Given the enormous opportunity to create new value, companies should pursue emotional connections as a science—and a strategy. But for most, building these connections is more guesswork than science. At the end of the day, they have little idea what really works and whether their efforts have produced the desired results.

Research across hundreds of brands in dozens of categories shows that it’s possible to rigorously measure and strategically target the feelings that drive customers’ behaviour. We call them “emotional motivators.” They provide a better gauge of customers’ future value to a firm than any other metric, including brand awareness and customer satisfaction, and can be an important new source of growth and profitability.

Although brands may be liked or trusted, most fail to align themselves with the emotions that drive their customers’ most profitable behaviours. Some brands by nature have an easier time making such connections, but a company doesn’t have to be born with the emotional DNA of Disney or Apple to succeed. Even a cleaning product or a canned food can forge powerful connections.

The process, in brief, looks like this: Applying big data analytics to detailed customer-data sets, we first identify the emotional motivators for a category’s most valuable customers.

Four insights from our research are especially relevant to firms looking to build on emotional connection.

• Emotional motivators vary by category and brand.
• Emotional motivators vary across customer segments.
• Emotional motivators for a given brand or industry vary with a person’s position in the customer journey.
• Emotional-connection-driven growth opportunities exist across the customer experience, not just in traditional brand positioning and advertising.

To maximize opportunities from emotional connection, companies must look beyond the marketing department. The retailer examined every function and customer touchpoint to find ways to enhance high-ROI emotional motivators.

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