How The Emotional Selling Proposition Of A Giraffe Sold My Wife
A very common term in marketing is called the “value proposition” which basically means that when people buy something, they compare the value of the item to the money they’re spending on it.
But what about using an emotional selling proposition instead?
Let me explain with a little story…
How The Emotional Selling Proposition Of A Giraffe Sold My Wife
Last night, my wife and I went shopping.
(Yay!) 🙂
One of the many, many stops was Target, which is actually a store I love going to for some reason. I don’t know about you, but when my wife goes to Target, she goes through the exact same path every single time.
First, she walks in and goes straight to the $1 section. Next, it’s onto the women’s clothes. After that… straight to the baby section (even when she wasn’t pregnant).
This time, however, was different.
It also plays cute musical lullabies. I think I'm turning into a softie already!
Because this time… my wife actually IS pregnant.
She’s 12 weeks today, officially the start of the 2nd trimester. And that means I’m gonna be a Daddy in about 6 months!
Anyway… it’s still too early to buy clothes and toys for the baby because we don’t know the sex yet (we’ll find out in March), but as my wife was wandering through the aisles, she spotted this giraffe.
Instantly, she was hooked.
She didn’t care WHAT the price was, or the fact that our baby was still 6 months away and she didn’t “need” the giraffe at all.
So why did she end up buying the giraffe?
It’s simple really.
The emotional selling proposition beat out the value proposition… hands down.
Think about it.
My wife didn’t buy this because it had great “value” monetarily. She bought it because it had a huge amount of emotional value.
What kind of emotional value?
Well, I imagine when she saw this giraffe, she had images of watching our newborn baby snuggle up with the stuffed giraffe while the musical lullabies softly filled the air. That as she was holding the baby during the night while feeding him/her, the lullabies and the softness of the giraffe would gently lull our baby back to sleep.
And even when we got home, she mentioned that when she was further along she would play the lullabies to the baby so that when they were born, they would already be used to them (supposedly at 32 weeks the baby can recognize our voices).
How To Infuse A Better Emotional Selling Proposition Into Your Marketing
Ok so now the question becomes… how do we do this in less markets where the emotional appear isn’t quite as apparent?
There are dozens of ways, but here is a great starter.
When you’re doing your research, write down at least 5-10 trigger points or hot buttons for that market. What things are keeping them up at night? What frustrating experiences have they had lately? What 1,2 or 3 things are on the top of their mind at ALL times which they would LOVE to get rid of?
Then… infuse those hot buttons into a story.
Let them know that you understand how they feel, and that you understand what they’re going through. You’ve been there before (if this is true of course) and you’re there to help.
In other words… feel EMPATHY for your reader.
It’s really that simple.
Be genuine, be empathetic, and put it into a story.
If you can bring out the emotional selling proposition and put it hand-in-hand with your value proposition… you’ll have the winning recipe for success in every ad you ever write.
