The Paths to Emotion

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 4, The Paths to Emotion (20 pages), the authors outline two approaches to creating product emotion, through associated emotions or supported emotions. Associated emotions are external to the product and communicated to the customer through messaging, usually advertising. Supported emotions derive from the use of the product or service itself. The authors say that supported emotions are used less frequently and offer more powerful opportunities for managers. They illustrate each path through examples, but focus mainly on associated emotions in the chapter. They consider their own studies and other scientific research that demonstrates how associated emotion can have a positive impact on customers' perceptions of product value.

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