Consideration decisions come from establishing an emotional connection

Most big-ticket purchases in aviation and related industries are considered purchases. It is the job of marketing to understand what is important to decision makers and influencers in terms of feature, function, and cost benefit. Those are the issues that will be weighted against the competition when the rational purchase process begins.

When developing the business and marketing plan for a new aviation component or service, the aspect of creating an emotional connection with decision makers is often overlooked. Aviation innovation is engineering driven, leading the marketing focus to be the component features and benefits. While feature and benefit comparisons are important, one should not overlook connecting on an emotional level with the decision maker to achieve awareness for consideration in the first place.

Achieving the emotional connection is incumbent upon understanding what issues keep the decision makers up at night. For example:

• FAA compliance mandates
• Social changes in customers’ attitudes toward their brand
• New avionics technology that require capital investment to update the fleet

Decision makers are concerned with the business’s continuation and ability to survive changes in the aviation industry. Identifying the emotional connection that your component or service can give the decision maker will create an opportunity for consideration.

Once the concerns are understood, then the brand promise can be formulated that gives the decision makers hope for the future and a way to control their business destiny.

Attribute/Benefit/Brand Emotional Connection

A good exercise to help define the emotional connection to the brand is to look at the attribute and benefit of the component or service offering.

For example, if the aviation component provides the manufacturer with a lower operating cost, this can be considered a competitive advantage. The emotional connection to the brand then becomes certainty about the future because improved operating cost means being able to weather changing market conditions and still provide for profitability.

Emotional connection gets you a seat at the table

Introducing new technology or components to the aviation industry can be challenging. Satisfying the engineering requirement is a given but to be successful, consideration from the purchaser is required to start the conversation. Don’t be afraid to mix emotion with innovation. This blend can lead to powerful relationships that build brand dominance.

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