In the TV series Mad Men, fictional creative director Don Draper uttered the now-famous line: “Advertising is based on one thing, happiness.” It was true in 1960 and true today. Finding the key that unlocks that coveted response to a product has always been the marketer’s challenge. Is the most effective appeal logical or emotional? And is that appeal different, based on consumer or trade audiences? Despite occasional evidence to the contrary, every customer comes equipped with a brain. So, understanding how it works should help us break the happiness code, right?
How The Customer’s Brain Works
The familiar idea of a logical “left brain” and an emotional “right brain” grew largely from the split-brain research during the 1950s and ’60s. Groundbreaking science demonstrated that certain functions are more specialized in one cerebral hemisphere than the other. Later, popular culture turned this complex scientific discovery into something of a cliche: left brain equals logic and analysis; right brain equals creativity and emotion. In fact, the two hemispheres work together extensively, so our emotional and rational processes are deeply interconnected.
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But as a behavioral metaphor, “left brain vs. right brain” remains useful because it raises an important question for marketers: Which side are you appealing to? If your answer is one or the other, you may already have a problem. The correct answer is both. Effective marketing should give the emotional mind reasons to care while giving the rational mind reasons to believe. When they work together, you set the stage for happiness.
The Trade Customer Is No Different
Somewhere along the way, marketers developed the curious notion that trade customers become fundamentally different human beings when they arrive at work. Not true. Trade customers respond emotionally—and recognize the emotional value your product can offer their customers—even as they weigh the facts and figures. Many brands selling complex products succeed by connecting practical value with what customers ultimately want to feel. A flooring retailer may say he wants reliable inventory, responsive service and products that perform as promised. Of course he does. But underneath those rational requirements are emotional rewards: confidence in the supplier, reassurance that the product won’t create problems and the peace of mind that comes from knowing someone will answer the phone if it does. GE isn’t just selling turbines. Cisco isn’t just selling routers. IBM isn’t just selling computing infrastructure. Slack isn’t just selling messaging software. At the emotional level, where interest, preference and trust can begin to take shape, they are promising throughout their marketing campaigns possibility, progress, confidence, connection and a better way to experience happiness.
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The B2B Paradox
The higher the stakes of the decision, the more emotion matters. For instance, if you make a $12 consumer purchase and regret it, little is at stake. If you select a supplier, specify a product, authorize a major purchase or recommend a solution and it fails, your reputation (or job, promotion, etc.) is at stake. We often say that someone is making a “career decision.” Suddenly, trust, fear, confidence, reassurance and perceived risk become extremely important. That is the B2B paradox: the more consequential the rational decision, the more consequential the emotions surrounding it become. Over time, a strong trade brand turns uncertainty into familiarity, familiarity into confidence and confidence into trust. For the trade buyer, happiness often looks like confidence that they made the right call.
Implications In An AI World
Lest we forget that the marketer’s goal is to appeal to human beings, it is useful to remember that people don’t behave like machines. At least not yet. Yet amid all the fascination with AI’s ability to marshal enormous amounts of data, summarize it and serve it up, it’s easy for creatives and brand managers to skip over the human brain in deference to the machine brain. In other words, does this marketing campaign you’re developing make Claude happy or your target audience happy? And if you and a thousand other marketers are doing the same thing, how will your brand’s message be a beacon of happiness to your intended customer or just part of the noise?
AI may be the most powerful marketing tool we’ve ever been handed. But it doesn’t relieve marketers of the responsibility for understanding the human being on the receiving end. What gets their attention? What gives them confidence? What makes them trust us? What makes them feel good about choosing our brand?
Those aren’t left-brain questions or right-brain questions. They’re marketing questions.
Don Draper called the desired destination happiness. Today we might call it confidence, reassurance, preference or trust. Whatever we call it, AI can help us get there faster—but it can’t decide where “there” should be.
In the age of AI, there’s still one thing left for the marketer to do: break the happiness code.
Paul Friederichsen is a partner and brand strategist at The Blake Project.
At The Blake Project, we help leaders turn brand into a disciplined driver of financial performance — strengthening pricing power, competitive position, and enterprise value. Email us to start a conversation about enduring profitable growth. For The EBITDA.
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