Huawei's emotional appeal for advertising strategy in the European market

Changes in consumer behavior begin with the persuasion of attitudes. And emotionsAnd emotion is the attitude experience of people to the relationship between objective things and their own needs. In addition to functional appeal, in the dissemination of brand image, there will also be emotional appeal to participate.

Huawei, which has a reputation in Europe for its products and a large market share, sold 13.5 million units in europe in the first quarter of this yearHand.Machine.^[1]。Although its share of Europe has declined as a result of U.S. policy, Huawei's market share has fallen even under such circumstancesIt also holds second place, behind Samsung.

There are 1.1 billion mobile phones in Europe, an average of 1.3 hands per EuropeanMachine.^[2]。 In the European mobile phone terminal market, Huawei has many competitive brands, such as Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi and so on. This means that the initial dividend of the mobile terminal market is over, the next competition will be extremely cruel, advertising also needs more yuan, more in-depth.

Huawei's success can not be separated from cost-effective products, in the function does not lose foreign brands, but the price is more advantageous, but good products also need to carry out all-round marketing.With the increasing competition of electronic products, the convergence of functions, compared with functional appeal advertising, emotion is the eternal theme of mankind, is the common needs and experiences across national boundaries and cultures.In today's extremely rich material, emotional appeal advertising is more infectious, intelligent brand is human, and not only to the functional appeal advertising supplement.The number of emotional appeal ads will be more and more, it is necessary to study the value behind such ads.

One.

Bo people's eyes, attract attention

Darrell Lucas and Stuart Britt in "The Heart of Advertising."If advertising is to interest those who feel sluggish due to fatigue or relaxation, it must provide lively stimulation, according to Science and Its Research. Obviously, for emotional appeal advertising to be effective, one prerequisite is that a person must be able to access it and pay attention. It can be said that winning the attention of consumers is the basis for the next emotional inspiration and migration to the brand.

Perceived stimulation

Color.

Color is a more common means of attracting attention. Huawei.The series of print ads in Spain to promote the P30Pro charging feature are in black and white, and now, when color is overused, viewers can quickly focus on the ad in other colorful fancy ads. The ad does not appear any product image, to "nursing" to symbolize charging, black and white performance can let the audience ignore the background and focus on the main character of the ad - nursing mother.

Music.

Music is also a great way to attract attention. For example, 2018On November 30, Huawei launched a video promotional video for Storysign, a mobile phone app designed for the hearing impaired, in the 10 largest markets in Western Europe. The use of music is a bright spot, at first the background music and sound suddenly stopped, forming a strong contrast, instantly improve the audience's wake-up degree, fully attract their attention. Consumers realize that there is a problem with the little girl's hearing, but also produce a kind of common sense, mobilize the concern for the girl. The ad uses three sudden stops of sound to represent the process. Background music also tends to be more cheerful with the three pauses, culminating in Santa's communication with his children, before the product is actually introduced.

Perception.

Color and music are both targeted at the physiological sensory stimulation and in turn causeNote that, for example, color is for vision, music is for hearing. The audience pays attention because of the physiological awakening of both. There is also a stimulus that is directed at perception. Such as Huawei this dance shoe image advertisement, the color contrast of this picture is not strong, so it feels difficult to attract strong attention, but with visual perception of this image analysis, people will find that this is a pair of feet: one wearing ballet shoes, the other naked, and scarred. Attention is built on this: it's a ballerina's foot. By this time, the advertisement had attracted the attention of the audience.

Set suspense

Using the method of setting suspense, even if the audience knows that this is an advertisement, they will pay attention to the content of the ad, and thus unknowingly be persuaded or even change their attitude. Take, for example, the 2014 Ascend G6 ad "To love is to share" promotional film. The man called the woman to tell her to pick her up at night, and then the man rode around in his electric car to take pictures, as if preparing something. The audience's curiosity was sparked within seconds of the ad's start: What was the man doing and what was he preparing for? Successfully turning the unintentional attention of the ad to intentional attention, the audience did not want to move their eyes between the mystery.

Two.

Wake up emotions and stimulate them

After successfully attracting the attention of your audience, the next step in your ad is to get excitedSending their emotions, only by evoking their emotions and stimulating their emotions, can they move on to the next emotional migration.

