The power of passions: Tapping into consumers' emotional bonds

• Raja Rajamannar, chief marketing and communications officer of Mastercard, is one of BI's "Most Innovative CMOs" of 2024.
• Tapping into people's passions can inspire emotional connections with consumers.
• Rajamannar says a passion-based marketing strategy is effective for a company's long-term growth.

Marketers have long understood that emotion, not logic, drives most consumer behavior. A staggering 92% of purchasing decisions are driven by emotion, according to a Harvard Business School study. The idea dates all the way back to the 1950s, when television came to the fore and gave brands a groundbreaking medium for compelling, emotionally driven storytelling.

Considering the profound advances in media, technology and connectivity since then, marketers are still strategizing about how to stir people's emotions. With attention more fragmented than ever, making a truly emotional connection has become a tall task.

In this incredibly chaotic landscape, marketing leaders looking for a future-ready strategy are focusing on people's passions as a way to capture attention and affection — and achieve long-term growth.

Focus on what unites us

Defining your audience by its passions — and tapping into the positive emotions people associate with those passions — can be an effective way to connect in today's overwhelming environment. Instead of segmenting consumers by geography or age, targeting people by their passions like music, sports, food, or travel allows marketers to transcend traditional demographics.

Recently completed proprietary research from Mastercard reveals just how powerful passions can be as a way to forge stronger connections with consumers. Three-quarters of people surveyed across eight markets say engaging in their passions is a part of their identity.

Not only that, but passion-focused activities offer a form of stress relief and make them feel more like themselves, per the study. Music, often referred to as the universal language, is a prime passion category that unites and inspires.

Take the recent Johnnie Walker campaign that aimed to give long-overdue recognition to the 88-year-old "forgotten mother of Bossa Nova" Alaíde Costa for her role in pioneering the smooth and rhythmic Brazilian music genre. It culminated in a Carnegie Hall concert, which she was denied decades ago. Powerful. The campaign went on to win a Cannes Lions Grand Prix in June in the music category.

Mastercard embraces this passion-based approach to engage a wider audience in more meaningful ways. By focusing on what truly excites people, we're able to curate unique experiences for a broader range of cardholders, fostering deeper and more lasting connections. Our priceless.com site offers a variety of special experiences, categorized by passion and available only with Mastercard.

The proof is in the passion

The days of brands brashly pushing ads on people are over. Consumers expect brands to add value to their lives, and marketers must be able to deliver on that expectation in new and dynamic ways. The research suggests a significant opportunity for brands: people want brands to act as an "incentivizer" in the passion space, rewarding them and helping them feel justified pursuing their passions.

In fact, our survey data identifies eight key roles that brands can play to either accelerate consumers' passions or alleviate their frustrations — one of which is fostering shared connections around their passions.

A prime example of this is how Nike taps into peoples' passion for wellness, which is ranked the second highest among those we surveyed, while strengthening community bonds. Nike has cultivated a global community through its Nike Run Club app, which brings runners together virtually and physically. The app provides coaching, tracking, and social features, connecting people over their shared passions for running. They also host live running events and challenges to further foster this sense of community.

The complexity of emotion

Traditional market research involves surveying people to understand their purchasing motivations. While this is effective in some cases, uncovering the emotions consumers associate with a brand or product is often too complex a task for this type of research.

For instance, someone who prefers blue candy to green may attribute the preference to taste but, in reality, may be influenced by a positive association with the color itself. When consumers respond to surveys, they often overly rationalize or deliberate their reasoning, not capturing the complete emotional story.

We must continue to find new ways to understand impact. One powerful solution is neuromarketing, which taps into neuroscience to understand the subconscious drivers of emotion. Neuromarketing can derive an abundance of data-driven insights from study participants, allowing us to discern consumers' emotional associations with logos, messages, storylines, colors, and more.

By revealing how brands truly resonate with people, neuromarketing offers new opportunities to enhance the effectiveness of their campaigns.

Inspiring an emotional response is an incredibly challenging task for marketers at a time when consumers feel bombarded by messages. By tapping into the interests people already identify with and feel connected to, brand leaders can step forward as purveyors of passion — creating emotional impact that consumers will never forget.