Do you know what the most interesting thing about Hello Kitty is?

(It’s not the incredible range of products that exist with her face on – although I personally adore the jet airliner, the Stratocaster and the unofficial-but-fabulous chainsaw and assault rifle.)

The most interesting thing about Hello Kitty? She has no mouth.

Look at her – what is Hello Kitty feeling right now?

You don’t have any clues from her face – her wide-open eyes could mean anything. Your brain, that pattern-spotting machine, hates hanging questions like this one.

So you immediately do something we all do: you’ll make up an answer. That answer is strongly influenced by whatever is floating around in your mind right now. If you’re feeling happy, so is Hello Kitty. If you’re feeling a wistful nostalgia mixed with an almost elusive sadness? Why guess what, Hello Kitty feels the same.

And that’s why Hello Kitty is worth $500 billion every year in licensing.

(That’s a LOT of Hello Kitty vibrators. Mrr-rrr-rr-reow?)

We all want someone who feels like we do.

Hello Kitty’s designers are geniuses for making her so adaptable – Hello Kitty is with you in embarassment, gigglefits, and murderous rampage – and I think that kind of genius is almost impossible to go out and consciously duplicate.

But there is one thing you can take from her example: the power of mirroring.

The best person to meet when you are incredibly excited is someone else who is incredibly excited, someone who will match and intensify your feelings.

When you’re feeling gloomy, the last person you want to meet is that excited cheery motherfucker. (Seriously, leave me alone. I’m off to find Eeyore – that guy understands pain.)

In one-on-one interactions, you can choose to change your outer self in order to mirror whoever you’re talking to. In websites, business cards, logos, packaging and all the rest? Not so much. (That would be pretty damn funky, though.)

What you can do instead is to create an emotional environment who will attract people who are feeling the same way.

Create a hopeful feeling in your design and tone and your audience will mostly be people who are feeling hopeful. (Or who want to feel hopeful.)

Conversely, don’t come to me trying to figure out why your world-weary sarcastic website attracts whiners. Seriously.

Attraction isn’t an accident.

You get to choose what feeling your work has. What you put out is what you will attract.

If you want anger, be angry.

If you want maternal warmth, be warmly maternal.

If you want whimsy, BE FUCKING WHIMISCAL ALREADY.

So why aren’t we all rocking this?

Because for it to work most powerfully, we would have to choose one feeling and make everything align with it. Articles, design, colour choice, cross-promotions, PR, services and products, emails… that’s a buttload of work, performed over a long period of time.

A long period of time in which we will undoubtedly feel a thousand different emotions.

Including ones that are the complete opposite of the guiding emotion we chose.

Crap.

If only we were more like Hello Kitty…

Do I have some advice for this?

I sure do! A couple of bits, actually.

Choose your feeling.

You’re going to spend quite a lot of time in that state, most likely, so do try and choose something you enjoy. And choose an emotion that’s aligned with your goals – for example, intense cynicism clashes with a world-changing agenda.

You can change your state whenever you want to.

If you just came from the midday showing of Thor and you are SO not feeling the whimsy necessary for the interview you’re about to conduct? Then spend five minutes with a Tim Burton best-of reel while reciting I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major-General.

Sometimes, it’s not worth it.

If you are feeling persistently pissy and you’re due to write an article for your wryly optimistic website, and nothing you do has successfully shaken your mood? Don’t write. Delay. Apologise. Pray that you have an article that you wrote earlier for such emergencies. (You do, right?)

Don’t straight-jacket yourself.

Your marketing most certainly does NOT have to become the Happy Happy Jolly Fun Times Extravaganza Show all day every day. You can still have days where you cuss a bit more than normal (like this one!) or break up the rebellion with a picture of a puppy. (Awwwww.)

The goal is to be consistent, not obsessive.

The extra-credit homework

Go to three websites you love and see if you can identify a dominant feeling.

Pay attention to when you visit those websites.

Note any patterns? Tell me in the comments!

[Edit: The delightful Michael Martine and I got into a bit of discussion in the comments here, which led to him writing an article about the big lies of creativity. One of which I accidentally propagated.

It's easy for me to write from flow and emotion because I have been doing this for a long time and that's my style. It doesn't happen straight away and it doesn't work for everybody. Read his article to see another important few points.

Much love,
Catherine]

Looking for ideas on how to create that emotional environment? Cash and Joy Foundations is here to help.

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