1. Introduction

Emotional consumption, as an emerging consumption model, has become an important field of research in contemporary marketing. According to the 2025 Emotional Consumption Research Report, emotional consumption is defined as "consumers pursuing emotional experiences of goods, achieving emotional satisfaction and psychological compensation through purchasing behavior, and surpassing basic material needs". This form of consumption emphasizes the emotional transmission function of goods, aiming to meet various needs such as personal psychological satisfaction, stress relief, emotional release, and emotional sustenance.

Emotional fast charging consumption is a new type of consumption behavior model that focuses on quickly regulating emotions and obtaining immediate psychological satisfaction. When people's emotional energy is too low due to work pressure, trivial life, or internal competition, a quick and low threshold consumption is like a shot in the arm.

In terms of socio-cultural factors, fast-paced life and workplace pressure have led people to seek emotional comfort, and their consumption concepts have shifted from focusing on product functionality to pursuing spiritual satisfaction. According to CBNData research, negative emotions such as stress, anxiety, fatigue, and tension have been the emotional tone for most people in the past year, and the demand for positive emotions has gradually increased. Over 36% of people believe that emotional health is crucial and worth investing effort and money into. Economic uncertainty, career development anxiety, and family relationship pressure are like three mountains that weigh nearly half of the people tightly. In the current situation where material needs are basically met, spiritual consumption needs naturally emerge.

Emotional consumption has formed 10 mainstream tracks such as cultural tourism, trendy entertainment, catering, and technology, and the global healing economy is expected to reach $7 trillion by 2025. Consumers pursue intrinsic emotional values such as emotional compensation, self-identity, and dignity satisfaction in emotional consumption, while utilizing external emotional values such as social currency and identity display to achieve emotional connection and value expression between individuals and groups. Typical cases include the explosive popularity of the Bubble Mart Labubu IP, which has become an "outlet" for emotional expression and social interaction among young people worldwide. In 2024, the ticket sales for large-scale concerts reached 26 billion yuan, driving the consumption of "food, accommodation, transportation, travel, shopping, and entertainment" for a single audience of over 2000 yuan, becoming a "new engine" for urban economy.

The current research mainly focuses on functional consumption, and there is insufficient systematic theoretical construction of emotional consumption. This study improves the theoretical framework of "emotional triggering emotional resonance consumption transformation" through interdisciplinary perspectives of neuroscience, psychology, and consumer behavior. This study is based on Damasio neuroscience evidence to verify the dual pathway interaction mechanism between emotion and cognition (positive emotions affect peripheral processing, negative emotions affect central processing), promoting the innovative development of persuasion theory.

2. Definition and classification of emotional consumption

2.1. Concept definition

The theory of emotional consumption focuses on the behavioral logic of consumers driven by emotional satisfaction in their purchasing decisions, emphasizing that the emotional value of goods or services goes beyond their functional attributes. Emotions play a dual role in human behavior: positive emotions reinforce optimistic tendencies, prompting individuals to actively seize existing resources and environmental advantages; Negative emotions may trigger two types of differentiation reactions - on the one hand, they form a driving force for sustained effort, and on the other hand, they lead to risk avoidance or emergency preparedness. In emergency decision-making scenarios, the human cognitive system faces the natural constraint of "bounded rationality. It cites Simon's decision theory framework to analyze the functional mechanism of emotion as an information processing subsystem and its special value in crisis management. Due to the inability of decision-makers to exhaust all solutions (limited by knowledge boundaries), emotions are activated through intuitive judgment, and the emotion tagging system automatically screens the memory for the allocation of patterned solution target weights. Secondly, the intensity of emotions reflects the priority of different needs; Emotions play a crucial role in coordinating the goal planning process of individuals or organizations, and this coordination mechanism is effective because the emotional system can quickly make value judgments and prioritize the current situation, thereby making immediate and effective decisions [1]. Brand activities influence consumers' attitudes and behavioral responses towards the brand by eliciting moral emotions. This provides a theoretical basis for emotional marketing strategies, indicating that emotional response is the core mechanism for consumers to respond to brand activities. At the same time, the dual pathway mechanism of "emotional (such as trust) and cognitive (such as brand assets) jointly influencing consumer response" was verified, in which the emotional pathway (trust → brand assets → intention to reuse) has a significant impact on consumer decision-making.

