‘Emotional Marketing’ explores the nuanced art of branding emotions

You cannot put a price tag on emotions, but you can charge a premium for products that are marketed to manipulate them. At its very core, Emotional branding is one of the most effective marketing techniques, often underutilised in our country. Munir Hasan, a role model in the field of information and communications technology (ICT) in Bangladesh, explores this aspect in Emotional Marketing. "When I was promoting my autobiography, Poro, Poro, Poro, I was told that I was subconsciously using Growth Hacking," says Munir, currently the Head of Youth Programme at popular Bangladeshi daily, Prothom Alo. "This piqued my interest in the field, and I wanted to write a book focused on marketing techniques." Throughout the years, there have been advertisements that have subtly played with emotions, conditioning consumers into buying products. "Marketing campaigns as such are becoming more common, and is an integral part of modern-day advertising. However, I feel like it is still not utilised to its full potential in Bangladesh."

Emotional Marketing is divided into four parts, the first of which looks into the science behind emotions as a whole. The second segment deals emojis, ones that we use in our day-to-day conversations. "Millions of emojis are sent back-and-forth every day while communicating via social media, so it is quite natural that we integrate it in our marketing policies as well," says the author. Case studies and social media marketing make up the rest of the chapters in the book. The case studies are particularly intriguing, as it looks at four instances of genius marketing that elevated products like never before. Since the younger demographic spends the majority of their time on social media, its inclusion as a chapter further rounds up the book to be a complete marketing kit.

"Emotional Marketing is for anyone who wants to be a marketer, or is interested in the intriguing science behind marketing," concludes Munir, who is one of the pioneers of the Mathematics Olympiad in Bangladesh. Published by Adarsha, it is available at their stall (421-428) at the discounted price of BDT 186, at the Ekushey Boi Mela 2020.