The story resonates emotionally

As mentioned earlier, most of the suspense is set to tell a story.And different stories with rich connotations can inspire people to have different emotions. Ascend G6, as mentioned earlier, is a story of love. The man went to all the places where the two had fond memories, took pictures on Huawei's mobile phone, edited all the pictures into text messages to his girlfriend, and proposed. After reading the story, we understand the man's previous behavior, the heart also to see their sweet love and move, we are either envious, or recall their love in the beautiful moment, wonderful feelings in the heart.

Language closes the emotional distance

To achieve emotional distance through language or words, such as HuaweiThis is used in German propaganda films in 2019. The ad's performance is not complicated, with images similar to PPT's, showing the outline of Huawei's phone, and then several photos from the trip, as well as voiceovers and narrations. But words and music fully activate the audience's emotions.

The music rendered a pleasant atmosphere and sootheed the mood of the audience. Language is a top priority, and the whole ad is in the second person. Narrator is like a separate conversation with everyone in this group, which gives a sense of intimacy. At the same time, the content of the conversation is using the "every day you and us..." sentence, just like a friend is talking to you. Magnetic male voices can also help to get close. According to cheetah global think-tank Global Distribution Report 2016, women make up 51.77 per cent of Huawei mobile phone users in Germany, and magnetic male voices can both shape brand image and attract female users.

Partial extension of emotional association

The advertising narrative provokes the curiosity of the audience in a white way, andLet the audience generate emotion in the association. The image advertisement of the ballet dancer mentioned earlier draws attention to the stimulation of perception. When people understand that this is a ballerina's bruised feet, it will lead to further association, they will imagine the ballet dancer behind the effort and pain of the cause. The audience sees only one pair of feet, but the image of the ballerina is depicted in their hearts, and as the image becomes clearer in their minds, they gradually develop an emotion for the abstract "dancer", first with sympathy and then with awe. The most important thing in this way of stimulating emotions is to have reservations and let the audience extend and associate themselves.

Three.

Introduce branding, emotional migration

Persuasive emotional migration model (Affect Transfer Model). Persuasion believes that the emotional response of the audience that an ad provokes when it is presented is transferred to the product that the ad is spreading. This is essentially a conditional reflection formation process for the audience. When the advertisement presents the emotional content, it will cause the corresponding emotional experience of the audience (such as nostalgia, guilt, sex, etc.), because the products in the advertisement and emotional content are repeatedly and steadily combined to present, will make the audience form a conditional reflex - a similar emotional response to the brand in the advertisement.

The moisturizing material is silent and incorporated into it

The first is to incorporate the product or brand into the story and use the audienceUnreceptive ways to implant products, similar to "implanted" ads for TV dramas. In Dream it possible MV, we find that Grandpa grew up with the hero, as did Huawei's mobile phones. The important scenes of the hero's life have Huawei mobile phone figure: the first time, the heroine to go to college is about to travel, gave Huawei mobile phone a close-up, mobile phone screensaver is her and grandpa's photo; Will use voice chat to play the piano to her; the third time, the heroine has difficulty in school to cry to grandpa; the fourth time, the heroine through the mobile phone was informed to take the exam; Huawei's mobile phone was placed on the piano at a personal concert after the heroine's success. She broadcast her concert live to her grandfather in the ward via voice chat. Huawei mobile phone is not only a tool, but also symbolizes a kind of companionship, a kind of self-identification on the road to help, an emotional support, and thus out of the simple functional appeal.

Willow dark flowers, the end appears

This technique often appears in story videos because it comes out prematurelyIt's easy for an audience to be ostracized by a product or brand. And the story more use to set suspense and other ways to attract attention, and as the plot advances to stimulate the audience's emotions, the brand appears at the end can let the emotions previously aroused more smoothly migrate to the brand, thus forming a positive impression.

An ad for Theorysign, a Huawei mobile app, as mentioned earlierThe promotional film, the advertisement is a typical emotional appeal advertisement. The ad was launched on Christmas Day in the West, through the introduction of the form of stories for emotional expression. At the beginning, color, music and stories inspired sympathy and love for the little girl, and at the end of the day, the Huawei Storesign website and mobile phone appeared, and the audience would be full of affection for the site, but also the feelings of the Huawei brand that built the site.