2.2. Core

The core of emotional consumption theory lies in emotion driven decision-making. This is a consumption model guided by meeting emotional needs, where consumers obtain psychological comfort through purchases rather than practical value. The 2024 China Youth Consumption Trend Report shows that nearly 30% of young respondents will consume for emotional value, indicating that this phenomenon has become a mainstream trend. In the context of traditional Chinese culture, social norms shape emotional expression patterns through the value orientation of "harmony". Collectivist culture emphasizes group harmony, and this normative framework often places individual emotional experiences behind collective needs. China has developed a unique paradigm of emotional expression in its historical process, adopting implicit and indirect dialectical approaches rather than the common emotional expression in Western culture. This model includes both the mediation strategy of harmony in clay and the balanced wisdom of the "doctrine of the mean [2]. In the market, people often place their emotions on things purchased by experienced buyers, in order to create a comprehensive effect of positive emotional experiences and reduce the cost of negative emotions. In addition, emotions can affect the evaluation of information [3]. Therefore, emotions are also a part of an individual's cognitive process. This means that emotions can affect the way risks and information are assessed and decisions are made. Therefore, decision-making behavior under uncertain backgrounds can also be influenced by emotions, which are the motivation for action [4]. Overall, emotions are an important research stream for understanding personality. Psychological analysis shows that personality and emotions are closely related, which means that personality can also affect emotional control [5].

2.3. Classification

2.3.1. Sticky consumption

Sticky consumption refers to consumers becoming dependent on certain goods or services and obtaining stable emotional satisfaction through continuous and repeated purchases. This type of consumption is usually associated with stimulating dopamine secretion, providing consumers with a sense of pleasure and peace of mind. Consumers form fixed consumption habits through these products, satisfying their internal emotional dependence. This type of consumption reflects an individual's need for sustained positive emotional experiences and has strong rigidity and continuity characteristics.

2.3.2. Social consumption

Social consumption emphasizes satisfying emotional needs such as social belonging, identity recognition, and circle interaction through consumption behavior. Consumers' purchase of luxury goods, branded clothing, gold jewelry, etc. is not only a material enjoyment, but also an important way to demonstrate social identity and participate in social interaction. This type of consumption helps consumers alleviate loneliness and social anxiety, and strengthen emotional connections with others.

2.3.3. Self pleasing consumption

Self pleasing consumption emphasizes personalized emotional management of consumers, emphasizing the inner pleasure and psychological healing brought by goods or services. Typical products include skin care products, perfume, fitness products, pet economy and cultural and creative products, through which consumers can achieve self-expression and self care. Especially in modern society, consumers place greater emphasis on emotional resonance and spiritual satisfaction, purchasing "emotional gadgets" to relieve stress, gain happiness, and self-identity. This type of consumption reflects consumers' emphasis on quality of life and mental health, emphasizing the concept of consuming for oneself.

3. The concept and role of brand emotional marketing

3.1. Concept definition

Brand emotional marketing is the core strategy of establishing brand loyalty by triggering consumers' deep emotional needs. Its essence is to elevate the product's functional value to emotional connection and identity recognition. Consumer emotional attachment to a brand includes three dimensions: intimacy, passion, and commitment (based on Sternberg's triangle theory). When a brand can enhance consumers' social self or reflect their inner self, brand love is stronger; In addition, the pleasant and aesthetic experiences provided by the brand significantly enhance emotional attachment [6]. The improvement of emotional differentiation will reduce the variability of subsequent emotional regulation, leading to more stable use of strategies. Luxury marketing can cultivate stable brand loyalty by strengthening emotional labels [7]. In addition, brand assets, as a market-based asset, are built on the foundation of relationships, indicating that establishing and cultivating trust is fundamentally crucial as it represents a key attribute in any successful, lasting relationship [8]. This emphasizes the importance of emotional connections (such as trust) for brand assets. When consumers establish an emotional connection with a brand, the likelihood of purchasing a product or service increases, indicating that emotional investment can effectively translate into consumer behavior. Meanwhile, the study also found that "interaction significantly positively affects logistics brand assets (β=0.138, p<0.01)", indicating that two-way communication can enhance emotional connections; Customization leads to higher satisfaction and loyalty by meeting individual customer needs, thereby enhancing brand assets (β=0.119, p<0.01), indicating that personalization is an effective emotional marketing tool; Electronic word-of-mouth significantly affects brand assets (β=0.169, p<0.01), and user generated content can stimulate emotional resonance; Trendiness significantly affects brand equity (β=0.111, p<0.05), and maintaining content freshness helps maintain emotional connections.

3.2. Function

Brand emotional marketing can resonate with consumers' emotions and establish a deep emotional bond between the brand and consumers by understanding their inner emotional needs. This emotional connection not only goes beyond the functionality and price of the product itself, but also makes consumers psychologically identify with the brand, thereby enhancing the brand's affinity and attractiveness [9]. Secondly, through brand storytelling, emotional experience design, and continuous emotional maintenance, brands can help consumers form long-term emotional attachment, enhance customer loyalty, and increase repeat purchase rates. The brand experience created by emotional marketing makes consumers willing to establish a lasting relationship with the brand, reducing losses caused by price or competitor factors. In a market environment with severe product homogenization, emotional marketing enables brands to establish unique connections with consumers through emotional value and shape differentiation advantages. This not only helps brands resist homogeneous competition, but also enhances their resilience, enabling them to better cope with market fluctuations and challenges.

