The Psychology of Branding: Using Emotion-Driven Photography to Cultivate a Deeper Audience Connection
Written by Carmen Docampo for The Portrait Avenue
Consumers crave connection. After all, before they’re consumers, they’re human beings, and the connection is something that everyone desires in some form or another.
As a business owner or entrepreneur, you should factor people’s natural craving for connection into how you shape your brand identity.
Cultivating a deeper relationship with your brand’s audience effectively grows your customer base and generates positive brand awareness.
This process is also known as emotional branding. Emotional branding is all about using relatable visuals, stories, and themes to make a deeper impact on consumers and tapping into their personal experiences to cultivate brand connection.
In this article, we’ll unpack the importance of combining emotions with branding and how to use the combined potential of psychology and photography to bring customers closer to the heart of your brand.
Ready?
Why Are Emotions So Important For Branding?
Most people today are visually driven consumers. This makes using photographs for marketing an easy option for connecting with your brand’s audience on a deeper level.
Capturing people, environments, and memories is something that naturally elicits emotion.
Think about what feelings and experiences you want your brand’s photographs to capture and how you can use these images to shape how you present your services or products to the world.
When you use emotion in marketing, it becomes a lot easier to bridge the gap between your business and consumers. Some advantages to using emotion in your branding include:
- Connect more deeply with target audiences – Today’s consumers want more from their favorite brands. You can meet their expectations by incorporating emotionally driven photographs into your marketing strategy, providing them with the connection they crave.
- Encouraging consumers to identify with your brand – From a marketing perspective, getting people to identify with your brand is like gold. The more of themselves they see in your brand identity, the more likely they will buy your products or services and engage with your brand online.
- Highlight your brand’s purpose and mission – Brands with a clear purpose come across as more authentic to consumers, facilitating brand trust. What does your brand stand for? What is your business’s ethos? What problem do you want to solve, or what customer pain point?
- Stand out from the competition – Few brands have truly mastered the art of emotional branding. But the ones that do tend to outperform their competition. You can make your business stand out by bringing some emotional authenticity to the table.
5 Ways Your Brand Can Use Psychology To Connect With Its Audience
Emotional branding can manifest in a variety of ways.
Creating marketing content with storylines that people can relate to personally makes them feel more connected to your products or services, enticing and incentivizing people to take action.
But incorporating emotions into your branding strategy isn’t always a simple process. It requires a lot of audience research and a solid understanding of human psychology.
But if you’re interested in the concept and want to know more, here are five different methods you can try.
- Draw On Your Memories And Emotions To Tell Stories
Photographs tell visual stories. Even product photography can be emotionally compelling when captured in the right way.
You may include photographs not just of your products but also of your workplace and the people in it. This helps to create a more personal narrative and continues to tell your brand story. If you tap into their emotions, you can incorporate this into your branding and add a feeling of authenticity to the way you promote your brand visually.
- Use Social Data To Give Evidence Of Purpose
Easy-to-consume infographics, testimonials, and reviews help consumers feel more confident and comfortable choosing you over the competition.
Social data can encourage consumers to see your brand in a more reputable and reliable light, motivating them to become associated with it.
Even if you’re a solo entrepreneur or small business, you can still use social data to inspire trust, loyalty, and other positive emotions. For instance, customer reviews and testimonials are a form of social data. They encourage clients to share their positive experiences and can motivate others to purchase your products or services, too.
- Align Your Brand With Prominent Partners
You don’t need to be an international brand with a global online presence to utilize influencer marketing successfully.
Aligning yourself with people (or other brands) that emulate the same values and emotions as you do can help create a more distinctive brand identity while increasing your credibility.
For instance, you could partner with a social figure such as an artist, conservationist, or anyone who fits into your brand narrative or line of products to enhance visibility and cultivate a more distinctive brand identity.
- Know Who You’re Targeting
Humans can be fickle creatures and want to know what’s in it for them before taking specific actions.
When promoting your business, consider what people want from your brand on an emotional level and give it to them.
Emotional branding requires an in-depth understanding of your target audience—age, gender, location, lifestyle, income bracket, etc. It helps you create content that gives consumers what they want, thus encouraging them to connect with you on a more personal and emotional level.
One of the best ways to gather information on your target audience is to use a data analytics software program or the audience-tracking tools provided by social media websites.
- Create & Keep The Connection
Emotional branding isn’t always easy. But ultimately, getting it right will elevate your business and increase brand authenticity, uniqueness, and a stronger relationship with your clients. In turn, these attributes can amount to significant business advantages, such as an increased volume of clients, higher approval and engagement rates, and a larger online following.
Great photographs and a little bit of connection can go a long way!
