Healthcare Advertising-Emotional v. Rational

The Debate

It's one that dates back to the late 1920's. Even the experts don't agree. In March 2009, Advertising Age published a piece by Hamish Pringle and Peter Field on the topic. Their take? From their research, the data showed that emotional campaigns are almost twice as likely to generate large profit gains than rational ones...with campaigns that use facts as well as emotions in equal measure falling somewhere in between. They were able to document that successful emotional campaigns reduce price sensitivity dramatically. Additionally, there is an increased sense of differentiation causing greater endurance and likelihood to survive new competing product launches.

Jack Trout would respectfully disagree. In his blog posting to Branding Strategy Insider on Jan. 10, 2009, he cited a study conducted by TiVo back in June of 2008 that measured which ad campaigns people most frequently fast forwarded through. His conclusions: The top three least fast forwarded through, thereby assumed to have been watched and "sticky", were more effective, and he states that they were all three rational by his definition (he doesn't exactly share his framework for his definition, however). They included the least which was Bowflex...he said that wanting to look like the buff, fit guy on Bowflex was somehow a rational argument...hmmm...seems emotional to me, invoking desire, envy, etc. Let's look at the other two top vote getters for sticky...Dominican Republic tourism...relaxation, fun, pleasure.... seems emotional again. Ok, surely the last of his arguments holds.... Hooters.... of course! It's the food! Now we all know that's a rational argument.

Ken Orwig, in a white paper posted to his website, says the bottom line lies with the brand itself. The dominant mood (emotional v. rational) is best determined by the brand's elements, including uniqueness (the more unique, the greater the need for the rational argument); price (the higher the price for the brand, the more rational the argument needed, with the exception being purely luxury items where it's mostly an emotional purchase); the more defined the customer perception of the brand category also drives rational v. emotional; the more innovative or intangible the brand, the greater the need for rational messaging; and, the higher the importance to the target, the greater the attention to the rational messages.

Yet, Orwig notes, "neurological research as well as a substantial body of anecdotal evidence supports the premise (sic) that People buy on emotion then justify their decision with facts." He went on to quote Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas who pointed out "At the constitutional level where we work, 90% of any decision is emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons for supporting our predilections." Now we understand the debate in Congress over Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor...will she use emotion or rational reasoning in her decisions?

Healthcare-Where does it fit?

Many healthcare organizations are wrestling with their advertising strategies today in this era of consumerism.  Hospitals are receiving awards, certifications, accreditations, rankings and ratings galore.  Many are truly signs of distinction...others, not so much.  And, consumers are just beginning to adjust to our new lingo.  For years we simply told them in our promotional materials that we cared...or we had the new gizmo...or we were the first to have a physician who could perform surgery and barely leave a mark.  Today, we are asking consumers to make sense out of HealthGradesâ, TJC, Top 100, Top 50, HCAHPS, etc.  Employers and insurers are asking the insured to become more responsible and knowledgeable about their healthcare choices.  So, how do you, as an organization, begin to balance the need to appeal to prospective patients across a wide variety of traditional and not so traditional mediums?

Understanding the taxonomy of advertising will help...ads taking an emotional approach must invoke fear, humor, fantasy, hope, compassion, relief or engagement, at a minimum. Ads using rational will feature technical expertise, scientific evidence, comparisons, or third party validation. Today's more successful brand campaigns involving health care organizations use some combination of emotional and rational. With the proliferation of transparency, they have to.

Rule 1. Think Big, get emotional.  Think Personal, get rational.

Consider the media or audience size.  The larger the audience, the less personal your message can be, so to GET personal, you have to make it emotional.  You have to stand out among the crowd.  Consider TV, Radio, the Sunday paper, billboards....so much clutter and so many messages.  What stands out?  Memorable, emotional, engaging, relevant.  The audience wants to be moved to remember.  In thatrecent study conducted by TiVo that Trout referenced, and with all due respect to his opinion, those ads that were the least skipped had emotional elements.  Number one:  Bowflex...where the muscular guy is doing an easy workout, and the viewer says to himself/herself...I can do that!  And, better yet, I'll look like that...boosting their self-esteem, their emotional center of self. The second and third spots also highlighted elements of how we feel pleasure, anticipate relaxation.In mass advertising, where you can stir an emotional reaction in 30 seconds and you have little room for a rational argument and barely enough time to leave an impression, taking the emotional angle is the best approach.

