The founder of Revlon Cosmetics, Charles Revson, understood marketing better than most. “In the factories we make perfume,” he once said, “but in the stores we sell hope.” Revson understood the difference between a brand’s unique selling point and its emotional selling point (ESP).
In these days of parity products, “me-too” services, and an expanding global marketplace, it is often hard to point to something truly unique about a brand. But even if you can ferret out a truly unique selling proposition, it is not necessarily the most important part of your messaging. You must think beyond the rational proposition. Consider this: whether it’s bass boats, automobiles, or breakfast cereal, people’s buying behavior is more connected to the limbic system than to the neocortex. The limbic system is the part of the brain that governs the emotional part of you. The neocortex governs the intellect. To put it another way: we shop with our hearts. So how should this affect your messaging strategy? The answer is simple. Your marketing team must spend as much energy identifying your product or service’s emotional selling point as it does identifying its unique selling point. So if you’re selling fragrances, you are actually selling hope. If you’re selling motorcycles, freedom. Beer, community. Ice cream, comfort. If you’re selling assisted living communities, you are really soothing the guilty feelings of adult children dealing with their parents’ dementia and decline. This is as true for B2B advertising as it is for B2C.
So if you’re selling fragrances, you are actually selling hope. If you’re selling motorcycles, freedom. Beer, community. Ice cream, comfort.
Think about it. What is the emotional component of your business? What do you want your customers to feel? When FedEx launched its next-day delivery service, it wrapped it in the emotional selling point of helping you not get fired. You can tap into fear just as effectively as any other emotion.
Update:
At Agency Creative, we start most client onboarding with an overview of a sales and marketing funnel like the one below. In the blog above, we talked about why your ESP is important for converting prospects and leads into customers, but identifying and leveraging your brand’s emotional selling point is important at every step in the funnel! 
In a FastCompany blog, author and behavioral change therapist Douglas Van Praet said:
The most startling truth is that we don’t even think our way to logical solutions. We feel our way to reason. Emotions are the substrate, the base layer of neural circuitry underpinning even rational deliberation. Emotions don’t hinder decisions. They constitute the foundation on which they’re made!
So yes, your ESP is important in drawing people in and converting potential suspects, prospects, or leads into customers. But to get people excited about your business and create advocates, you need to continue tapping into that emotion and delight them as customers. Businesses that create positive customer experiences generate 5.7x more revenue than competitors that don’t, according to a 2016 Forrester report. If you need help figuring out your emotional selling point, we’d be glad to help. Give us a call at 972.488.1660. We are a Dallas advertising agency with expertise in integrated marketing. See how we use ESPs in successful marketing
