Boomer Groups - Qualitative Insights Into The Baby Boom Generation

Evaluating Leading Edge Boomer Women's Emotional Connection to Advertising

By Sharon K. Ray

As any good marketer knows, effective advertising engages a consumer by touching both the head and the heart; advertising that creates a meaningful emotional connection between its brand and its target is memorable and motivating. But how does one evaluate or "measure" this emotional connection? In traditional communications checks or laddering studies, asking "how does this commercial make you feel…?" invariably elicits a flat response, e.g., "good." Such a response does not yield much richness, even when expertly probed. Further, how does a marketer come to know the proprietary emotional landscape that his/her brand covers and its intersection with the consumer? While projective techniques are often used to get at these issues, more deeply understanding this "emotional connection" among leading edge boomer women was the challenge I addressed in two recent studies.

Recruiting "Emotionally Articulate" respondents

Because articulating one's feelings vis-à-vis advertising was going to be the focus of each group discussion, it was imperative to recruit respondents who were comfortable doing so. Questions were developed and included in the screener to evaluate "emotional articulation." As well, questions evaluating creativity, sociability and an overall engagement with life were included. Last, but not least, respondents who described themselves as "not being influenced by advertising" were screened out. This customized screening yielded bright, thoughtful and perceptive consumers who had an understanding of what elements of communication resonated with them, and why.

Assigning "Emotional Homework"

Respondents were each required to complete an assignment prior to the study. Each respondent was asked to create a collage representing "how Brand X makes me feel when I am using it." This served two purposes: it ensured that respondents were game for sharing their feelings and also got them into the appropriate mind set prior to coming into the sessions. The assignment served as a very personal "warm-up" for each respondent. In both studies, two segments were interviewed: current users and competitive users. By contrasting the two segments' collages, insights into proprietary emotional territory could be plumbed.

Understanding the "Emotional Intersection"

In order to get at the functional and emotional intersection between category, brand and consumer, once in the focus groups, respondents were immediately asked to describe themselves, in one word or phrase, as overall category users. Then they were asked to describe their favorite brand in the category in one word or phrase. These individually written descriptions were put aside and re-visited later in the groups.

Discussion Flow

After some general discussion of usage patterns, etc., collages were shown and explained to the group, quite deftly, by each respondent. By listening for themes relative to content, the nature and depth of the connection (functional vs. emotional) could be evaluated. Interestingly, leading edge boomer women felt they were savvy consumers, having logged years of experience in trying and using various brands. They felt that while appealing and important functional attributes represented the point of entry, it was the emotional connection to a brand that was increasingly making a difference/influencing their purchase and usage behavior. The stronger the emotional connection, the more identified with the brand, and subsequently loyal, boomer women were. Further, the more closely a brand's advertising fit with one's self-perception and perception of what end-states were desired, the more compelling a brand became. Leading edge boomer women noted that, for them, both of these had changed over the years and what resonated now was not what had resonated just a few years ago.

In evaluating advertising, including competitive advertising, those elements that women sparked to on an emotional level were probed. As well, circling back to respondents' descriptions of themselves as category users, and descriptions of the brand, were probed for consistency as well as potential proprietary communication opportunities.

Interestingly, in both studies, by understanding and then ramping up and refining the emotional connection users felt with their brand via specific elements of communication, non-users were persuaded. This creative research design successfully tapped into the unique hearts and minds of leading edge boomer women and spoke to the needs of their particular life-stage. Such insights proved key to developing compelling communication.