As you get closer and closer to your audience, in what I call Middle World and Target World, you get more and more time and space to create a rational argument.  Take Middle World...local cable, local radio, local publications, where the cost to buy the media is less expensive, and you probably take 60 seconds to tell a more complete story, or perhaps buy a full page to include more copy, your messaging should still have the emotional link, but now you can begin to sprinkle in some rational references...perhaps a quick mention of an award relevant to the service you are promoting.  In Target world, you have even more time and space.  You are now narrowing your audience to those who might already know you (newsletter recipients, mailing list subscribers, targeted direct mail, website, and email blasts).  With these audiences, you can begin to tell a complete story.  Here, you'll want to make reference to your emotional messages so that the emotional messaging will reinforce your presence, but you'll be able to dive into explanatory detail about the rational messages that clearly educate the target as to the value of your distinctions.  You can clarify misunderstandings of the detail; you can defend your position; you can define for the audience what is most important.  You become the resource for knowledge. 

When you get to Mano y Mano world, you are now in a position to make the individual the expert...perhaps resulting in them becoming an advocate for your position.  You have the opportunity to inform and educate in a way that makes it possible for them to knowledgably become a spokesperson on your behalf...a valuable source for Word of Mouth referrals.  Typically, these are class attendees, bloggers, twitter feeds, and RSS feed recipients.  These are a select group of individuals that thrive on knowledge and being in the know. They don't want emotional messages...just give them the facts, in an informative, meaningful way. 

Rule 2. Message Structures have to fit the appeal, the medium

Your message structure must fit the appeal.  Let's start with emotional.  The messages must appeal on some level to fear, hope, experience or reality.  Trust is a powerful emotion, and must be earned.  Typically, those consumers that trust you choose you.  So, emotional appeals cannot be gratuitous.  They must be authentic.  The target must in 30 seconds or less, relate on an emotional level to what you are trying to communicate.  You have to be concerned with expressed messages and subliminal ones.  The audience has to be able to put themselves into the scenario and recognize the emotional value of being there.  Be authentic.  Use real scenarios Use real people or at least, real situations. 

Many marketing executives feel if they don't use real patients and real employees, they aren't being authentic.  It's true, which if circumstances allow for it, real is better.  But it's perfectly genuine to "represent" reality, as long as in the representation you keep what is driving the emotional response authentic. 

In the case of rational messages, remember to fit the medium.  How many facts and figures do you want the target to remember?  How many are critical to comprehending?  Remember the time element, the attention spans, the noise surrounding the message, and the ability of the audience to retain the information until the time is right when it becomes relevant to them.  Just as with emotional appeals, rational appeals must be authentic...not a stretch or twist of the data.  The rational message has to be relevant, credible and simple to understand. 

Some organizations have taken data out of context and positioned it to create the impression that the data somehow singles the organization out from its competition, when in fact, the data point is statistically irrelevant.  Be honest with your audience...you expect them to trust you with their life...certainly they should be able to trust your ads.

Rule 3. Use a method of expression that works for your appeal

In emotionally based messaging, the best method of expressing the message is usually in the form of short storytelling.  Using real life and real people, or at least representations of authentic situations, tell the story of fear relieved, hope renewed, experience and expertise humanely delivered and shared.  With rational messages, rely on known experts or authorities to relate the message to the target.  Use revered spokespersons, highly regarded experts, or broadly visible, trusted references.  Be sure to explain the facts and figures, educating the audience on the relevance of the data.  Always remember, if your data is worth sharing, it should be worthy of comparing.  Tell the audience how to get more information and where to get their questions answered.  The more the information is widely known, broadly held, or generally believed, the easier these messages become.  Most importantly, people don't generally think about our healthcare world until they need to be in it...so with your messaging, be sure to include relevance messages...ways people can hold on to this and other information until they need it.

Rule 4. There are Risks

What happens if not recognized next time the ratings come out?What happens if there's a slip in your performance? What happens if you lose the expert you have relied upon or built the platform around? What happens if your rational messages lose relevance?  These are all risks associated with a rational advertising campaign.  Your data is good for one reporting period, so to build a brand around data is quite risky.  Brands need to be developed around quality pursuit,performance promises, and platforms that carry relevance.  Emotional advertising carries a brand promise as its copy glue.  Emotional messaging allows you to showcase your brand delivery as you promise it, allowing the target to feel confident over time.

Rule 5. There are returns, if done right.

An organization can impact the rate at which a strong brand is built.  By properly balancing both rational and emotional, healthcare organizations can pass on important decision criteria, and appeal to the "trust" factor that often translates to loyalty.  Other benefits can include the creation of a halo effect of a strong service line appeal that then translates across related services.  Or, if you connect to the general audience across two or three service lines, the resulting impression can be "they must be good at everything!"  Finally, connecting to the audience on an emotional level is timeless; or at least until a personal experience convinces them otherwise.  Your rational "data-driven" arguments are only as good as the next data report. 

One thing is certain.  The debate will continue. I leave you with this question...what is word of mouth? Emotional? Rational? Whatever you call it, it is still the most effective form of healthcare promotion.  So, if you haven't already started thinking about how you''ll use social media, this generation's word of mouth, maybe it's time you did.

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