BrandStory, Johannesburg, Sandton (2026)

22/01/2024

Is emotion the bee-all of marketing?

Ethan Hayes was stung to death by a swarm of African honeybees in his backyard on the afternoon of 27th February 2017. A New Year’s resolution to reconcile with his half-brother died tragically with him.

Despite a lifelong hymenopteran venom allergy, Ethan made no attempt to evade the dark, angry thousand-bee cloud protesting his overzealous summer pruning. Was it a sense of invincibility, ignorance, or a death wish that killed Hayes? As it turns out, none of the above.

Ethan Hayes was incapable of emotion. A car accident a few years earlier damaged the amygdala in Ethan's temporal lobe, impairing his ability to recall associated memory and emotions critical to mental information processing, decision-making, and reaction. Despite available rational data, Ethan's faulty emotional system failed to cognitively link an obviously angry crowd of bees to a range of predictable consequences and appropriate response options. And the disconnect proved fatal.

Surprisingly, most marketing and selling messages die a Hayes-like death all the time. Not because entire audiences suffer from emotional system damage like Ethan's. But because many organisations seemingly assume they do.

Research shows that over 70% of marketing and selling messages fail to use the right emotional code. So, all those messages flatline on the spot, suffocating precious investment, killing brands, and bleeding shareholder value and confidence fast.

Despite clear neuroscientific proof that all information gets processed by the brain’s subconscious system first and 95% of all human decisions form emotionally, most efforts to persuade continue to aim at the conscious rational mind. But because logic and raw facts and figures are incongruent with the brain’s primary processing chemistry, rationally led messages carry low vital signs. And go into cardiac arrest in seconds.

Messaging the same way and expecting a different result is classic insanity. Shifts in messaging design are certainly needed to resuscitate marketing’s ailing affect. But change requires a conviction that the neurology works, and an acquisition of application know-how. To put the science to work for your business, here’s some basic stuff you need to know and apply - before your rivals do.

Survival, the brain’s core function, requires the 22-watt human mind to process eleven million bits of data per second. Or risk the chance of a surprise death. To manage its huge and critical workload on extremely limited battery power, the brain has necessarily evolved a lightning-fast and automated production line to scan everything in a heartbeat. Situated in the subconscious, the sophisticated system uses reflex to gauge what deserves scarce electricity - and which reactions to emote to realise gain or avoid threat. The subconscious is always the first responder to any stimuli. And it calls all the shots.

Emotion is the chemistry component of the brain's governing subconscious reaction system. Its neurotransmissions play a crucial role in sensing and signalling nuances in data, retrieving the most useful associative memory set to interpret it - and snapping best fit reaction plans to the stimuli in an instant. Messages without clear emotional cues make it difficult for the brain to blend the right chemistry needed to trigger a motor response. Stories without strong and familiar feeling paralyse on the spot.

Note. The word emotion is derived from the Latin ‘’movere’’ meaning to stir up, agitate or action. The root of the word helps to appreciate the function of emotion in the human decision making workflow.

Research work by Christopher Morin, Ph.D., and Patrick Renvoise, identified three key workflows the subconscious emotional system uses to interpret and react to sensory inputs. These will help marketers to design and structure the kind of emotive messages that engage and influence minds more effectively. They are:

•Emotional valence: The brain's subconscious reaction system instantly searches for directional cues that help determine whether to move towards, away, or against stimuli - and how strong and fast the reaction needs to be. Messages that make it clear whether information requires positive or negative chemistry save the brain scarce energy. Messages with clear valence go right to the front of the cognitive queue.
Application example. Positive valence: “Grow your wealth with confidence. Our expert strategies pave the way for financial prosperity and a secure future." Negative valence: "Protect your hard-earned wealth. Our guidance shields you from financial loss, navigating uncertainties and minimising risks."

•Emotional utility: The emotional system also immediately evaluates every input to check that a payback on energy invested in any reaction exceeds its cost. Messages with an obvious, immediate, and personally relevant yield are most likely to get an electricity allocation, emotional chemistry, and fast engagement.
Application example: “Our service offers 5 ways to foolproof the protection and growth of your money."

•Emotional encoding: Memories and emotions get encoded together. Memories linked to stronger emotions get recalled (and stored) faster. Strong cues in a message help the energy-challenged brain to retrieve specific associative memory, interpret data, and reflexively select a reaction pattern more easily. Different language and other sensory cue options cause the brain to form different recall paths that trigger different emotional chemistry. Messages that deliberately apply specific and useful mental cues are most likely to get cognitive traction.

Application example: "Plant the seeds of your financial success in our fertile fields. We’ll nurture them. You watch your wealth blossom."

