How We Make Decisions: Emotion, Intuition and Brand Strategy

The customer’s emotional experience is the most important component of the brand experience, and part of a larger symmetry: The branding strategist’s ability to process each element of brand strategy, execution and management on an emotional level will be critical to forging a successful bond with the customer.

Gender is a lens, and authentic brand-building considers the gender differences between men and women.

Men and women are wired differently, neurologically speaking, and the wiring has a significant influence on buying behaviors. fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) brain scans show that women have nearly four times more neural connections across the corpus callosum than men. That is why women are better multi-taskers than men are. A woman’s corpus callosum is more permeable than a man’s; information can flow faster and more efficiently between the left and right hemispheres. Women are simply better equipped to transfer and link data from one side of the brain to the other.

It is also why women, in general, tend to be more naturally articulate, verbally fluent, perceptive, and intuitive than men are. Women are much more affected emotionally by ordinary language than men. The female brain can develop a wider perspective in thought processing, and respond to nuances in body language, tone of voice, and other non-verbal clues. Reaction time is generally slower in women, but accuracy is higher.

Should our modern neurological understanding of how the human brain works influence how brands educate and communicate with men and women? The answer is a resounding yes.

Neuromarketing can help us gauge true customer preferences and chart the brain activity that leads to brand choices. Which of these movie trailers will attract the most filmgoers? Or why, when some people prefer Pepsi’s taste during a blind taste test, do they still buy Coca-Cola?

fMRI is the great lie detector: it can show us how people really feel, instead of our having to rely on them to tell us the truth in a focus group or opinion poll.