Marketing Messages And Man's Search For Meaning.

One of the big battles we as marketers face is debating the balance of functional and emotional messages within a campaign or brand strategy.  More often than not, marketers have to champion the idea of having an emotional component to a campaign. More often than not, there is a non marketing person wanting to make the message 100% about features, rational benefits or price.
I've often wondered why this tug of war takes place and why it is so challenging to prove the need for an emotional benefit.  Sometimes I even start questioning the reason we think emotional benefits and messages are so important to good marketing.
I got a bolt of inspiration the other day as I was talking to someone about how Social media still needs to follow the basic fundamentals of how humans think and behave.  Somehow into that conversation, from the back pages of my mind, came this statement.  "We humans have certain constant driving behaviors and needs.  For example, humans need meaning in their lives.  (Read about it in Victor Frankel's Man's Search For Meaning.)  Our need for meaning sets us apart from other animals and is what constantly drives us...both good and bad."
Rooted in that need is one of the reasons why attaching an emotional benefit to a product or brand is so powerful...at least I think so.  We are always looking for something deeper than merely breathing.  It is why we have religion and it is also why new shoes make us happy and certain cars make us feel younger. The desire and need is ever present.  We look for it subconsciously like our lungs seek air.
Sometimes the need for meaning gets directed into more fleeting things such as joy, happiness or something as vague as smelling cut grass at Fenway Park in Boston.  But even then we capture and cherish those moments because down deep we are always looking for something more than what is on the surface.
So it comes down to this - if your marketing message does not have an emotional component, you pass up the opportunity to connect with one of our most deep, driving desires.  Maybe it is as simple as that.  It's what we do!