We recently shared our thoughts on “Defining Consumer Emotions for Market Research” on our blog, and dug even deeper into this topic in the first of our two-part webinar series, “Why Is There So Much Confusion About Emotions?” 

This webinar, hosted by our Chief Research Officer Greg Stucky, on January 20th, talked about how researchers need to build some degree of emotional intelligence into the market research innovation process in order to get the RIGHT insights. Being able to understand what emotions are and what they are not—and elicit them properly in research—can make or break success with consumers. 

There are many reasons why it is difficult to land on a universal definition of emotions, and in turn agree on how to measure them. We discussed definitions (temperament, attitudes, moods and emotions) in our previous blog post, but in a nutshell the confusion comes from the myriad ways humans use emotional language. When people talk about self, about experience or about feelings, we, for example, may use the same word “happy” to mean very different things. A person might say “I am a happy person,” or “Candles make me happy,” or “I am happy,” or “This fragrance makes me feel happy.” 

(“Happy” used for Temperament, Attitude, Mood, and Emotion)

Being able to discern what people are talking about when they say “happy” is quite helpful in understanding how to measure emotions and focusing that information for innovation.

In terms of market research for product development, emotions are incredibly important to define and understand. Humans can form emotional connections with products and brands, and these emotions drive toward or away from purchasing behaviors. Emotions are responsible for forming memories, the strength of those memories, and the ability to recall experiences. 

In the webinar recording, Greg shares more about how emotions are elicited, how context changes emotions, and takes a deeper look at the definitions of temperament, attitudes, moods and emotions. Make sure to listen to this webinar, “Why Is There So Much Confusion About Emotions?”— and then sign up to join us for the second in the two-part series, “Writing Emotions Insights” on January 27th.