Why Emotional Marketing Matters for South African Brands
As winter drapes South Africa in its coldness, bringing weather changes, local marketing campaigns tend to be cold and deadpan in their appeal to emotion. How many brands persist in pushing transactions and safe messages in an African land rich in ubuntu and storytelling traditions?
Why so? A reason would be that most South African businesses still adhere to the traditional product or price-centric marketing system. Posters advertise almost entirely in terms of features and reduced prices, with no attempt to form some emotional connection with the buyer or coin a catchy little slogan that is meaningful to them personally. Consumers, quite obviously, either tune out or feel nothing at all. In today’s cluttered media landscape, ignoring emotional appeal is almost a guaranteed way to be forgotten.
Emotional marketing is proven to be more memorable, engaging, and effective at converting than rational messaging. People remember much more about how a brand made them feel rather than what it actually said. So, what holds back most local brands from jumping on this bandwagon?
There are a few barriers:
- Fear of being vulnerable: Emotional storytelling forces brands to open up, take chances, and sometimes face difficult truths.
- Lack of training: Many marketers have never been trained to strategise and employ data-informed ways to induce emotional resonance.
- Outdated KPIs: Short-term focus on sales defines campaigns and, in turn, attacks long-term connection.
So how do we fix it?
1. Lean into authenticity: Emotional marketing isn’t about tugging at heartstrings just for a few rands. It’s about reflecting stories based on your brand’s values, your customers’ reality, and your context. South Africans are highly tuned to sincerity and are just as quick to reject any form of fake messaging.
2. Put empathy in the centre: Great marketing begins with deep customer understanding. Beyond demographics, look into the hopes, fears, frustrations, and dreams of your audience. You build the emotional connection by showing that you understand it and do care.
3. Guide emotion with data: Data can uncover the emotions that drive the most engagement with your market. What do your customers want? Security? Belonging? Joy? Use that insight to fashion messages that hit home yet still feel respectful.
4. Spend money on great storytelling: Stories put the human in your brand. They create meaning, conjure memories, and build loyalty; whether it’s customer stories of success, journeys of brand birth, or campaigns for the greater good.
Want to lead the shift? Start with a master’s that goes deeper
If you’re reading this and thinking, “We could be doing so much better,” then maybe it’s time to go beyond the basics and master the art and science, of marketing that actually moves people.
The Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing Management from IMM Graduate School is designed to give you the practical skills and strategies to create campaigns that truly resonate. In just one year (with up to four years to complete), you’ll learn to go beyond transactional marketing and build emotionally engaging messages.
This programme will help you understand your customers better and communicate in ways that matter. By the end, you’ll have the tools to apply advanced marketing techniques and lead your brand in creating meaningful, long-term connections with your audience.
This winter, don’t let your brand messaging stay cold. It’s time to warm up with heart, humanity, and a whole lot more feels.