One of the most obvious traits we notice in people from the creative field is their ability to think emotionally. An artiste’s work is always a reflection of his or her emotions and experiences – be it paintings, writings, song lyrics, or even films. And I believe it’s this ability, to think and express themselves emotionally that makes them creative.
American astrophysicist, author and science communicator Neil DeGrasse Tyson once said, “Rational thoughts never drive people’s creativity the way emotions do.” In fact, research says, it requires a certain amount of emotional intelligence to think creatively. Emotional Intelligence is defined as “the capability to recognise one’s own emotions and those of others, and to be able to discern between different feelings and label them appropriately.”
From this definition, we infer that emotional intelligence involves the ability to accurately know the emotional states of others, which is a role we all need to play in our daily jobs. Consciously or subconsciously we use our emotional intelligence to understand our consumers and clients and come up with strategies to influence them. Even the solutions we develop or provide, reflect our understanding of the insights we draw from our research and analysis.
Applying one’s emotional intelligence to solve everyday problems needs skill and practice. As a student of communications, I often used to wonder why psychology was included in our curriculum. It started making sense to me, when knowingly or unknowingly, I would be considering the consumers’ thoughts, feelings and emotions each time I was designing communications for the brands, whether the brands belonged to FMCG, Healthcare, or Beverages, it didn’t matter.
As a marketeer or a communications professional, there are so many things we do on a regular basis that requires effective use of emotional intelligence. For instance, the key focus areas for the success of a brand is to understand and arrive at a consumer insight, carry out the branding exercise, plan the consumer engagement activities and so forth and so on. Here, I have illustrated how at each level, emotional intelligence helps us enhance our creativity and in developing better and more effective communications.
- Analyzing and arriving at a consumer insight – To interpret the insight from the available data points requires a certain amount of emotional intelligence at work. One needs to empathize with the consumer, relate to the data points at an emotional level and then arrive at the insight. The more we connect emotionally to the consumer, the closer and clearer insights we gain. It was the emotional quotient that brought in the pain point of the consumers and helped arrive at a clear communication for Moov (muscle relaxant). It also had the benefit in a simple phrase – “Aah se Aaha tak” (An expression in Hindi used to convey the consumers’ journey from pain to relief).
- Developing Creative Solutions – In my previous article about conceptualization, one of the points I had mentioned was about drawing ideas from daily experiences. Any experience; good or bad, stays with you because of its emotional impact on you. If you haven’t made an emotional connect with an event or incident, you won’t recall it or connect it with any situation, brief or problem. Thus, emotional intelligence plays an important role in helping one craft out an idea from their daily experiences. In his interview to a media house, Adman Piyush Pandey explained that it was his upbringing in Jaipur that led to the use of life in Rajasthan in his Fevicol ads in the 90s. He drew inspiration from the lives and culture of people there, which fit Fevicol’s brief just right and thus became a huge hit and is considered one of the best advertisements ever.
- Designing Creative Solutions – The impact of a communication piece also depends on its look and feel. It is not merely for aesthetics that certain colours and fonts are used for certain type of brands and their communications. At a subconscious level, all these elements play a part in influencing the consumer in responding positively to a brand or help in brand recall.
In short, it’s our emotional intelligence that helps build a connect with the consumers, understand them better and design communications that they can relate to. Study says, it’s one’s ability to make use of one’s thoughts, feeling and intuitions that help solve the problems. And it is this very ability that urges us to come up with creative solutions to design persuasive communications to influence thinking and actions. At each level of developing and designing effective and successful communication strategy and collaterals, it’s our emotional intelligence that helps us craft effective communications.
Today, due to AI and automation, there’s is a sudden rise in discussions around emotional intelligence. But if you ask me, emotional intelligence was always relevant in the world of communications and creativity. The best of creative advertisements has been possible due to the use of emotional intelligence at various levels of planning, strategising, conceptualising and developing these ads. What do you think?