The Power of Emotions: Influencing Your Audience in Social Media

Syya Yasotornrat (: 00:02

If there's one thing we've learned about business and life is that people are the X factor. They constantly surprise us both in amazing ways and not so much. We're Ben and Sia and welcome to the Gnaw On This Business Bytes podcast. This show is all about real life things we all deal with every day, how they relate to business and how to make some sense out of our daily chaos. Welcome to the show.

Syya Yasotornrat (: 00:37

And welcome back to another episode of Gnaw on this business bytes. I'm Ben and this is Syya. Here's a question. How do you make your clients feel? Are you creating an emotional bond between your clients and your product? Are you sitting there and we did this in 17, if you gave them a Pepsi and a Coke and you put it in front of you and you were Coca -Cola, would they go grabbing for the Coca -Cola and throw the Pepsi out the window or vice versa?

Or would they say, eh, it's just bottled water, carbonated bottled water with some sugar in it. It doesn't really matter what it is. Have you created an emotional bond where all of a sudden, it doesn't matter how many of your competitors are in the room, they're talking about you and they're reaching to deal with you and they're reaching in their pockets to do business with you because they believe that your product, your service, your customer service, your people,

Your brand is worthy of their attention. Sia, let's gnaw on this. Woo hoo hoo, let us gnaw on this. But first, let me enjoy this wonderful, toasty, warm, warm cup of coffee in my hand because it just feels so And whose coffee is it? Actually, it's an Addison roast, so it's a local roaster.

There we go. It's Ethiopian blend. Cause we like a little bit of fruit forward in our coffee. But look, let me tell you something. This is a cup of coffee is a cup. It functions and it serves its purpose. Whatever's inside here. You could have touched a little bit of Bailey's in it, depending on the morning. I'm kidding. I'm not, I'm not people's trust me. Compulsion strong though are some days. The sun's over the yard. I'm somewhere. I'm not judging.

What are you talking about? No, no, look, this is just a cup, right? But for some, this could be like, this is my great grandmother's cup that she drank when she would wait for her husband to come home, who funny enough, guys, was not my great grandfather. Want to hear that story? Well, let me tell you that story. You know what mean? And then you just kind of like, you go off into that experience of her holding it, waiting and coming back from the war and all that good stuff.

Syya Yasotornrat (: 03:00

And the fact that you're touching the same thing, the same germages potentially, right? Uh, is, is right there. There's something to be said about this is cup as a cup as a cup, but if you have a connection to it, there's a reason for it. And if I can make you care and give a damn about my great, great, great, whatever cup, then it's a win. And if brands can do that, it's a win for the brand because now the brands now associated with that warm feeling, not necessarily the cup. They're just associating that warm feeling with.

you know, your product. So let's go back to I think, episode or 10 or whatever, or maybe last week, I can't keep track anymore. Coca Cola did a really fracking good job of during the 70s. It was a war torn era, or, you know, Vietnam War in America, we're trying to wind that down. And then Coke came out with I'd like to teach the world to sing. That's right. And they had multicultural people singing.

I'm sorry. That was over 50 years ago and I remember it. I was not born when it came out. Yes it was. Damn it. No, it wasn't less than 50 years. Damn it. Save me. It's all right. It's all right. Tell you what I was over. I was over five years old. How about that? We'll, we'll, we'll make me older. Is that better? Yeah, it is. Yeah, whatever. Go. I'm done. I'm done.

And that was another great episode. But here it is when we're dealing with emotion and it's about stirring up memories. Emotion is creating memories. It says, I remember when I dealt with this company and we had emerged and we had great customer service. Here's a perfect example. And I tell this story on the stage all the time about Zappos. Now everybody knows Zappos is the great shoe company.

There's a story and you know what? I don't even know if it's true or it's not true, but I tell this story anyway. And it's about a guy that calls up Zappos customer service. He goes, I don't know what to do with the customer services. How can I help you? He says, my wife died last week and 10 pairs of shoes showed up on my doorstep this morning. He says, not a problem. Have you taken them out of the box? No, I haven't taken them out of the box. He says, leave them in the box.

