Why Marketing Needs its Emotion Back

We all know that emotion plays a central role in purchasing behaviour. Research has repeatedly proven this. Studies in behavioural economics and neuroscience show that people make decisions emotionally and justify them rationally afterwards. Antonio Damasio’s research on patients with damage to the emotional centres of the brain found that when emotion is removed from decision-making, people struggle to make decisions at all. More recently, work by Daniel Kahneman and others has shown that intuitive, emotional thinking drives far more of our behaviour than we like to admit. Despite decades of evidence, this insight struggles to make its way into how marketing is actually designed. Emotion is recognised in theory, in brand workshops and brainstorming sessions. However, it is deprioritised in practice. It is replaced by rational and mechanical approaches, with functional messages that can be justified internally. Without a full understanding of the customer, it becomes difficult to justify why specific emotional strategies should be adopted. Once other pressures come into play, marketing strategies are, and will continue to be, based on logic. We know emotion matters, but it rarely features prominently in important decision-making discussions. What Actually Changes Someone’s Mind People do not make decisions purely on rational grounds. They justify decisions rationally, but they make them emotionally. This is as true in B2B as it is in B2C, even if we are more comfortable pretending otherwise. B2C has embraced this angle, although whether it is executed well depends on many factors. Choice is often made based on what feels right. We trust what feels familiar. We buy from those who make us feel confident, understood, and safe. Emotion is not a “nice to have” layer in marketing. It is the mechanism that makes everything else work. If logic alone were enough, marketing would be simple. Features would be listed, value would be explained, prices would be shown, and people would act. The reality is worlds apart. That is not how real decisions are made. When customers feel seen, understood, or reassured. This is why peer recommendations, stories, and lived experiences have become so influential. They do more than provide information. They change emotional context. They answer unspoken questions: “Will this work for someone like me?” “Am I making a mistake?” “Can I trust this decision?” “What happens if this goes wrong?” These are questions often ignored by brand marketing efforts, which leave people intellectually informed but emotionally unconvinced. And emotionally unconvinced people rarely act. Think of a time when that has been a personal experience for you. The Emotional Bridge From Customers to Advocates Advocacy does not come from satisfaction alone. People do not advocate for brands simply because a product worked. They advocate because a brand made them feel something: Understood. Supported. Empowered. Part of something. Proud of their choice. Advocacy is an emotional behaviour. This is why referral programmes, testimonials, and reviews are only as powerful as the experience behind them. Advocacy is difficult to design through incentives alone. It is earned by creating experiences people want to talk about. People remember how you made them feel. That determines whether they become quiet users or vocal advocates. Why This Matters Commercially Emotion is often dismissed as intangible or “too fluffy.” But its commercial impact is not. Brands that create emotional connections feel more human. They retain customers for longer. They generate more advocacy. They reduce emotional friction. They waste less marketing spend. This is why trust, reputation, and community compound in value over time. They are economic assets. Final Remarks Marketing shapes perception. Importantly, it also shapes emotion. Emotion drives trust. Trust drives customer choice. And choice drives results. We like to think we are rational decision-makers. But emotion plays a central role in how decisions are made. We remember how brands made us feel long after we forget what they said. Until emotion is treated as a design variable, marketing will continue to optimise activity without reliably producing action, loyalty, or advocacy. Emotion is not a creative layer. It is the foundation of trust. Until marketing starts designing for that reality, it will continue to struggle to turn attention into belief.