Inspirational advertising: emotional value and marketing benefits

Purpose This paper aims to explore value appraisals of positive emotions to consumers with a focus on inspiration and compares their relative explanatory power in driving key marketing outcomes, including ad sharing, brand recommendation, willingness to pay more and charitable donations. Design/methodology/approach Study 1 was an online survey designed to understand how consumers perceive positive emotions on eight value dimensions. Study 2 involved an online experiment comparing the effects of emotional advertising based on inspiration with informational advertising on key marketing outcomes. Study 3 was a field experiment to investigate the effect of an inspiration-based ad campaign on charitable donation behaviors. Findings Study 1 shows consumers perceived inspired as one of the most valuable emotions across different value dimensions, followed by determined, interested, excited and enthusiastic. Study 2 reveals that inspiration was the main emotional driver compared to other positive emotions of beneficial effects of emotional advertising on ad sharing, brand recommendation and willingness to pay more. Study 3 demonstrates an emotional ad campaign based primarily on inspiration increased donations for charity more than an informational ad campaign. Research limitations/implications The limited exposure times and use of single ads are likely to underestimate the potential effects of longer-term use and inspirational message reinforcement. Practical implications Findings about the relative value of emotions to consumers guide marketers on which positive emotions to use in their campaigns and highlight the potential of inspiration. Social implications Results on the effect of inspiration on willingness to pay more, brand recommendation and charitable donations could help marketers develop more effective premium pricing and charity fundraising strategies. Originality/value The paper deepens the understanding of emotional appraisal by introducing a new appraisal framework based on the value of emotions to consumers which includes “dollar” value. Using real brand advertising as opposed to hypothetical stimuli to improve ecological validity, the authors show for the first time the relative power of positive emotions and the dominance of inspiration as a key driver of new marketing KPIs not previously studied, including brand recommendation, willingness to pay more and charitable donations.