Syya Yasotornrat (: 05:20

I am emailing you a return label for them. I'm crediting your credit card as we speak. We will take care of it. There will be someone there from UPS or FedEx or whatever is later this afternoon to pick that box up. Just give it to them. They will take care of it and you're taken care of. And he could have left it at that. And that same Zappos representative found a local florist, called the florist up.

God of the floor arrangement had it sent to the house condolences of Zappos. Do you think that story has driven an emotional tie to thousands and thousands and thousands of people to sit there and say, it wasn't about the shoes. Yeah, okay, Zappos had to pay a return charge. Okay, maybe it cost them 50, 100 bucks. Who cares?

They took care of the person. They made that person feel that they were listened to, understood and valued. They created an emotional attachment to that person. And that person for the rest of their life and me, and probably another 50 people I know have told that story from the stage to thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people. And what that's done to elevate the Zappos brand.

along with the other hundreds of stories that are probably out there like that, shows that the people at Zappos care about the people they're doing business with. It's not just a transaction. It's about making people's lives better. And when you think that the company that you're working with is there and they've got your best interests at heart, it...

really irrelevant if they're $50 more money or $50 less money, you're going to buy from them because you have that emotional bond. Now, way too few companies realize this. Way too few companies do this sort of thing. It says, well, you signed off on it. It's your fault. No, OK, your client made a mistake. How can you fix it together?

Syya Yasotornrat (: 07:43

How can you meet them halfway? So you're not gonna lose money, but they're still gonna feel that they're being taken care of. How can you create those bonds and that emotional connection? Because once you do that, it's amazing what can happen next. It doesn't have to be grandiose gestures either. It doesn't. Like in the back of mind screaming. And again, I know we sound like groupies, but I know you and I have goals in life.

But, uh, you know, I was at Disney world in January. I worked at Disney for almost seven years in California. And I would just see so many stories as a cast member. I would see these kids who I worked at a restaurant called Goofy's kitchen. Shout out Goofy's kitchen. Um, we're, you know, it was the beginning idea, concept of dining with characters, right? And that's how old I am anyway. So, um, the kids would buy autograph books, right?

And a lot of times these kids just because of the rotation timing and just the way they had things to do and mom and dad are like, we're not waiting 20 minutes for Cinderella to pop out. You know what I mean? So a lot of times, you know, we would just say, Hey, you know, I don't know if we can get, you know, Tigger to come back out, but would you like me to get his autograph? And the thing was we could have really just gone backstage and just went and call it a day. And yeah. And the parents would have been like, whatever.

But we never did. Like all of us never did. We still had the integrity of if I were that kid, would I want a bad autograph of Tigger? Because when you're a character, you actually get trained. You get trained how to give a proper signature. Right. And so we would always go backstage and we'd find the, the, where the characters hung out and rested and we'd ask them really, can we get some autographs? And it was just so funny. Cause they were like, yeah, no problem. And this is their breaks. Yeah. But.

to come back with it. And sometimes we would have like little pins or things that we could give away just to nominally like Tigger says sorry or whatever. I remember once we did this for the child and the parents, it was their annual trip to Disney. That was their big trip for the family. Every year they would come back and every year I would take a picture with this little boy. And so it was like over the course of seven years. Oh, that's gotta be cool. Cool. So it went from being a six year old to a 13 year old. Okay.

Syya Yasotornrat (: 10:10

Well, he was 13. And at that point, I'm like in my like mid mid 20s or so mid to late 20s. And I was actually about to leave was my last year. And I guess he had a crush on me. And his parents were like, Oh, my God, because he was a big boy who was taller than me at 13. And they're like, Oh, my gosh, because it used to be he would sit on my lap. Yeah, but now that he was older, I'm like, I'm not sitting on your son's lap, you guys. He's 13. Hell no. No, it's not.

But but but but it was funny because I did give him a hug and it was just like one of those and they they actually ended up giving me a book of all the pictures of us over the years together as a goodbye gift because I told him I was looking to leave and then the next year they had it just in case and oh I'm making my heart break but it's it's those little things that come back to you too I guess is what I'm trying to say too right so it could be something nominal something like a Tigger signature.

