Unconscious Branding: How Neuroscience Can Empower (and Inspire) Marketing

Although corporate marketers are always searching for subtle and influential ways to steer customers to their wares only two out of ten products make it past their initial launch. Here, Van Praet, executive vice president at Deutsch LA, turns to the field of cognitive science to help marketers overcome this gap. His research shows that humans make most of their decisions unconsciously and are therefore unable to determine why they do or don't buy specific products. Marketers, he asserts, need to go beyond asking why and begin to ask how: how do people "process information, structure their experience, and form the often-unconscious beliefs and motivations that drive their behavior?" Drawing upon the insights of behavioral science, Van Praet provides a seven-step, behavior-modification procedure. Brands are expectations based on memories, he suggests, offering such examples such as the "Pepsi Challenge." Useful insights that should benefit marketers big and small. Agent: James Levine, Levine Greenberg Literary Agency. (Nov.)