Feeling with calculation
Emotions that stand out can be strategically managed. The key to the journalistic and commercial success of «high-involvement» media is, above all, striking the right balance in line with the spirit of the times.
Column Emotions can be managed in a targeted manner. The decisive factor for the journalistic and commercial success of "high involvement" media is, above all, the right dosage in line with the zeitgeist. And of course television is to blame. But was and is it so different with print products? And if not, what's so bad about it? After all, advertising is not a lecture, but a communication game. Even academic courses cannot do without an affective stamp if any of the material taught is to remain in people's minds over the winter; after all, what is felt sticks longer than what is known, and so - also from a political point of view - revenge is still sweet even when the reason for it has long since been forgotten. In the face of an economy that is constantly churning out ever more similar goods of ever more comparable quality, emotionality is fully part of rational purchasing decisions and is therefore completely respectable as "emotionally-driven rationality". So long live emotional added value!
But which one and how much of it? In no time at all, the communication game turns into psychological hard work, diffuse feelings become difficult calculations. Advertising could learn a thing or two from the popular press, but especially from titles such as Schweizer Illustrierte, Gala or Glückspost, which dose their emotional charges in a remarkably target group-oriented way and place them with great accuracy: for the variety-seeking SI readers, the eternally emotional celebrity ups and downs, for the Glückspost readers in need of harmony, the wide trail to the weekly happy ending.
This emotional-strategic momentum is called "involvement" and is the all-important benchmark for how much of their own emotionality potential customers invest in a product and what kind of affective stamp of the advertising message also colors the product image attractively. It is well known that the positive or negative product image starts with the packaging (in every sense). And the less important the advertised product or service is for the soul of the target audience, the more the advertising message itself must touch the heart. A tightrope walk, no doubt, and no advertising primer in the world is a foolproof guide to emotional success.
What is needed instead is empathy, especially in bad socio-psychological weather conditions. This is when the population reacts particularly sensitively. Especially in times of war and catastrophe, it's time for the journalistic appeasers and comforters to take charge. In such times, the advertising industry, as a fair-weather industry, holds back somewhat shamefacedly, but also calculatedly. But who is surprised when, for example, aircraft manufacturers and long-distance tour operators cancel their advertising orders in the face of air disasters.
Between Scylla and Charybdis: woe betide advertising that violates the emotional consensus, but woe betide advertising that leaves us emotionally cold. In view of these findings, the only question that arises is what kind of recklessness continues to drive even more surplus recruits into the arms of this tightrope-walking industry.
> Ulrich Saxer was professor of journalism at the University of Zurich and professor of communication sociology in Lugano.
But which one and how much of it? In no time at all, the communication game turns into psychological hard work, diffuse feelings become difficult calculations. Advertising could learn a thing or two from the popular press, but especially from titles such as Schweizer Illustrierte, Gala or Glückspost, which dose their emotional charges in a remarkably target group-oriented way and place them with great accuracy: for the variety-seeking SI readers, the eternally emotional celebrity ups and downs, for the Glückspost readers in need of harmony, the wide trail to the weekly happy ending.
This emotional-strategic momentum is called "involvement" and is the all-important benchmark for how much of their own emotionality potential customers invest in a product and what kind of affective stamp of the advertising message also colors the product image attractively. It is well known that the positive or negative product image starts with the packaging (in every sense). And the less important the advertised product or service is for the soul of the target audience, the more the advertising message itself must touch the heart. A tightrope walk, no doubt, and no advertising primer in the world is a foolproof guide to emotional success.
What is needed instead is empathy, especially in bad socio-psychological weather conditions. This is when the population reacts particularly sensitively. Especially in times of war and catastrophe, it's time for the journalistic appeasers and comforters to take charge. In such times, the advertising industry, as a fair-weather industry, holds back somewhat shamefacedly, but also calculatedly. But who is surprised when, for example, aircraft manufacturers and long-distance tour operators cancel their advertising orders in the face of air disasters.
Between Scylla and Charybdis: woe betide advertising that violates the emotional consensus, but woe betide advertising that leaves us emotionally cold. In view of these findings, the only question that arises is what kind of recklessness continues to drive even more surplus recruits into the arms of this tightrope-walking industry.
> Ulrich Saxer was professor of journalism at the University of Zurich and professor of communication sociology in Lugano.