4. Questions and suggestions

4.1. Issues

At present, some brands only stay at superficial slogans or emotional symbols in the process of emotional marketing, lacking deep insights and genuine emotional resonance, which makes it difficult for consumers to generate sustained emotional resonance and brand identity. The emotional value experience is disconnected from product functionality, and some brand marketing excessively pursues emotional expression while ignoring the experience of the product itself, resulting in a disconnect between "emotional value" and "product value", making it difficult for customers to obtain expected satisfaction after purchasing, which affects reputation. The lack of systematic analysis of the emotional needs and consumption motivations of different segmented groups by brands has led to uniform marketing content, making it difficult to effectively meet diverse personalized emotional needs. In addition, the value brought by emotional marketing mostly stays at the level of emotional cognition, lacking a systematic and effective indicator system, making it difficult for brands to accurately measure the true effectiveness of emotional marketing.

4.2. Suggestions

Therefore, this article suggests that brands should deeply explore and express their unique emotional values and brand stories, connect with users' lifestyles through emotional symbols, create a warm and continuous brand personality, and promote emotional resonance. Deeply integrate emotional marketing with product innovation and service upgrades, focusing on emotional appeals while ensuring that products and services provide authentic and high-quality experiences, achieving a dual value transmission of "emotion function".

Firstly, segment the target group and explore diverse emotional needs. By utilizing big data and user research, target groups are divided based on age, life stage, interests and hobbies, and targeted emotional marketing content is designed to improve the accuracy and reach of emotional communication. Brands not only focus on product functionality, but also on consumers' health needs, lifestyle, and value recognition, creating multi-dimensional emotional experiences and immersive consumption scenarios. Research should deepen the dynamic segmentation and change trajectory of consumer emotions, and use AI and big data to achieve multi-stage and precise matching of emotional marketing strategies, meeting the diverse emotional demands of consumers in different life cycles and economic environments. In addition, it is necessary to pay attention to the ethical boundaries of emotional marketing, prevent anxiety marketing and emotional exploitation, promote the joint development of norms and standards by enterprises and regulatory agencies, and protect consumers' mental health and privacy safety. Attention should also be paid to the long-term impact of emotional marketing on cultural identity, social emotional atmosphere, and group behavior, reflecting brand social responsibility.

In addition, enterprises develop multidimensional evaluation indicators for emotional marketing, regularly quantify and evaluate marketing effectiveness, and promote the data-driven and systematic management of emotional marketing in corporate strategy. In the future, it should focus on the coordinated development of technological empowerment and ethical norms, and achieve a balance between commercial value and social benefits in the explosive growth of emotional consumption. At the same time, a multidimensional quantitative evaluation model integrating neuroscience, physiological data, and behavioral feedback is constructed to systematically measure emotional triggering, emotional resonance, and consumption conversion effects, guide marketing strategy adjustments, and improve investment return.

Finally, in the context of globalization and localization, it is necessary to explore the differences in brand emotional expression in different cultures, especially by integrating China's traditional emotional culture of "moderation" and "harmony" with modern personalized consumption needs, and shaping differentiated brand personalities and deep emotional resonance.

Combining the high demand for emotional value among the younger generation of consumers, it aims to promote brands to create diverse, personalized, and dynamic new scenarios and formats for emotional consumption, such as virtual products, healing services, and offline interactive experiences, while meeting their psychological, emotional, and spiritual needs, forming new market growth points.

5. Conclusion

This study focuses on emotional fast charging consumption, revealing the strong demand of consumers for emotional regulation and immediate psychological satisfaction in the context of fast-paced life and multiple pressures. The emotional state of consumers not only affects their consumption motivation, but also drives the innovation and optimization of brand emotional marketing strategies. By combining the perspectives of neuroscience, psychology, and consumer behavior, this article constructs a theoretical framework of "emotional triggering emotional resonance consumption conversion", deepening the understanding of how brands achieve consumer psychological connection and consumption conversion through emotional appeals.

In the future, brands should attach great importance to consumers' emotional needs, design marketing content that resonates more emotionally, strengthen psychological comfort and social identity functions, and achieve a deep emotional connection between brands and consumers. At the same time, the dual pathway interaction mechanism of emotion and cognition provides a new perspective for persuasion theory, which helps to enhance the persuasiveness and effectiveness of brand communication.