1. Introduction

The evolving perceptions of consumers compel enterprises to rethink their marketing strategies. In contemporary times, the manner in which consumers satisfy their needs and make decisions has changed dramatically as a result of the spread of the Internet, the explosion of information, the diversification of market supply and the evolution of living conditions. Modern customers are becoming more and more conscientious about their consumption since they rely on using the Internet and actively seeking out market information to aid in their decision-making [1]. Therefore, enterprises should follow the trend of the times and adjust their marketing strategies to meet the needs of today's consumers. Emotional marketing has gained significant attention in recent years, with research highlighting its ability to influence consumer behavior by eliciting strong emotional responses. Studies have explored its effects on brand loyalty, purchase intentions, and consumer engagement. However, gaps remain in understanding the long-term impact of emotional marketing, its effectiveness across diverse cultural contexts, and the potential risks of over-reliance on emotional appeals, such as neglecting brand value and ethical concerns. Employing a combination of literature review and case studies, this paper examines the mechanisms, strategies, and impact of emotional marketing on consumer behavior. Specifically, it examines how emotional marketing strategies affect purchase decisions, strategy development, channel selection, and current challenges. The results help provide actionable insights for organizations and contribute to ongoing research on the ethical and strategic applications of emotional marketing.

2. Theoretical Foundations of Emotion Marketing

2.1. Concept of Emotional Marketing

At present, emotional marketing represents a new paradigm in marketing techniques that promotes the interaction between enterprises and consumers via the management of emotional ties, including the establishment, maintenance and evaluation of emotional ties. Consumers’ purchasing behavior is increasingly influenced by emotional factors rather than relying exclusively on rational judgments [2]. The utilization of emotional triggers among the target audience can facilitate the establishment of more profound and enduring connections, enhance brand loyalty and conversion rates, and fortify customer relationships. It is widely used in modern marketing in the areas of brand communication, loyalty building, personalized service and product development. First, modern marketing delivers brand messages via emotional resonance, which is usually realized through storytelling that can effectively convey the brand’s value, mission and personality and stimulate consumers’ emotional identity. Second, emotional marketing plays an important role in the development of brand loyalty. Third, the development of data analytics enables brands to tailor their marketing campaigns to the needs of different consumers, further increasing emotional engagement. By analyzing customer data, brands can provide personalized information and offers, thus evoking emotions that correspond to consumers’ current life situations and enhancing interaction effects and conversion rates [3]. Finally, emotional marketing theory also influences product development and innovation. In the design of product, brands consider not only the functionality of the item in question but the emotional needs of consumers. For example, the automotive industry not only views automobiles as a means of transportation, but also markets them as symbols of freedom, adventure, and status [4].

2.2. Mechanism of Emotional Marketing

Emotions play a crucial role in consumers’ purchasing decisions, not only driving the desire to buy, but influencing the entire decision-making process and even determining the consumer satisfaction with the purchase. Deshwal proposed that there are four basic emotions in human beings: happiness, sadness, fear/surprise, and anger/disgust, and that each of them affects the desire to shop and the decision-making process to varying degrees [5]. Especially in positive emotions such as happiness, consumers are more likely to feel the urge to buy in order to maintain or enhance this pleasure. Therefore, many companies use emotional marketing to stimulate positive emotions and encourage consumers to make purchases. For example, in the case of Disney dolls, consumers create a positive emotional connection by interacting with the dolls, which in turn increases their desire to purchase the dolls and their related accessories. Emotional marketing is employed by companies at all stages of the consumer decision-making process with the objective of evoking a favourable emotional response to a brand or product. Related research indicates that emotional marketing has a beneficial effect on customer satisfaction. [6]. When consumers buy products under emotional marketing and get happiness in the process of using them, satisfaction will increase. If companies can show sincere care for customers, they can often exchange customer loyalty [7]. And once a brand has won the favor of consumers, customers are likely to remain loyal in future similar consumption, which is crucial for enterprises to enhance market competitiveness.

