Are healthcare brands emotionally engaging their clientele?
There are many providers of vitamin tablets on the Swiss health market. As part of a neuromarketing study, Zutt & Partner investigated which of the three best-known brands succeeds in emotionally engaging consumers.
Almost every third Swiss consumes at least one dietary supplement, and vitamin tablets in particular are very popular. The market volume is large and the market is competitive. So it's all the more important to appeal to consumers' emotional preferences and to be the emotional number one.
Zutt & Partner has published a EmoCompass-The study examined three of the best-known food supplement and vitamin brands in Switzerland, "A.Vogel", "Berocca" and "Burgerstein", in terms of their neuromarketing recipes for success.
Knowing that the three brands function differently in rational aspects such as product range, number of products and country coverage, this study focused on the emotional perception of the three brands. The results show how the three brands perform emotionally and in which emotional disciplines they still have room for improvement.
Berocca meets the desire emotion best
When potential consumers are asked about the perfect vitamin tablet for them, their emotional world - including aspects such as naming, images, headlines, advertising messages and packaging - should be one thing above all: inspiring, lively and fresh. This question was not answered verbally by the participants, but by means of coded colors and shapes. If we now compare this wish with the emotional worlds of A.Vogel, Berocca and Burgerstein, Berocca emerges as the clear winner.
At Berocca, the desired emotion "inspiration" plays the most important role, accounting for almost 30 percent of the total brand emotions. With an inspiration share of just under 25 percent, A.Vogel ranks second - Burgerstein comes last with a value of just under 20 percent. Even if Berocca comes off as the winner, it is worth mentioning: The inspiration share is likely to be even higher for all three brands.
Burgerstein triggers the most emotion
In the second emotion discipline, however, things look different: The study also measured how much emotion the three brands triggered in general. In technical jargon, this is referred to as emotion volume.
Burgerstein generates the largest absolute emotion volume in relation, with a total value of over 40. According to Zutt & Partner, this is a remarkable achievement, because highly emotional products such as chocolate or cars do not achieve a much higher value of around 50. By comparison, banks and insurance companies generally achieve a value of around 20.
With an emotion volume of 32.7, A.Vogel again takes second place in this emotion discipline - according to Zutt & Partner, a good but not exhilarating value. Berocca comes off weakest in this direct comparison with a value of 27.1.
A.Vogel has the clearest brand profile
In addition to the desired emotion of inspiration, there are other emotion areas through which the suppliers A.Vogel, Berocca and Burgerstein can differentiate themselves. According to Zutt & Partner, this is enormously important for differentiation reasons. And as the study results show, each of them manages to trigger these additional emotions and thus secure a certain unique selling proposition. A.Vogel masters this emotion discipline particularly well.
The text and image world of A.Vogel radiates - in addition to the inspiration already described - above all friendliness. For the study respondents, the brand appears warm, sweet and gentle. In addition to the sweet and warm colors, family and children's pictures also contribute to this friendly emotion. Because the emotional world of A.Vogel only breaks out into the additional dimension of "friendliness," the brand has the clearest brand profile of all.
Berocca focuses on performance and power in its additional dimension. In its imagery, the brand makes a powerful, dynamic and confident impression on the subjects. The energizing effect is also noticeable through dynamic shapes, silhouettes and fonts. However, because Berocca also triggers some friendliness in addition to the power emotion, it is the brand profile that profiles the weakest or most unclear.
Burgerstein also secures its own Emotions section with its safe and trustworthy - somewhat medical-looking - world. Its texts, images and above all the blue color contribute to the brand being perceived as serious and reassuring. However, the small "emotion excursions" in the direction of friendliness and power contribute to Burgerstein's less clear profile than A.Vogel.
Conclusion: A lot is done right
The EmoCompass study shows that both A.Vogel and Burgerstein and Berocca are doing a lot right in terms of emotionalization. Nevertheless, the three brands could move even more in the market with a further development of their emotion marketing and thus take market shares away from their competitors.
- The top priority for all is: Trigger even more inspiration in the emotional brand world to meet the emotional desire even stronger and better.
- Generally trigger even more emotion - this is especially true for Berocca and partly also for A.Vogel
- Further sharpening our own brand profiling and differentiation - this applies in particular to Berocca and to some extent also to Burgerstein
Zutt & Partner note here that these three principles - desire, emotional volume and clear profiling - are also the be-all and end-all for other healthcare and pharmaceutical companies. Incidentally, measuring and directing emotions is not only worthwhile for over-the-counter medicines in the consumer market. Emotions also play the biggest role with B2B target groups such as doctors and pharmacists, as well as with prescription drugs. It can therefore be worthwhile to measure and effectively manage emotions in these areas as well.
Detailed results, interpretations, further information on the study and initial approaches to solutions are available to interested parties at a Workshops at Zutt & Partner.