The World: Insider's view - US.(scope of emotional experiences in brand marketing)

Brands that appeal to consumers by creating emotional experiences will gain the higher ground in a hypercompetitive market, Paul Price writes.

Brands are a bundle of experiences. The more emotionally engaging your brand experience, the more unique intangible value you grow by engaging customers in it.

Agencies that embrace this model will prosper. They will serve their clients better by supporting sales growth, and safeguard the future of their clients' brands by developing enduring emotional brand experiences - tough to imitate in today's hypercompetitive market.

Emotions are playing a significant part in even the most hardnosed business decisions in the US. A decision to list with the New York Stock Exchange as opposed to the FTSE, is never based purely on cost. The NYSE brand engages emotions associated with prestige, power, respect and credibility, carefully orchestrated to echo through all possible experiences of the brand.

Retired baby boomers, fondly relating back to icons of their youth, are spending big sums. In the US, an original 70s Chevy Camaro that once cost a few thousand dollars now fetches hundreds of thousands.

Dodge, Ford and General Motors are re-releasing their most memorable muscle cars of the 60s and 70s, and there is still plenty of opportunity for marketers to tap into these emotions and repeat the success of Harley Davidson or Ford's Mustang.

Agencies must start adapting now. They need to overturn conventional assumptions about their businesses and understand what is happening.