Base One Beliefs #3: I would like to believe creativity is essential for B2B marketing success

Business Week interview with Dan Hill, author of Emotionomics

'Loyalty is an emotion. Trust is an emotion. If you really want to make headway, you can't just do the rational part. That's really like fighting with one arm behind your back. You need the rational and the emotional, but of the two you really need the emotional more.'

So says Dan Hill, author of Emotionomics, to emphasise the value of using emotion strategically in the marketplace. And how do you achieve emotional impact in marketing and advertising? Not from lists of features and benefits - that's your left brain talking. To hit them where the wallets are, you've got to get creative. 'Less explaining, more entertaining', we might say.

Or as Dan Hill sums up:  'We make our decisions emotionally, we justify them rationally.' Features and benefits can appeal to a buyer's rational side, producing satisfaction of a kind, but that's after-the-fact impact.

In 2010, I'm hoping we can help more clients recognise the influence an emotional response (and therefore creative execution) has on buyer behaviour. Emotionomics gives us some food for thought to offer, such as the fact that an emotional response typically triggers five times more brain activity than a rational one. By the way, we also offer monitoring, analytics, and other tools like eye tracking to satisfy your rational side.

What would you like to believe for your business in 2010 and beyond? Let us know at www.iwouldliketobelieve.co.uk.