at a
deeper, more meaningful level. Dixie’s specific point-of-view will be much harder for a competitor to disrupt than Chinet’s
generalized message of socialization.

5. FINDING THE EMOTIONAL TRUTHS
If bringing emotional meaning to customers' lives generates a higher in-market result, we must then understand how to make
that happen. As was stated earlier, for a brand to be meaningful it must reflect consumers' and shoppers’ emotional truths
relevant to the brand and its category. Before we explore how to uncover emotional truths, we must first clarify two key
principles.
1. It is fundamental for brands to recognize that behaviors are triggered by emotions first, then logic.
2. Once the emotional truths relevant to the category have been identified, they must become the epicenter of the
brand’s positioning, from which everything the brand says and does radiates.
Emotional truths reside in the non-conscious part of our brain, and therefore cannot be discovered by asking direct questions.
Direct questions, which traditional research typically asks, only probe the conscious part of our brain. To access the deeper, non-
conscious parts, a different type of qualitative research is required, one that uses storytelling. A person’s deeply held emotional
truths are only revealed through the stories they tell. Syntegrate Consulting uses our proprietary qualitative research
methodology, "Facilitated Storytelling™", to get beyond the conscious, rationalized explanations of behaviors to uncover the
deeper emotional truths that are the real triggers of consumption and purchase behaviors.

6. Christopher Brace founded Syntegrate Consulting in 2006 and as CEO leads all client projects. He
can be reached at brace@syntegrate-consulting.com.
Prisca Tsai is a Strategist at Syntegrate Consulting and leads the qualitative research projects and
all research integration work for clients. She can be reached at prisca@syntegrate-consulting.com.
Syntegrate Consulting is a neuroscience-based strategic consulting firm with a deep understanding
of the role that non-conscious emotional truths play in driving consumption and purchase behaviors.
We leverage this understanding to solve your biggest consumer and shopper challenges through
positioning, storytelling, integrated planning, business strategy, and innovation, generating a
10-20% increase in your return on marketing investment.
ACTIVATING YOUR BRAND’S MEANING
Once you have identified the emotional truths relevant to your brand and category, the next step is to bring them to life so they
become a competitive advantage. Here are five ways you can activate your emotional truths.
In order for brands to develop real competitive advantages, it is imperative that we evolve from delivering happiness through
product features and benefits to bringing real emotional meaning to the lives of our consumers and shoppers. There is enough
in-market proof today to demonstrate that this shift produces a better return on investment. Yes, change is hard, but leaning into
that change rather than opposing it is what distinguishes leaders from laggers. As the saying goes, “Fortune favors the bold.”
1. Brand Positioning: Everything the brand does and says must emanate from an emotional territory
as defined by your emotional truths. Rather than the traditional target, category context, benefits
and attributes approach, your positioning must tell an emotionally compelling story.
2. Customer Experiences: Design environments and experiences that tell the deeper aspects of your
brand's story, allowing you to connect, engage, and inspire your customers.
3. Consumer and Shopper Communications: Based on your growth strategy, target, and insights,
your communications need to mirror-back to customers what is most emotionally meaningful to them,
as expressed by your evolved positioning.
4. Tactical Planning: Identify the touch points that best tell your story. Rather than pursuing the newest
shiny object tactic, use your emotional story as the basis for making stronger choices.
5. Innovation: Write the story you must tell in order to overcome any emotional and behavioral hurdles
once in market, then let that story shape the innovation.