12 things every brand should know

1. A part of Creston Unlimited
#12 human insights
12 things every brand should know

2. Emotion is a crucial component in building strong relationships between brands
and people – however, building brands for the unconscious is still a challenge.
In order to measure emotions effectively, it is important for marketers and
researchers to equip themselves with the latest evidence from neuroscience
research.
We have compiled 12 human insights across different brands and categories
providing for each of them a specific action/takeaway - translating the science into
actionable insights that can leverage your brand and get closer to your consumers
and shoppers.

3. @crisbalanzo
Human insight: evolution has wired our brains for storytelling
- a story puts our whole brain to work…01
action
Your brand needs to have a story that activates mirror neurons
(empathy)…make them feel what you want them to feel

4. @crisbalanzo
Human insight: faces are so important to humans that we have a
specific brain region to process them - they are key to how we
emotionally interact with others
02
action
Close up shots of faces can be used to generate emotional engagement
and drive attention. Physical distance is emotional distance!

5. @crisbalanzo
action
Either showing food (or emphasising its absence) will make consumers
pay attention as their ‘primitive’ brain goes to work
Human insight: our primitive brain loves seeing food! Our survival
instinct kicks in and leads to preferential activation03

6. @crisbalanzo
Human insight: we are attracted by negative news (survival instincts)
04
action
Shocking campaigns can be used to impact/change behaviour.
However, beware, too much negativity can cause repression and lose
its impact in the messaging

7. @crisbalanzo
Human insight: our brains love numbers and clear benefits. They
like to be shown evidence of a product’s superiority or problem
solving – this helps our post-rationalisation and decision-making
05
action
If you have a competitive advantage communicate it and stick with it!
Although demonstrating the product may affect the rational likeability of
the ad, powerful product demos are attractive to our brain

8. @crisbalanzo
Human insight: humour generates emotional engagement, putting
the whole brain to work06
action
Just because something is funny it does not mean that it is emotionally
engaging - when you use humour be careful otherwise you are in
danger of losing effectiveness and the impact of the brand

9. @crisbalanzo
Human insight: in store visual attention data has shown that 2/3rds
of product’s fixations are on the color and shapes07
action
Do not make changes to your pack without a proper understanding of
these visual cues that your consumers use to recognise your pack

10. @crisbalanzo
Human insight: everything in the brain is a combination of nature
and nurture. Culture comes into play, which affects behaviour, which
then affects the brain. From birth (and even in the womb), a baby is
labelled as a girl or boy and treated a certain way as a result.
.
08
action
Men and women’s unconscious response to advertising is very
different, designing the execution to target them effectively is essential
if proper cut-through is being achieved

11. @crisbalanzo
Human insight: memory is the glue of our experiences (Eric Kandel)09
action
Campaigns should not exist in isolation. Linking key creative elements
across TV, print, digital and point of sale can maximize effectiveness
and increase conversion.

12. @crisbalanzo
Human insight: we are wired to respond to music. Pleasant music
boosts serotonin, a chemical responsible for good feelings and also
engages the hippocampus which handles long term memory…
10
action
Soundtracks have a big effect on our unconscious emotional
experience – choose carefully before you make a big investment. The
wrong soundtrack can spoil an otherwise flawless execution

13. @crisbalanzo
Human insight: brands have an implicit value - mental associations
and attributions that provide value to the objects around us11
action
Show labels when packs are shown and point out the direction: people
will follow!

14. @crisbalanzo
Human insight: emotions are universal but not feelings. We can
measure emotions and interpret them universally however the feeling,
the perception of this subjective experience varies greatly between
cultures
12
action
When working with global brands we need to identify cross cultural
differences as this has an impact in the emotional engagement

15. A part of Creston Unlimited
Get in touch to know how how to leverage emotion in your
communications and turn emotional engagement into brand
growth
From science to insights to activation
crisbalanzo@walnutunlimited.com