3. Emotional Marketing Strategies

3.1. Emotion Marketing Strategy Development

Enterprises should first deeply understand the uniqueness of their products or services, and at the same time grasp the emotional needs and expectations of target consumers, including their preferences, interests and values. Combining products with consumers’ emotional needs can more effectively stimulate their emotional resonance. Secondly, companies need to carefully design emotional marketing content, through advertising slogans, pictures, videos, music and other forms to arouse the emotional response of consumers, and then promote the desire to buy. Meanwhile, emotional marketing must maintain consistency with the brand image. For example, Coca-Cola’s “Taste the Feeling” advertising campaign launched in 2016 evoked nostalgia and conveyed the brand's ability to transform ordinary moments into unforgettable memories by showing the moments of Coca-Cola’s companionship in daily life. One of the reasons for its success lies in the diversified marketing channels and consistent brand communication, which creates a deep awareness of the brand image among consumers. Technology tools such as big data help brands pinpoint their target customers and provide customized services, which is especially applicable to the service industry, where service providers should enhance consumers’ emotional experience and engagement via personalized interactions and become an important factor in emotional triggering [8]. Also, while pursuing economic benefits and innovation, enterprises should actively undertake social responsibility and promote the development of public welfare, which can help to improve brand image and enhance consumer trust and loyalty. And corporate social responsibility (CSR) is crucial in emotional marketing, which can provide consumers with three values: emotional, social and functional, each of which affects the overall feelings of consumers [9]. In the age of big data, CSR has become more transparent, and consumers usually have a positive attitude towards more socially responsible brands and assign them higher emotional value.

3.2. Emotional Marketing Channels

3.2.1. Social Media

As a result of the advancements in technology and the Internet, social media is changing people's lives and has emerged as a crucial source of information. The widespread use of social media has altered conventional marketing strategies and has become increasingly important in the corporate sector. Social media is characterized by wide coverage and a large user base, which means emotions can be conveyed by social media to more consumers. Meanwhile, social media provides a platform for direct interaction with customers, and this is helpful to increase the level of engagement and immersion for customers. Besides, based on the Bin hypothesis to test the impact of social network emotional marketing on consumer purchasing behavior, it can be found that social network emotional marketing has a significant positive correlation with consumer purchasing behavior, indicating that the better the social network emotional marketing is done, the more conducive it is to improve and promote consumer purchasing behavior [10]. Thus, by carrying out targeted emotional marketing on social media, consumers can be directly encouraged to make purchase decisions or engage in other desired behaviors, which can help to improve the conversion rate.

3.2.2. Offline Activities

One advantage of offline activities is that they allow brands to have face-to-face interactions with customers, thus effectively building a strong bond with them. In addition to delivering information directly to consumers, enterprises can gain feedback from customers, which is also direct and rapid. Businesses can construct imaginative scenarios that encourage emotional expressiveness and then insert the product into them. Simultaneously, experiential marketing can also be applied to increase consumer participation and immersion by giving them the chance to interact with real products and services, which can directly allow consumers to have an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the products. Customers can go beyond the sensory experience to a more profound emotional experience with this type of experiential emotional marketing. At the same time, offline events often leave a lasting impression on consumers, creating positive memories associated with the brand. These memories can be powerful emotional triggers that influence future purchasing decisions.

3.2.3. Advertising Campaigns

Advertising campaigns are a key means for companies to attract consumers and boost sales. Factors such as the visual design, content and copywriting of advertisements can directly or indirectly affect consumers' emotional responses. There are three theoretical frameworks that can help advertisers meet the emotional needs of their target groups. First is the implicit model, in which emotion is expressed as a core feature of the product; second is the explicit model, in which emotion and other stimuli influence consumer attitudes and purchasing decisions; and last is the associative model, in which emotion is stimulated through social motives and cues, prompting consumers to establish an emotional connection with the brand and the product through associations [11]. When emotional advertising can successfully engage consumers, it generates hedonic and utilitarian values, both of which further influence consumer trust and satisfaction with the brand [12]. Taking Nike’s “Just Do It” brand promotion as an example, Nike not only shows the product, but also conveys an emotion, a mindset and a lifestyle through the advertisement. Its advertisements show the perseverance and courage of athletes in the face of adversity and injustice, attracting consumers who wish to pursue their dreams and break through. This emotional marketing strategy proved to be very effective as it accurately conveyed its core concept and created an emotional connection with consumers, further strengthening the emotional bond between the brand and consumers.

4. Issues in Emotional Marketing

4.1. Ethical Considerations

The ultimate effectiveness of emotional marketing is contingent upon consumers’ perception of the emotional content. And the influence of consumer perceptions of emotion is contingent upon three factors: uncertainty, strategy, and motivation. First, when consumers have uncertainty about the information in an advertisement, it can hinder the delivery of the intended message. For example, inconsistent use of expressions and images in advertisements can make it difficult for consumers to understand the core message of the advertisement. Second, manipulative strategies are used to make consumers react emotionally through a series of stimuli that often come across as overly strong and aggressive. And under the influence of these over-aggressive stimuli, consumers' emotions are likely to be amplified, especially if they are in an overly negative emotion, such as sadness, fear, or anger, and this may not make them interested in the product and desire to buy it. Finally, in terms of motivation, it is difficult for consumers to determine the true motivation of an advertisement. If consumers know that the advertisement achieves some business purpose by intentionally marketing emotions, consumers will have negative emotions as well as skepticism, thus leading to a passive cognition of the company image [13]. To deal with this problem, companies can create emotional marketing strategies that are both effective and ethical by adhering to principles of transparency, authenticity, respect for consumer autonomy, and ethical data use.

