Emotional Intelligence: a concept of a modern marketer

Emotional Intelligence has been defined as the “ability to perceive emotions to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth” (Mayer & Salovey, 1997:5). 

The mood of an individual – the emotional state that the individual is in – affects those around them. Therefore, an individual who is more positive and cheerful would be likely to have the same effect on the moods of those around him.

Thus an individual’s state affects those around them. When individuals can understand their own emotions and those of the people around them, they can fine tune their own responses to get the best out of a situation.

An Emotionally Intelligent Marketer will have the ability to motivate oneself, to persist in the face of frustrations, to control impulse and delay gratification, to regulate one’s moods, to keep distress from interfering with the ability to think, to empathise, to hope, to perform, to be creative.

If one desires to be an effective marketer then they have to master a variety of emotional competencies and these are: -

• The motivation to see daily problems as challenges and to handle them accordingly;
• The ability to use emotional energy for important issues and not to get side-tracked by unimportant events;
• Emotional creativity which implies that the force and energy of emotions is used optimally.
• The ability to bounce back after a disappointment;
• The ability to form and sustain warm genuine and intimate relationships with others;
• The ability to, when needed, disagree with others in order to reach a point where change and renewal can take place:

It is also important to take note of the Emotional Intelligence values and beliefs which are: -

• Personal empathy;
• A positive outlook on life;
• Intuition;
• The ability to recognize and trust people;
• Personal strength and integrity:   It is therefore important and in my view critical that for one to be an effective Marketer, they need to have the above competences and to adopt the personal values and beliefs which makes the Emotionally Intelligent Marketers.