Sometimes a pen isn’t just a pen.

Beyond the satisfying swoosh of ink permeating the page, a simple writing tool can mean so, so much more than it seems at first glance. As mundane and commonplace as a pen can be, you can give it powers beyond your wildest imagination. And no, I’m not referring to the majestic power of language. With the right marketing, an object as simple as a pen can elicit emotions and even become a reflection of oneself. It might sound too good to be true, like a far-fetched fantasy, but it is all fact and no fiction. So, allow me to take the first stroke by telling you a story that illustrates the magic of emotional marketing…Find your favorite fountain, felt-tip, or ball-point and let’s get started.

The Power of the Pen

Once upon a time, I pitched an international corporate promotion company that, most notably, manufactures pens in the millions. You know, the ones you get at a conference or when you visit a CPA with a company name and contact information inscribed across it. Such simple objects are meant to leave an impression that lasts as long as the ink we use it for.

For the company’s 50th anniversary, they wanted to make a mark on their customers. Their target market was family style businesses, many of which had been passed down through generations. To tell their stories, we came up with the remarkable slogan: “Every great legacy starts at the tip of a pen.” What started as a story about business transformed with 10 simple words into one of deep, time-transcending emotion.

To craft a poignant narrative, we compiled the stories of small businesses that had survived the test of time and the passing through decades. We reminded them that their businesses created a lasting legacy. And a time-tested right of passage in that legacy was the profound moment of signing a contract. The pen, at that moment, became so much more than a writing instrument, but a fundamental tool in these momentous events.

At first unassuming, but then arresting, we captured the essence of an heirloom, allowing the company’s customers to see themselves and their stories, in yes — a simple pen.

Eliciting Emotion

You see, even seemingly insignificant products can be used to evoke powerful feelings and intangible experiences. This campaign facilitated the customer to connect with a low-key product on a personal level. This deeply emotional marketing example provides an excellent picture of what I call BRANDcebo, or the placebo effect of brands. BRANDcebo is a marketing model devised from countless hours of my own research, on the way that brands can tap into our subconscious minds to such a degree they change the way we think, feel, and even identify ourselves. Which is why using the BRANDcebo model as a basis for a marketing strategy has been so effective in brands around the world. Allow me to jot down the three elements of the BRANDcebo model…

Invoking the Elements

The first element is “priming,” or communicating with the subconscious mind by preparing it for a response. In this case, the campaign primed the customer by eliciting a sense of familiarity, connecting the pen company’s far-reaching familial legacy to the client’s own. Once primed, the customer then experienced the penultimate element, “expectation.” The sense of familiarity and connection that the client experienced revealed that the pen company holds their values and shares their traditions. It told them, “They know us, and therefore they can be trusted.” That brings us to the final element of the BRANDcebo model…“desire.” This is the cornerstone reflected by any family business: desire to thrive and leave an everlasting legacy. The simple pen was simply a symbol, yet it was also a mighty trigger for a cataclysmic psychological reaction.

This is merely a prologue to a much larger story that is BRANDcebo. To take the pen into your own hands, buy the book here and start writing your brand’s emotional story.