A research to determine the effect of emotional benefit presentations of brands on consumers' brand preference

From past to present, the concept of brand has been an important element in distinguishing and defining products and services. Today, both the developments in the field of technology and the spread of communication and transportation networks have enabled many products and services to be produced with the same quality and standard and to reach many parts of the world at the same time. In this case, it is of great importance for brands to be different from their competitors. Nowadays, when the same physical properties can be produced easily, it can be said that one of the factors that differentiate brands from their competitors is the emotional benefits they offer to the consumer. Emotional benefit presentations, in the most general sense, are the brand's appeal to consumer emotions rather than the functional (quality, price, performance) benefit of the product and service. Consumers can make their brand, product and service preferences for emotional appreciation, gaining the desired identity, social status and reaching the ideal self. It can be said that consumers can prefer products and services in terms of quality, price, performance features as well as emotional benefits they offer. In this context, in this study, it is aimed to determine to what extent the emotional benefits offered by brands are effective in the preferences of their consumers. The survey was conducted with 420 people by using the questionnaire technique, which is one of the quantitative research methods. Before the research was carried out, a pre-test was conducted with 30 people on September 30, 2021, and the questionnaire was revised and finalized according to the results of the pre-test. The questionnaire, which was transferred to the online environment between 01 October and 08 October 2021, was answered by 420 participants and 420 of the forms that were returned without any problems were analyzed. The data obtained from the research were analyzed and interpreted with the SPSS program. According to the data obtained with the SPSS program, it can be said that the participants prefer a product or service on the basis of price-quality, but when it comes to the same price-quality, emotional benefit comes to the fore. The demographic characteristics of the participants were evaluated, and the T test and Anova test were applied to measure whether the participants' level of participation in the statements included in the scales differed according to the variables of gender, age, education and income status. In line with the findings, there is no significant difference between the demographic characteristics of the participants and the level of participation in the statements designed within the scales. Keywords: Brand, Emotional Benefit Presentation, Brand Preference, Rational Benefit Presentation, Brand Communication