Austin: Appealing to Rational and Emotional Sides
After getting a masters in neuroscience, I got a job as the science director for a C B D company. My job is to bring science into our C B D business. Part of my job is to stay up to date on the science surrounding C B D and cannabinoids and then help communicate this to our consumers. This is important because, these days, there is a lot of misinformation surrounding C B D.
One way I communicate is by keeping in mind the distinction between the experiential system and the rational system mentioned in this chapter. As a business, we want to reach the largest number of people we can, so our marketing campaigns aim for messages that appeal to people’s rational side and their emotional side.
On the rational side, I want our messages to include useful information, so that people can feel like their choice is based on reason. But if we do not appeal to a person’s emotional side, then the call to action (getting them to buy things) does not have the same power. What is rationally considered the best product might take second place because a somewhat inferior product has a better ad campaign that makes it appear cooler, safer, cuter, or whatever. When we’re designing messages, we’re constantly trying to balance how we appeal to both systems of thought and emotion.