Customer experience management through emotional connection: an Indian perspective

The marketing power of emotion traces the manner in which companies rely on emoting to connect with consumers, develop new products, improve their strategic position and increase brand recognition. Emotion is not the only element in making buying decisions, but a necessary condition if decisions are not to be continually postponed. It has been debated in the literature that consumers while making purchase, decisions are purely driven by cognitions. Recent studies, while examining how consumers actually make decisions in various shopping contexts, establish the fact that consumers are more often mindless rather than mindful decision makers. For many reasons, market research communities have been giving too much emphasis to consider rationally driven behaviours, thereby largely ignoring the influence of emotions. The present study makes an attempt to integrate these two broad themes with the propositions that it will infuse more life and realism into an understanding of consumer purchase process and theory of consumer satisfaction.