Alexithymia and Emotional Marketing: When Autistic Consumers Can't Process Feeling-Based Campaigns

A skincare commercial shows a woman touching her face while soft light filters through gauzy curtains. The voiceover whispers about "feeling beautiful" and "confidence in every drop." The music swells. The tagline appears: "Because you're worth it."

A neurotypical viewer processes this instantly: The product makes you feel good about yourself. An alexithymic viewer thinks: What does this product actually do?

Alexithymia—difficulty identifying and describing emotions—affects approximately 50% of autistic adults. For these consumers, emotion-based marketing isn't just ineffective. It's incomprehensible. They're not being difficult or literal to annoy you. They genuinely cannot extract product information from feeling-based messaging.

And your entire marketing strategy might be invisible to them.

The Emotional Advertising Assumption

Modern marketing operates on a fundamental assumption: emotions drive purchases. We sell cars as freedom. We position insurance as peace of mind. We market makeup as confidence. The product features are almost incidental—what we're really selling is a feeling.

This works beautifully for consumers who process emotions fluently. They see the happy family in the minivan ad and think, "I want that feeling for my family." They understand the implicit promise: buy this product, experience this emotion.

Alexithymic consumers see the same ad and think, "Why are these people smiling? What are the vehicle's safety ratings? How many cubic feet of cargo space?"

They're not missing the emotional subtext by accident. The emotional subtext doesn't register as information. It's like showing them text in a language they don't read and expecting them to make a purchase decision based on it.

When your entire value proposition rests on emotional resonance, you've made your product incomprehensible to a significant segment of autistic consumers.

Why Logic Beats Feeling

Here's what alexithymic consumers do process exceptionally well: facts, specifications, cause-and-effect relationships, logical progression, concrete benefits.

They want to know what your product does, how it does it, why it works, and what specific outcome they can expect. Not how it makes people feel. What it actually accomplishes.

This doesn't mean alexithymic consumers don't experience emotions. They do. They simply can't identify, label, or articulate those emotions easily. Asking them to connect an advertisement's emotional tone to a product benefit is like asking someone to solve a calculus problem in a language they don't speak.

Logic-based positioning cuts through this barrier entirely. Instead of implying emotional benefits, state functional outcomes. Instead of showing lifestyle aspiration, demonstrate concrete results. Instead of "feel confident," explain exactly what changes and why that matters practically.

Three Examples: Translating Emotion into Logic

Let's examine how to reposition inherently emotion-driven products for alexithymic consumers.

Example 1: Luxury Watches

Emotional approach: "A timepiece that speaks to your success. Wear confidence on your wrist. For the man who's arrived."

This messaging is pure feeling. Success. Confidence. Status. Social recognition. An alexithymic consumer reads this and learns nothing about the watch.

Logic-based approach: "Swiss automatic movement with 72-hour power reserve. Sapphire crystal rated 9 on Mohs hardness scale—scratch-resistant for decades. 316L stainless steel case withstands 100 meters water pressure. Serviced every 5-7 years, this watch functions accurately for 50+ years. Cost per year of ownership: $80."

Same luxury product. Zero emotional messaging. Complete information for decision-making. The alexithymic consumer now understands why this watch costs more than a $20 quartz alternative. Not because it confers status, but because it's engineered differently and lasts longer. The logic justifies the price.

Example 2: Home Fragrances

Emotional approach: "Transform your space into a sanctuary. Breathe in tranquility. Create the home feeling you deserve."

Sanctuary. Tranquility. Home feeling. These are abstract emotional states. An alexithymic consumer cannot translate "tranquility" into a purchase rationale.

Logic-based approach: "Eliminates odor molecules through encapsulation rather than masking. Lavender contains linalool compound, which reduces cortisol levels measurably in peer-reviewed studies. Burns for 60 hours—comparable products average 40. Soy wax burns 30-50% slower than paraffin with 90% less soot production. Result: cleaner air, longer-lasting product, lower cost per hour."

Now the product has purpose. It accomplishes specific, measurable things. The consumer understands what they're buying and why it's differentiated. The emotional benefit (relaxation) is there, but it's explained through biological mechanism, not feeling.

Example 3: Therapy Services

Emotional approach: "You deserve to feel heard. Find your authentic self. Begin your healing journey today."

Feel heard. Authentic self. Healing journey. For alexithymic individuals seeking therapy, this messaging is particularly problematic. They often can't articulate why they need therapy in emotional terms, yet the marketing demands emotional fluency.

Logic-based approach: "Cognitive behavioral therapy teaches specific techniques to modify thought patterns that cause distress. Average client reports 60% reduction in anxiety symptoms after 12 sessions based on standardized assessment scores. Sessions follow structured protocol: identify trigger, examine thought, test accuracy, develop alternative response. Measurable outcomes include improved sleep duration, reduced avoidance behaviors, increased task completion rates."

This explains what therapy is, how it works, what to expect, and how success is measured. An alexithymic person can evaluate whether this service addresses their needs without having to process or articulate complex emotions first.

Bridging the Gap: Dual-Track Marketing

You don't have to abandon emotional marketing entirely. Neurotypical consumers still respond to it powerfully. The solution is dual-track content.

Lead with logic. Provide complete, factual information upfront. Then, layer emotional messaging for those who process it. Your alexithymic consumers extract what they need and move on. Your emotion-driven consumers get both the logical foundation and the feeling-based connection.

This looks like product descriptions that start with specifications and end with lifestyle. Website copy that explains function before invoking aspiration. Advertisements that demonstrate concrete results before showing emotional reactions.

Include both. Prioritize the information that works for everyone. Then add the emotional resonance that works for some.

The alexithymic consumer scrolls past your feeling-based content without frustration because they already found what they needed. The emotion-driven consumer gets both rational justification and emotional connection. Everyone wins.

Stop Expecting Emotional Fluency

Marketing assumes emotional literacy as default. That assumption excludes roughly half the autistic market—and plenty of non-autistic consumers who prefer logic-based decision making too.

When you require emotional processing to understand your product's value, you've created an accessibility barrier as real as stairs without a ramp. The product might be perfect for an alexithymic consumer. Your marketing has made it invisible.

Winsome Marketing specializes in communication that actually communicates. We write copy that works for different brains—delivering your message through logic, not just emotion. Let's make your content accessible to everyone.