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Emotion Marketing: The Hallmark Way of Winning Customers for Life Scott Robinette and Claire Brand with Vicki Lenz
McGraw-Hill New York, NY 247 pp. $24.95 (hardback)
Keywords Customer loyalty, Marketing strategy, Consumer behaviour
It is Sunday evening and you decide to unwind by watching some television. The program is a special presentation, and the quality was better than most shows you have seen in quite a while. As you relax and let your defenses down, a commercial airs. You find yourself instantly pulled into the world of a schoolboy who has lingered after the bell has rung and his friends have left for their vacation. He slowly rises and approaches his teacher's desk explaining that he, not his mom, wants him to thank her for all of the extra time she has spent helping him to learn how to read. He pulls a greeting card out of his backpack and hands it to the young teacher. As she says thank you to the boy, he turns and asks if he can read it to her. What a direct hit to the emotions! Welcome to the world of Hallmark Cards and Emotion Marketing.
In a world bent on technology that continues to put distance between company and customer, it is truly refreshing to read about a group of marketers that are still dedicated to caring for their customers in a personal way. This book provides a new perspective on how lifelong loyalty can be built by emphasizing the emotional component of human interactions. Hallmark's proprietary model for assessing loyalty is discussed in detail and related to current marketing practices by Hallmark as well as other companies.
Let me begin with a caveat: "Building strong relationships is a long-term proposition. True loyalty isn't earned in a month or a quarter - but evidence proves the benefits are well worth the investment" (p. 212). Emotion marketing is neither quick nor easy to employ, but the results are measured in...