14 Can you think of possible products which could exploit these emotions? The Oxford English Dictionary defines empowerment as the act of giving somebody more control over their own life or the situation they are in , and it was first used in this form in 1849. ONLINE RESOURCES Sensory marketing to boast: vantarsi deadline: scadenza to elicit: suscitare guilt: colpa to highlight: evidenziare relatable: che ti consente di immedesimarti con relief: sollievo 36 FEELINGS AND EMPOWERMENT Here are some other techniques brands use in their communication towards consumers in order to engage and convince them to buy their products. Emotions Feelings are a natural and relatable way for companies to talk to consumers directly. If businesses can persuade their consumers that, by using their products, they will feel joy, satisfaction, and relief, and decrease their anguish, anxiety, and fear, for example, then half their job is done. These are some possible ways to exploit these emotions: Joy: if you have our product, you will be happy e.g. if you own our car, you will be happy to drive around; Relief: our product can make you feel less pain e.g. if you buy our pills, your headache will disappear; Fear: if you don t have our product, you risk something e.g. if you don t take out our policy, you may not have your money back if a fire starts in your house; Guilt: thanks to our product, you will not feel like that any more e.g. if you eat our fat-free ice-cream, you will not feel guilty because you won t put on weight. When working with negative emotions, the key is not to create depressing messages, but rather to use fear and the sense of guilt to highlight the feeling of security or protection the product can offer. COMMUNICATION AND PSYCHOLOGY Empowerment Customers are never passionate about a product, but about what it can offer them, so companies need to show and boast about people that do magnificent things with their product. This creates a sense of empowerment in the audience: consumers have an example of what could be done, are provided with options, tools, and resources that facilitate decision-making, and will be convinced that they will be able to do something important by using that product. Some ways to empower customers are, for example, encouraging them or their family, or suggesting that a new skill will change their life (e.g. taking up a new sport, etc). The emotional appeal By using this emotional appeal, marketers manage to manipulate the audience into making an emotional decision i.e. buying that product. And since an emotional appeal can also be used to elicit fear and empathy, adverts with social purposes also use this strategy to push the target audience to act and help them.