Emotional Technology is a highly advanced, innovative approach to the digital real estate of retail space on the internet. It provides retailers personal data about their potential buyers and customers. It’s a way to detect the psychological aspects of a buyer and analyzes what influences a purchase based on mood, feelings and emotional responses.
Color theory, product design, brand packaging, product descriptions and even video content plays an important role on how a product is presented in the marketplace. Potential customers are interested in how a company interacts with customers and how they respond to customer’s needs, issues and conflicts which reveals the quality and performance of a product and the overall DNA of a brand.
With the high increase and use of mobile devices, consumers are shopping online in droves. The benefits of online shopping provides a reduction of frustration from waiting in long lines, searching for an store associate for help or wandering throughout the store trying to find out if the product is in stock. With convenience at your fingertips, a consumer can scroll menus in specific categories, search images or read the product description, specs and customer reviews prior to purchasing an item.
The rise of online activity and social media influence provides a wealth of personal information for digital marketers to research the interest and buying habits of consumers. Digital cookies tracks all data from internet activities which assists brands with their marketing campaigns.
The explosion of emojis has been an indication of how we measure and interpret the emotions of others through social and digital media platforms.
Facial recognition software detects facial expressions, such as smiles, frowns or smirks which translates positive or negative emotions through different shapes, textures and patterns. For example, it analyzes such facial features related to the forehead, eyes, mouth or eyebrows in real time movement along with head gestures that analyze facial and body characteristics which identifies moods. There is also a cognitive layer which exposes beliefs and values of its subjects.
There are over 12 billion emotional data points that strings information to computers. Computer vision, machine learning and deep learning are some of the processes used in the progression of study. The computer tracks feature points and reviews patterns of emotional ques, reactions and facial expressions and maps data, algorithms, metrics and classifiers based on the internal layers of emotional behavior which provides a read out of the viewer’s emotional journey.
A recent study on the PBS News Hour featured a researcher, Dan McDuff, based in Boston, MA who is implementing emotional technology in marketing, video games and therapy for children diagnosed with autism.
Psychology-based influences rooted in techniques, theories and research in social psychology provides insight on social cognition, attitudes, persuasive communication, conformity, obedience, interpersonal relationships, trust or distrust of information and psychological profiling.
These advancements may possibly intrude on sensitive data, information and the rights of individuals as technology influences society to become more transparent in nature. However, researchers believe that it will become a popular method to conduct business which will allow companies an internal approach on how they conduct their business, measure influence and how they communicate with their potential customers? Time will only tell.
As technology progresses, you may expect to find emotional chips implanted in digital devices that will be similar to GPS technology.
Emotional technology will open doorways on how consumers relates to products and why they prefer certain products compared to others. It’s a sneak peek into the emotional influences and behaviors of consumers.
There is a level of truth on the advantages of using emotionally-focused data for brand marketing. Adapting and incorporating emotional psychology techniques into promotional advertisements has been the core or foundation of marketing, in general. With a new perspective, it will prove beneficial for the overall advancement of branding and promotion.
The assessment of emotional technology will be a major breakthrough and provide leads for brand marketers on how to target shoppers. It will also provide leveraging to empower the market on a new level with a unique perspective on economic consumption.
