Product Emotions

Built to Love: Creating Products That Captivate Customers is a 10-chapter book published in 2010 by Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. and written by Peter Boatwright, Associate Professor of Marketing at the Tepper School of Business, and Jonathan Cagan, the George Tallman and Florence Barrett Ladd Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. The authors explain how and why evoking an emotional connection with the customer enables certain products to enjoy market success. They explore key concepts around high-emotion products and present research that proves the value of emotion in product success. Drawing on numerous real-world examples, including an extended case study of Navistar, they outline a model for creating high-emotion products in three phases: identify emotional opportunity, develop a product strategy, and transfer strategy into product features. They provide practical guidance and insight for managers. In Chapter 1, Product Emotions (16 pages), the authors consider the relationship between the customer and a product. The authors differentiate between using emotions to encourage the purchase of a product versus developing a product experience that produces an emotion, with the latter as the desired goal. They also explain how branding plays a significant role in product emotions because it forms the basis for the relationship between product and company. The authors argue that an emotional exchange must be genuine and lasting to be effective and that the goal of creating product emotions must be integrated into the company's overall strategy and mission, based on extensive research and careful development.

• Consumer behavior
• Strategic positioning
• Innovation
• Brand management
• Psychology and neuroscience
• Product development