NeuroFact 3: Emotional Anchoring

In his book Consciousness Explained (9) Daniel Dennett, an American philosopher, argued that the human mind works like a machine - logical, rational and systematised. But Antonio Damasio, a neurology professor, argued for the fundamental interconnectedness of feelings and reason (10).

It has, in fact, become accepted in the world of neuroscience that emotions occupy a powerful position (and Dennett himself has changed his stance). As Franzen says: 'The emotional brain, which reacts immediately to sensory input, is also much faster than the rational brain. Emotions constitute an integrated element of the seemingly most rational decision making. Whenever thinking conflicts with emotions, emotions win' (8 p.33). In a sense in qualitative research we have often worked with this idea - it's interesting to see it gain scientific respectability.

We can again extend this idea to brands through 'emotional anchoring' (1). Gut level emotional reactions to any stimuli are called 'somatic markers' (from 'soma' or 'of the body'). This happens at a very fundamental level. If as a child I don't look before I cross the road, and have a near escape, this provokes a physical reaction (chemical, electrical or hormonal) - my heart beats fast and I break out into a sweat. As an adult, every time I hear the screech of brakes, my palms become sweaty and my heart begins to race.

In branding too, past experiences play a big role though realistically there are few brands with the power to provoke a physical reaction. Examples do exist in some categories, such as alcohol. Many people are not able to drink tequila or rum in adulthood - after experimenting and getting sick in their teens, now the mere smell of it makes them feel sick. Comfort foods are a similar but more positive experience - having always eaten Cadbury's Dairy Milk as a Sunday afternoon treat with my parents, whenever I see, eat or smell chocolate now, I feel good.

While the response to a brand might not be as extreme as a somatic marker, all brands evoke some sort of gut response in us - we can say whether we like them or don't but not necessarily why. In many cases, the feeling isn't even this strong - it is more of a slight warm feeling or cool feeling to a brand. Brands are emotionally anchored in our brains, which again has implications for the world of research: feeling warm to a brand increases openness to its communications, while being cool tends to increase the likelihood of noticing negatives or blocking it out completely.

Knowing whether your audience is warm or cool towards a brand will give valuable clues as to the in-going mindset of the target - and therefore the scale of the objective, as well as how much investment in time and money, needs to be put behind it to achieve that objective.

This challenges traditional marketing thinking which defines audiences by dimensions like usage and not by slight positive or negative feelings. But these are potentially highly relevant: I am warm to Macs but I have a PC because it's lighter. I am therefore likely to be open to messages from Mac and represent a good potential target.