HOW BOOTS SEIZED ON HEARTS, NOT MINDS
Brand-choice decisions are driven more by emotional factors than by rational ones. And yet most businesses focus on rational marketing messages: “Our mortgage rates are 0.5% lower”, “Our broadband is 10% faster”…
But businesses that own emotional thinking at key brandchoice moments are the ones that grow most successfully.
One example is Boots’ “Here come the girls” campaign, created by Mother, in the late 2000s, which turned around a declining business and fuelled years of profitable growth.
The insight behind the campaign was that there are a small number of key moments when it really matters to women that they look great. The brand that identifies and owns the emotions behind these moments should expect to become the autopilot choice of consumers. The key is emotional connection, not rational argument.
Boots identified the office Christmas party as an emotionally important event – a near-universal experience of working women charged with excitement, anxiety and an atypical touch of glamour in a work setting.
The first ad used humour to show women in a variety of office situations, surreptitiously preparing for the party, and ended with a triumphant mass entrance of working women in full-on party mode. The Here Come the Girls track captured the sense of powerful women letting their hair down together.
It struck an emotional chord, transforming the view of Boots from an old-fashioned business into a retailer that understood what women want in the festive season.
Significantly, there was only a limited “sell” in the spot – it simply said: we understand how this moment feels and its importance to you. The approach resonated with women, who voted with their feet and delivered bumper sales to the ailing retailer.
Identifying those key brand-choice moments, and appropriating their accompanying emotions, is the key to growth. Too many companies still rely on the logic of marketing when, in fact, logic has little to do with it.