4.2. Impulse Purchases

According to Listriyani, the results of the experiment show that positive emotions generated by consumers under the influence of visual stimuli, promotions, and shopping lifestyles have a positive and significant effect on impulse purchases [14]. This proves that consumers are more likely to shop impulsively if they experience positive emotional stimuli. Besides, impulse shopping tends to result in a waste of resources as consumers often make quick purchasing decisions without sufficient thought and only out of momentary excitement and desire. The products or services may not meet their actual needs and have not been adequately compared and selected. As a result, the products bought back may soon be thrown away or wasted. While emotional marketing may boost short-term sales, it can have negative long-term consequences for brands. The consumer who often regrets or is dissatisfied with impulse purchases may lose trust in brands, leading to diminished brand loyalty and negative word-of-mouth. Moreover, as consumers become more environmentally conscious, brands that contribute to resource waste may face backlash and reputational damage, and risk losing market share to more sustainable competitors [15]. Measures can be taken to mitigate the negative impacts of emotional marketing by promoting sensible consumption and sustainable practices, including marketing campaigns that encourage consumers to make considered and informed decisions and provide products that are durable, repairable and environmentally friendly. And brands can implement return policies that allow consumers to reconsider impulse purchases without penalty, thereby reducing waste and increasing customer satisfaction [16].

4.3. Ignorance of Product Value

The impact of emotions on consumer purchasing decisions does not negate the continued relevance of rational factors. The efficacy of emotional marketing is contingent upon the conjunction of an emotional appeal and tangible product benefits. The combination of emotional appeal and a robust product offering enables successful brands to evoke emotional resonance and offer tangible benefits. This combination helps to increase customer satisfaction and foster long-term brand loyalty, as consumers feel they are receiving tangible value that goes beyond an emotional connection. While emotional marketing can enhance the appeal of a product, no amount of strong emotional appeal can sustain market share in the long term if the product fails to deliver on its promises. Therefore, brands must find a balance between emotional marketing and product value. An effective strategy is to combine emotional marketing with clear communication of the actual benefits of the product to win consumers’ trust by highlighting product features, ensuring high quality and maintaining marketing transparency. In addition, consumers must be wary of relying too much on emotional factors when making purchasing decisions. Consumers can ensure that emotional appeal is aligned with actual value by researching product features, comparing similar products, reading reviews and consulting experts. In addition, consumers should focus on long-term benefits rather than being swayed by the emotional impact of the moment. By reflecting on whether emotional triggers are consistent with their actual needs and values, consumers can avoid emotional manipulation and make more informed purchase decisions [17].

5. Future Prospects

Emotional marketing is constantly changing and evolving, and research suggests that the future of emotional marketing will focus on combining emotion with innovative technology. And it aims to establish a connection with consumers, but individuals’ views of values are different. And values are influenced by the social environment and are constantly changing, which does not guarantee that emotional marketing will be effective for every consumer. Therefore, enterprises need to know how to accurately understand the needs, preferences, and behavior of consumers. With the continuous development of technology, artificial intelligence, big data, and other technologies will be widely used in emotional marketing, help to achieve accurate delivery, effect evaluation, and improving marketing efficiency. Future research on emotional marketing analysis must focus more on how technology affects the effect of emotional marketing.

6. Conclusion

This paper shows that emotional connection plays a key role in consumer purchase decisions. Successful emotional marketing strategies significantly influence consumers’ purchasing behavior by meeting their emotional needs at every decision-making stage. Companies need to accurately identify their product's point of difference and align it with the needs of their target consumers, as well as ensure consistency in messaging and select appropriate marketing channels. In addition, customized products and corporate social responsibility are important factors in enhancing brand loyalty. Nevertheless, emotional marketing faces challenges such as ethical issues, impulse buying and resource wastage, and companies must strike a balance between emotional appeals and rational values, and should take appropriate measures to address them. Future research should focus on the application of emerging technologies in emotional marketing to further optimize strategies and enhance effectiveness.