Marketing with Precise Emotional Drivers Insight with Esther-Mireya Tejeda of Anywhere Real Estate

Oct 16

Esther-Mireya Tejeda is Chief Marketing Officer of Anywhere Real Estate, a global leader in residential real estate, with a portfolio of brands that includes Sotheby’s International Realty, Corcoran, Coldwell Banker, CENTURY21, Better Homes & Gardens, and ERA.

In this episode of Let's Talk Limbic Sparks, Esther-Mireya reveals why a precise understanding of consumer emotional drivers is essential for effective marketing today. She describes what she calls Emographics, the nuanced emotional profile of a consumer you get from neuroscience-based research, that is key to unlocking the consumer relationships marketers want to build.

Esther-Mireya talks about why it's a false assumption that consumer behavior is mostly rational, and how we need to go deeper to understand the layers of truth and the diversity of emotional profiles of our consumers. She shares that the most successful brands are not selling the value proposition of their product or service, they are the brands that are eliciting an irrational emotional response in a human beings, inspiring them to desire things when they may not even understand why.

Key Takeaways and Soundbites:

“There's a cultural toll we will pay as a society if we do not embrace the value of diversity and the benefit of diversity.”

“People, in every sense, are extremely diverse and we have to do a much better job of understanding and embracing that granular level of diversity that exists, even within groups that we would have previously thought are similar or monolithic. They are not.”

“I don't think it's a secret to anybody that marketing has always tried to be emotionally driven. Ads have focused on being the tear-jerker, driving some kind of feeling in the consumer. What we have not been doing is really understanding what the emotional profile of our consumers are. We still operate, largely, from the perspective that human behaviors are rational. So we want to understand and segment people based on rational behaviors, their rationally vocalized opinions in focus groups, the behaviors we see them taking on in our funnels and in research, etc. What we are not really understanding or embracing in a very real and operational way, is that the behaviors we are seeing are the tip of the iceberg.”

“We as marketers have really been focused on measuring the what of people - what they do, what they are. We now have to start asking why. Why are they doing that? Why do they behave this way. As close as we can get to that understanding that, and doing segmentation work and profile work based on that layer of subconscious emotional understanding, then that is how much close we'll be to truly getting our consumers - understanding who they are, and be able to create marketing that actually appeals to people on levels that they don't even understand.”

“That is what is possible with neuroscience. That is why I love so much some of the work that we are doing together. Because it is the new frontier for research. It used to be demographics, then we started talking about psychographic. It's time that we start talking about Emographics. What is the emotional profile of our consumers? That's what will unlock the relationships that we're all trying to build.”

“That combination of the mindset and the heartset equals a much more comprehensive understanding of that person, and it allows us to be much more precise in how we market to them, target them, personalize to them, create the experiences that will actually connect with them and drive the behaviors we want to drive.”

“Without having that level of precision and understanding of consumers at that deep subconscious level, we're just not able to create the kind of campaigns, the kind of creative, the kind of advertising, the kind of messaging call to actions, that we need to create in order to get the results that we have to deliver. We have to be able and willing to take a step back, to set up the insights, to really understand the customer.”

“Everyone has a deep ocean of feelings somewhere deep in their soul, that are making you like the things that you like and see the world they way that you see it. If we do the hard and important work of understanding that layer of truth for our consumers and even understanding the diversity of emotional profiles, then and only then, can we create those Limbic Sparks.”

Here are some fun facts about Esther-Mireya…

Esther-Mireya Tejeda is a recognized transformation strategist known for stewarding brands through the complex challenges of today’s tech-driven marketplace. Currently the first Chief Marketing Officer at Anywhere Real Estate Inc., home to some of the most recognized brands in the industry, Tejeda is revolutionizing the marketing organization into a modern, tech-driven operation centered on the customer.

With two decades of experience spanning lifestyle, media and entertainment, Tejeda is known for her unique blend of innovation, strategy, and operational acumen coupled with a people-first approach to leadership. She is currently pioneering neuroscientific methodologies to build cutting-edge customer insights that center on subconscious emotions - a first for the industry and for marketers overall.

Prior to Anywhere, Tejeda was a growth catalyst at organizations like SoundExchange, Entercom/CBS Radio, Univision, PepsiCo, and Diageo. A purpose-driven leader, Tejeda chairs the Women in Tech & Product group at Anywhere and is on the board of directors for the DEI Council. She is fluent in Spanish and a New York City native.