Emotional advertisements are today increasingly used by advertisers to evoke emotional reactions in the consumers. However, whether or not emotional advertisements are successful in creating favorable reactions in the consumers by way of buying intentions and buying behaviors depends largely on the consumers' ability to control their emotions. This paper examines the probable relationship between consumers' emotional intelligence and their reactions to emotional advertisements. It is argued that, emotional intelligence has implications for consumer behavior in general and reactions to affect-laden advertisements in particular. The way emotional intelligence can influence the intentions as well as the buying behaviors of consumers is explained here on the basis of theory and evidence from existing research. The paper comes out with two propositions, which are expected to serve as agenda for future research.
In this information age, advertisements play a very significant role in the consumption patterns of the consumer population. This is evident from the fact that the average consumer is, today, perpetually bombarded with advertisements of all sorts. Of course, the impact of advertisements on the consumers has never been underestimated by the corporates. Thanks to globalization, the Indian consumer is now getting wooed not only by companies based in the Indian soil, but also by companies hailing from foreign shores. The information technology revolution has been a boon to the businesses in that it has opened up new modes of reaching out to the consumer. Indeed, an astronomical sum of money is being pumped into product promotions and advertising campaigns by all the business houses. The fact is that, companies are today vying for every bit of the consumer's mind space.
Although over the years, a number of models dealing with the impact of advertisements on the consumer have been put forward, it is still difficult to explain as to how advertisements really work (Vakratsas and Ambler, 1999).The problem is, to a large extent, due to the complexity surrounding consumer behavior itself. In recent years, many companies have shifted from their traditional informational advertising approach to focus more on an emotional appeal approach to woo consumers.
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