Borrow strength, borrow emotion

Joint.

Cross-border co-advertising can be in the minds of other already audiencesImage and emotion of the brand cooperation, joint name can migrate emotion to the brand. Huawei chose to work with Lyca Cameras to create mobile phone lenses, with Swarosch launching a joint smartwatch, and Porsche launching a joint mate series of business positioning phones. The commonality of Huawei's choice of these three partners is that they are all high-end luxury brands in Europe and leaders in the category. Such as Lyca is the camera brand's most high-end brand, known for its quality, is a symbol of quality and status, Swarovasch is the first precision cutting imitation crystal manufacturer, the product is pure, high-quality, brilliant, highly accurate, symbolizing the holiness and elegance, Porsche is the German Volkswagen Group's luxury car brand, to produce high-end sports cars known in the world, is a symbol of noble status. Cross-border collaboration with these European luxury brands allows European consumers to migrate their positive impressions and positive feelings to Huawei's brand image and products.

Endorsement ads

The same is true for endorsement ads, which can target certain people orThe existing emotion of the image migrates to the brand. In March 2016, Huawei announced the signing of soccer superstar Lionel Messi, who became Huawei's global brand ambassador. To launch the P9 and P9 Plus, Huawei invited two Hollywood superstars to act as global spokesmen, Henry Cavill, who plays Superman, and Scarlett Johansson, who plays Black Widow. This kind of image endorsement advertisement is a distinct emotional appeal advertisement, because every star or idol has been separated from the scope of ordinary people, in people's hearts have been symbolized. Out of a love of symbolized idols, this emotion also migrates to the product that the idol represents, thus transforming this positive emotion into an emotion for the product. The promotional video, starring two international stars, quickly broke through the millions of hits on YouTube, and by now it has 1.25 million hits, which has a good spread.

Four.

The shortcomings of Huawei's European advertising

Although there are many ways emotional appeal advertising can change the state of the consumerand thus affect consumer behavior, but there are some shortcomings.

The competition noise is too loud

The value of emotional appeal advertising is becoming more and more prominent, more productscards are using this expression. Samsung also has a similar website for the hearing impaired (www.samsungduyaneller.com) compared to huawei's Storysign software for the hearing-impaired, as mentioned earlier, with a promotional video that is also an emotional appeal ad, setting the theme of suspense and sublimation: "We all yearn for a world of communication without barriers." "Just as it inspires compassion and empathy between audiences, with more than 7 million youtube views in a week, the implanted "hard and wide" doesn't feel unnatural, and some hearing-impaired people have expressed gratitude to Samsung. The same product, inspire similar emotions, the difference is only the brand. Then the effect of emotional appeal advertising will be reduced in homogenization competition, so Huawei must deepen the competitive advantage of differentiation.

The story is not very clever

A large part of emotional appeal advertising is storytelling, but thisSome of the stories in the ads are not clever speaking, it is difficult to stimulate the emotion of the audience, it is more difficult to achieve emotional migration. Huawei's image ad, Huawei Man, for example, does tell the true story of a few Huaweis, but because of the tight time, it is very difficult to understand the major difficulties encountered by several groups of people and their solutions in just a few minutes. Thus the story is simplified, whether or not the plot is exaggerated, at least the characters become typed and thin because of this simplification, it seems less flesh and blood, the story is less persuasive.

Brand positioning is not accurate

The first two questions boil down to inaccurate positioning.In the final analysis, emotional appeal advertising is to promote sales, but the most important thing is to shape the brand image. The European mobile market is highly competitive, and according to Mr. Trout's positioning rules, Huawei should understand what stories it tells, what emotions and values it exports, and how it exports them, relative to other competing brands. By analyzing the positioning of other brands to sort out Huawei's position in the hearts of European consumers, and further differentiated ways to produce emotional appeal ads, we can make advertising more accurate and efficient.

Bibliography

Sourced from market research firm IDC's European mobile phone market in the first quarter of 2019sales data.

The full 2019 book, published jointly by We Are Social and HotsuiteBall Digital Report。