Exploring How Storytelling and Emotional Appeals Influence Purchase Decisions

The present research focuses on the effects of storying appeals and feelings appeal on consumers buying decisions with the purpose of explaining the way stories and emotions bias buying decisions. Given the fact that storytelling has emerged as crucial element in current communication and marketing strategies, the research aims at establishing the processes that enhance the use of the tool to enhance brand familiarisation and purchasing decisions. Both quantitative and qualitative research paradigms were employed and surveys, focus groups and statistical results were collected from a conveniently sampled group of consumers. Implications summarise that using emotional appeals increases consumer interest and purchase intention notably when the emotion appeals invoke aspects of culture, self-identity, and goals. Of the themes, self-actualization, family, and social relatedness were identified as being most useful. The study also discovers concrete affective cues, including empathy and nostalgia, as crucial to capture audience’s heart. The findings therefore support assertions that the inclusion of audiences’ authenticity in marketing communication messages is valid. Specific suggestions are preventing generalizations of narratives to audiences, using culturally appropriate themes and employing monitoring mechanisms to enhance narratives’ delivery. This paper’s results add to the ongoing discussion of the concept of emotion marketing and offer specific advice for marketers interested in implementing storytelling with a strategy that will succeed from a business perspective. In this way, focusing on the strategic potential of storytelling and appealing to emotions, this work closes the gap between consumer psychological studies and marketing activities, presenting a logically consistent and methodologically grounded framework for analyzing and using narratives and emotions in various contexts of the market.