Marketing isn’t just about selling—it’s about creating happiness. In challenging times, brands that bring joy stand out, build stronger connections, and drive lasting success. Dean Taylor, CEO/Founder,  explores why happiness is a powerful marketing strategy, how emotional insights can elevate campaigns, and why now is the perfect time to focus on joy. Read more to discover how marketing to happiness can transform your brand.

Remember: You’re not just in Marketing, you’re in the happiness business.

With the times being what they are currently in Aotearoa, it’s far too easy to get a little down and just get on with the day-to-day, forgetting why you absolutely love what you do. That’s right, marketing is a passion business; we get to do amazing things and, yes, our core function is to make Kiwis and their families happy.

This is something to celebrate; let me explain.

Happy customers are the lifeblood of any business. They are the reason companies and brands prosper, they increase profit and margin - it’s a win-win.

In marketing it is our focus to build a happy customer base. We are the most qualified to do it and (dare I say) the most emotionally sensitive to the levers we have to pull to make people happy. Within this discussion it is crucial to know how we achieve customer happiness, that is to say how satisfied they are after interacting with your brand. Happiness comes when we take our clients beyond simple satisfaction. This is a winning metric every time. It will impact customer referral, brand reputation, retention rates and, ultimately, business success. It’s also a very friendly term for CEO’s, Boards and the C-Suite generally, because we all understand the nature of happiness and its impact.

Many countries now publish their happiness index, and it is directly linked to how productive the country is; the figure generally correlates well with GDP. So, as a nation we need happiness to prosper.

Happiness strategies for marketing are empathy-based, so we need to delve into the emotional insights. Look at the pain points of your customers, the goals they are trying to reach, and then how your products or services can assist in accomplishing those goals. Can your product help them be a better parent, offer a reward for work well done, bring their family together, give them status? Answering any of these needs will lead to happy customers.

My goal is always to be a great Dad to my young boys, so I am constantly on the lookout for products and services that can help me. At the weekend I went to MOTAT, which was full of fun activities. It was bubble weekend and the silliness of this activity made us all happy. I saw the marketing and its promise, bought tickets, and the experience delivered. MOTAT’s marketing team made the Taylor boys very happy. They didn’t sell the product, but the benefit of the experience: happiness.

This brings me to marketing campaigns: will they make your target audience happy? Are your ads smiling? If your aim to sell happiness is genuine, then you’ve got to focus on selling the experience over the product.  

Marketing to happiness, also known as joy marketing in the USA, should do what it says on the tin - create joy. It is aimed at strengthening the connection between the brand and the target audience via great emotional insights. Or what we would call good strategic planning in New Zealand.

This has definitely been in short supply over the last few years, and it feels like we have been cautious as to what we can say and whether it is appropriate to make consumers smile. This is understandable as times have been incredibly tough and this has taken its toll on the nation as a whole.

I am a big fan of the TRA (The Research Agency) and they recently published research on this very subject: https://www.theresearchagency.com/play

I thoroughly recommend having a read. They interviewed 2,000 consumers around the concept of joy and brands. They saw joy and happiness as a crucial tool and this makes sense - a moment of play or shared laughter triggered by a brand has beneficial effects for both. This is a great emotional exchange and, as we have said, happiness leads to a great place for both the business and consumer.

As we start our journey in 2025, people are seeking joy more than ever before. Pandemics and recessions have left us weary and hungry for a lightness of touch and a shared sense of humour.  This is a year where things are getting better and peoples’ lives will improve. For us marketing folk, it is always easier to push on an open door, to be ahead of any wave, and what better strategy for our country right now than to be selling happiness.  It’s something worth getting passionate about, and sure to bring a smile to faces. 
 

Source: Dean Taylor, 24 February 2025