You Can Use Data to Win Hearts As Well As Minds

You can use cool data to create warmer feelings, and hotter sales, for your brand. In a recent Forbes.com On Marketing post, marketing expert Sandra Zoratti argues for developing a higher "EQ," or emotional intelligence, score to increase marketing effectiveness. She points out that emotional connections can be a more potent force in marketing than intellectual persuasion. In fact, experiments by a Nobel Prize-winning psychologist found people will purchase a product they know is inferior or overpriced if they like and trust the seller. So how do you tap into customer emotions to get them to like and trust you? By using that hard data and analytics to win hearts as well as minds, answers Zoratti. She cites the example of Royal Canin Canada, a pet food company. Via a "PetFirst" e-mail program, the company gathered info about the names, birth dates, breeds and weights of customers' cats and dogs. Royal Canin then combined that info with veterinary data to create personalized pet-care plans. The company used the data to not only win over customer minds with pet-specific nutrition knowledge but to win hearts with programs like pet birthday greetings. For more, see http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2013/07/09/marketers-heres-how-to-use-data-to-win-hearts-and-minds/