And it can be grandiose. I mean, ma 'am, selling, sending flowers, that's a fracking sweet gesture. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I remember forgetting this is going back nearly 20 years ago and I had a brand new client, a potential new client, and we were, we had to make custom jackets. It was for police force and we were making custom jackets and it was part of the RFP, part of the request for quotation and.

They paid me $600 to have this jacket made. And there was three vendors and we were all supposed to make a jacket and then have it submitted by a certain day. Well, long and short of it is my vendor in China messed the jacket up. Absolutely messed the jacket up. Horribly, one sleeve was shorter than the other. The zipper wasn't to specification. Something, I don't know what happened, but the, you know, and I called my client up.

or the potential climb up, I said look.

Syya Yasotornrat (: 12:08

I can't give you this jacket. It looks horrible. I'm embarrassed. My vendor in China messed up the jacket. It's my fault. The first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to refund you the money.

I'm going to refund you the $600. Don't worry about it. You know, I'll just tell me how you want the money back. We'll get a checkout to you guys today. Second of all, if you have to blacklist me from the bid from ongoing bid processes, I totally admit it because I'm not going to have you look bad because of my mistake. I made two and a half million dollars off that guy over the next three and a half years. Oh, wow. Two and a half.

million dollars in additional revenue because I ate a $600 thing and I actually took the time to do the mea culpa and said, hey, listen, I'll fall on the sword. It's my fault. Let me fall on the sword. And he and I became really good friends. That's nice. But for me, it was sitting there going, you create.

an opportunity to make your clients look good. You give them an opportunity to have a story to tell. And in the same thing, you do the right thing. And if you usually do the right thing and if you take care of your clients and you treat them like human beings and you treat them as if they're someone special, it comes back to you a hundred fold. And it may not have been him directly that gave me two and a half million dollars, but he went around and told other people about it at the same time. Right.

And you know, that story ends up spreading. And we, you never know where the good karma is going to come from, but you certainly know where the bad karma is going to come from. You bring up something here though, is that, um, you, you held yourself accountable and you accepted when you done screwed up at Aeron, right? Um, but you know, you just kind of brought it right back to our original premise though, which is like how to get brands to feel right. Or to make you feel and, and, and.

Syya Yasotornrat (: 14:19

and value. And then the word value just kept popping up in my head was basically, if a brand can provide some level of value that evokes an emotion within you, and you again, value that, whatever it is, that's where the connection in lies, right? Because it's always an exchange. Yeah, obviously, a company or brand is going to want your business in some capacity. But as a recipient of that brands, you know,

product or message, whatever it might be, is if we get something unfulfilled in some way emotionally, like again, bring it back to let's say, for example, it could be something like, you know, maybe it's drinking a Dr. Pepper instead of a Coke, but man alive that that that I don't know what is in Dr. Pepper little cherry in there it makes I don't know, but it but it's so unique and it makes you feel good that you close your eyes, you can sip it on a hot Texas sun, you know, Sunday morning.

because that's healthy to do. I don't know what you feel good about analogies, but, but, but that's, that's it. I'm now connected and bonded to it. So yeah. Um, I'd like for us to have more of a conversation on this, uh, in the future. Cause I feel like we're running out of time. I do think, but I do think we really need a hone in more on how maybe the next time. Okay, fine. We talked that there's a need, but now let's talk about maybe.

and maybe we'll talk about some other companies that are doing it well, maybe. I would be in for that if you are. So let's come up with another one and let's make that happen. So I'm Ben. And I'm Syya. And we'll see you soon.

Syya Yasotornrat (: 16:00

Hey hey hey, thanks for listening to another episode of Gnaw On This Business Bytes. If you liked what you heard, we most humbly ask that you like, share, and hit that subscribe button. If you want to communicate more effectively within your organization, contact Ben at yourbrandmarketing .com or me at brilliantbeammedia .com. We can help you build your community, brand awareness, and personality through digital content and podcasting.

We cannot wait to hear from you. So see you next week for another episode of Gnaw On This Business Bytes.