A (2:24)

I want to know what these film clips Are. I don't know, like what was discussed, you know, what do they show people?

B (2:31)

I cry at any. I'm a sympathetic crier, so just show me somebody crying. I'll do it. So immediately afterwards, the participants completed what appeared to be an unrelated economic task. This is kind of a classic endowment effect exercise. Half the group were given a small object, a set of highlighters, and asked how much they would sell it for. The other half, who did not own the object, stated how much they would pay to acquire it. Under normal conditions, people value items they already own more highly. Right. Than identical items they do not own, which we've probably. I don't know if we talked about that on the show, but I've heard of it. Yeah, it's like they call it the endowment effect. Rob, before I tell you what happened in the study, what would you expect these emotions to do? You know, neutrality, disgust and. And sadness. What would you. How would you predict they'd change things?

A (3:15)

I feel like neutral is just like the word, right? You're kind of on autopilot and you're just doing your thing and no major pull one way or the other. I know for me personally, like, if disgust, if I'm like just feeling in that mood, I'm probably not real open to buying things or excited to. To really listen to ideas. Sadness, like I talked about earlier, that's like opening up Amazon and Amazon whispering, you know, I'm here to help, like, come and buy.

B (3:46)

You're like, really spot on with what they found. So we'll start with disgust. Like you said, that reduced valuations across the board. So participants that were assigned that feeling of disgust, they did not want to pay more whether they were selling or buying. Like they were assigning lower values across the board. So ownership didn't matter if they felt like, oh, this is my own thing. The endowment effect essentially disappeared. Sadness produced a completely different shift. So you're right, people were going to raise their buying prices if they were in the sadness group. But also sellers were willing to lower their selling prices, which is interesting. So there was this reverse endowment effect. Buyers are willing to pay more than what sellers required. So this emotional site seemed to motivated a desire for change, letting go of what one has and seeking something new. Then, like you said, neutral participants behaved as expected in the absence of strong emotion. The traditional endowment effect held sellers value the item more than buyers, just as standard economic theory predicts. So what do we do with all this? First, incidental emotions matter. Your audience's emotional state, even when the source has Nothing to do with your brand can meaningfully influence how they assign value. This is easy to overlook, but the data shows the effect is substantial. Second, disgust suppresses value. When an environment, a category, or a message evokes even mild disgust, it can reduce willingness to pay. This makes me think of. There have been some super bowl commercials that are truly disgusting. This makes me think of stuff like that. So if you're in a category like cleaning, medical products or pest control, this is especially important to consider when you're developing your creative. Third, sadness increases acquisition. Sadness appears to motivate a desire for change, which can increase openness to new products or solutions for categories positioned around improvement or relief. This emotional pathway is relevant, though of course you should approach it thoughtfully. This study made me think about how my favorite ad ever is Google's Loretta ad. I feel like a lot of my favorite ads are sad. Like, maybe this is part of the reason why. Like, that kind of works when you're selling something. Fourth, emotion specificity matters more than valiance. So what does that mean? Negative emotions are not interchangeable. Disgust and sadness are both unpleasant feelings, but they produce opposite economic behaviors. So if you're trying to use emotions to plan around your advertising, be careful because not all negative emotions are the same and not all positive emotions are the same. So the implication is that emotional nuance matters a lot. All right, time for a Rob, Emotions are like the weather for your decisions. Disgust is a cold front that freezes value. Nothing feels worth much. So sadness is a warm breeze pushing you to change things up. Say an item, different emotional forecast, completely different price. All right, Rob, Kind of a short but sweet one it is.

A (6:25)

I'm trying to think of an ad off the top of my head that used disgust. Like, just. I'm trying to, like, rack my brain. Do you have any that are top of mind? Because I'm. I'm just. Maybe that's the point. I repelled them and I didn't want to see the message, but I can't. I can't think of it. Except for maybe in the philanthropic space where I remember this. A long time ago, there was an ad for the Skin Cancer association where this guy was talking about how he used to love to get a good burn when he was a kid and now he regretted it. And in the commercial, he actually pulls his nose off. Oh, and that was probably one of the most disgusting ads I've seen. But it was effective. You know, in that case, I wasn't going, man, I want to go get skin cancer after. You know, I was definitely did its job.

B (7:16)

It might depend on what disgust means for you. Like, I personally, during the super bowl, the commercial where the eyebrows were flying off of people.

A (7:26)

Yes, that was.

B (7:27)

I found that a little gross.

A (7:28)

Literally wanted to throw up.

B (7:30)

Yeah.

A (7:31)

I don't think their intent, though, was discussed. I don't think they were going, this is a lever that we're gonna switch.

B (7:37)

No, it might have just been us. I don't know. I just, I found.

A (7:39)

Oh, I was a hundred percent. I mean, 110%.

B (7:43)

You know what else I found? You probably won't agree with this. When they turned seal into a seal, I found that kind of gross too.

A (7:51)

Yeah, yeah, I can see that. I can see that.

B (7:53)

Something about it that's a little like a little icky. But yeah, a fun study. It makes me think about too. Like this. They're just looking at these three emotions. I don't know if you call neutrality an emotion, but it'd be interesting to look at different ones. I know there's further studies on that. This was a while ago, but kind of fun to see the foundation for now there's a lot more work on. Yeah. Specific emotions and how well they do for your advertising. But it's fun to go back to something that was foundational.

A (8:19)

So the one I would love to see a study on is annoyance. Because there's two sides to that one, Right? Annoyance. You'd go, well, that's a negative thing. I don't want to hear it again. But at the same time, save big money at Menards is kind of annoying to hear sung to you over and over. But it's sung to you over and over in your head as well when you're driving down the road because it annoyed you at some point and stuck there.

B (8:47)

I feel like I've read research that includes that type of emotion, like being annoyed or irked a little bit. And I think that it does appear in high performing ads. It probably depends on the level. That's what I'd have to guess. But that could be interesting to cover too, because you're right. Some of the most effective advertising can be a little bit annoying, but it works.

A (9:06)

Yeah.

B (9:07)

That's it for this episode of the Marketing Architects. We'd like to thank Taylor De Los Reyes for producing the show. You can connect with us on LinkedIn and if you like the podcast, please leave us a review. Now go forth and build great marketing. Marketing architects.