Today we’re going to learn how to make your product videos more effective. If your product videos are not working as well as you hoped. It could be because you’re missing something advertisers call, a “key appeal ” or Key motivator. It is true that supplying helpful information to customers will reduce buying risks and add practical value, but what’s more powerful is your brand’s ability provoke emotions in people.
In this post, we’ll take a customer-centric approach by looking at what emotional motivators drive human actions, and how to use this understanding to build the long-term value of your brand.
EMOTIONAL APPEAL IN PRODUCT VIDEOS
There are three different parts of the brain, if you will, that you have to target and speak to, if you want customers to convert. The first thing your video needs is an emotional appeal. Why do you need an emotional appeal? Well, it turns out we humans are very emotional beings. Even though we like to think that we are very rational and logical. The reality is that, we typically act with our gut and emotions. And then later use logic to rationalize those emotional decisions.
EMOTIONS AND DESIRES DRIVE ACTION
In short, emotions are physical and can be discovered either through conscious emotional experiences or subconscious associations of one’s desires, beliefs, actions, etc. In comparison, feelings are mental reactions to and subjective representations of our emotions.
GAIN – Advertisers have found that there are a handful of emotions or desires that drive action. The first one is GAIN. If you think of any commercials that seem to be promising that they can make you happier, or healthier, or wealthier, they’re talking about gain. It’s a very strong motivator that can work for a variety of different products.
LOVE – Another key emotion is love. This is the opposite of gain. Gain is the greedy emotion, with greedy desires. Love is the opposite. Think of any jewelry commercial – they all kind-of-play-off this idea of, get her the diamond that she deserves. So it’s basically trying to get husbands or spouses to act out of love.
PRIDE – Pride is another strong motivator. People want to look good in front of their friends and keep up with the Joneses, as they say.
DUTY – Another key motivator is a sense of duty. The US military tends to use this pretty heavily. With the idea that your country needs you.
SELF PRESERVATION – This is another key motivator that largely plays off fear. Is your home, ready for an earthquake? Or are you prepared for a flood?… this kind of thing can drive a lot of action but it’s basically rooted in fear.
SELF INDULGENCE – And finally there’s self indulgence, which is what a lot of food based marketing uses. It’s all about…You deserve this delicious food or thing.
Now that you know your audiences basic motivations. Be sure to approach the development of your product videos from this perspective. By first making sure your video has an emotional appeal. You want to hit the viewer in the heart initially. That’s what’s going to grip them and make them take that first step towards considering your product. Then follow up the emotional appeal with a logical appeal. Humans act on emotion, but then we rationalize that with logic. We rationalize those emotional decisions to make them look like smart decisions based on facts.
The rationalization stage is where you can talk about your wonderful product benefits, refund policy or your amazing warranty. Customer testimonials and stories would come in here as well, coupled with some detailed benefits to help to them rationalize things better.
It’s time to use a physical appeal. Show your product being used. This is very very important. Back in the 1990’s, researchers made a pretty big discovery while studying monkeys. They found that, when one monkey watched another monkey perform certain actions. The brain of the other monkey watching reacted as though the monkey watching were actually performing the actions. For example, if one monkey watched the other monkey eating a banana, then that monkey’s brain lit up the same way it does when that monkey would actually eat a banana.
Scientists attribute this phenomenon, to what they call MIRROR NEURONS. And there’s a lot of evidence that humans have these as well. Mirror neurons may be at play when you see someone yawn, and suddenly you have to yawn. You know this whole yawning contagiousness thing. Maybe you’re actually wanting to yawn right now because I’m saying yawn over and over again.
Many people point to mirror neurons, when they talk about the negative effects of violent video games and movies. If you’ve ever winced when you watch someone get hurt either on a video or in real life, that’s likely because of mirror neurons. So what does all this nonsense about mirror neurons mean for your product video. If you show your product in use. It will activate your audience’s mirror neurons and basically you will create a false memory, in your audiences memory. You want this to happen because, this puts them one step closer to actually using your product in real life.
In summary, to make your product videos more effective. You should aim to first make an emotional connection with your audience, before providing your products benefits. And finally, show your product being used.
I hope this has been helpful. Please leave your thoughts and comments in the comment section below.