Robert Plutchik, the professor emeritus at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the USA, developed a psycho-evolutionary theory of emotion and a wheel of emotion framework that will help you to breathe emotional vitality into your brand narratives. The psychological framework represents the eight primary emotions the human emotional system uses, and their relationship with an estimated thirty-four thousand sub-emotions that branch from them. Search for Plutchik's emotion design wheel to get more information. Or ask me.

Modern neuroscience is clear. To engage and influence the human mind effectively, aim your marketing and selling messages at the emotional reaction system beneath the conscious surface of the brain. Don’t, and the marketing results you get will be sure to sting.

References.
Emotional. Leonard Mlodinow.
The persuasion code. Christopher Morin and Patrick Renvoise.
Emotions and life. Robert Plutchick.

About Jonathan Hall. I am a neuromarketer and the writer of this ''Short story'' blog. I blend more than 35 years of marketing and brand strategy expertise with applied behavioural science know-how to solve clients brand narrative, messaging, and mind influence problems. I have authored two neuromarketing reference books, ''The power of BrandStory" and ''BrainSell" and developed an easy-to-apply neuro messaging framework. Results from my work have earned many accolades including the IMM Industrial Marketing Company of the Year, a PSA Innovator of the Year Finalist, and a Deloitte Champion award. I am the founder and CEO of FuseWorks, ThinkWorks and BrandStory. My neuromarketing group of companies, established in 1997, is based in Sandton, South Africa.

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For expert help: www.brandstory.co.za | [email protected] | +27 83 251 0716

24/10/2023

Rely on our narrative strategy and behavioural science expertise to change minds. Our neural messaging know-how influences decisions. And moves choices and money in your direction. Visit www.brandstory.co.za or mail [email protected]

17/10/2023

Why website images really matter.
By Jon Hall | 18 Oct 2023

The website of the Dutch diet company Arono used to feature a picture of a slender model in its header. Like many companies, Arono believed that a rational portrayal of its company’s solution would sway visitors to buy their healthy eating plan. The aspirational photo did attract sign-ups. However, a new behavioural science strategy replaced the image of a trim body with a photo of a crisp green salad. The imagery shift increased online conversions by 52% Why?

Here's a behavioural science perspective:

Website images are processed subconsciously. In fact, all data is routed through the brain's subconscious system first. This workflow is the brain's energy management strategy in action. The 22-watt brain lacks sufficient battery power to consciously process 11 million bits of data per second. So, it relies on its highly evolved subconscious production line to automatically scan and react to incoming data at lightning speeds. Hundreds of subconscious sensors instantly detect patterns in the data it scans, snapping them to memorised reaction templates in milliseconds. Ninety-five percent of all human decisions and behaviours form in the subconscious this way. And almost all subliminal choices stick.

The brain’s subconscious system relies on its intuitive visual sensor heavily. Thirty percent of the brain's neurons are dedicated to interpreting and reacting to visual data instantly. Unlike other senses, the optical nerve connects directly to the primary brain, processing visual information and retrieving primed stereotypes from memory 13 milliseconds faster than words and other inputs.

Because the brain's subconscious system depends on visual inputs to make sense of data in a flash, images play a substantial role in the brain's intuitive sense and meaning-making routines. The visual sense is dominant, over-influencing how the brain frames and responds to stimuli. (To test this concept, imagine how quickly an image of a dark shape is likely to ignite your reflexive memory and emotion.)

Arono’s lithe model and juicy salad photos performed very differently because each image cued a distinctly unique subconscious frame and thinking pathway. (Mental frames instantly form in the mind to streamline thought, limit cognitive devices' application, and narrow the terms of reference for immediate memory and emotion retrieval. The boundaries that frames create focus mental attention and save the brain vital time and energy. Importantly, they also reduce distraction by inhibiting access to out-of-frame thought, memory, and emotion.)

Because different images prompt the immediate assembly of a different frame, frames set off different mental trajectories. Image choices send the mind in diverse directions and produce disparate thoughts and preferences. Selecting images to intentionally activate specific frames is a key element of an influence strategy. (The haphazard selection of stock images without careful strategic thought usually produces random results.)

So, how did each Arono website image influence visitors' subconscious minds?

For the typical weight-challenged visitor, a picture of a svelte figure was unlikely to evoke many in-shape memories easily. (Hard-to-access memories inhibit frames and disincentivise the energy-challenged brain to engage.) The difficulty of forming a frame, combined with the memorised negative emotions usually associated with losing weight, caused this image to resonate with the subliminal mind less. But the photo of a fresh food image was likely to have been much more accessible to the subconscious memory. Associations and emotions linked to it were probably far more positive too. And, of course, food is a primal need. So, the subliminal mind instinctively preferred the salad image.

But the reasons for the significant difference in the conversion power of each image go much deeper. The graphic of a honed body had merit: the subconscious is certainly motivated by the external and internal gains that an attractive and healthy body yields. But the juicy salad photo performed much better because its frame ignited a subconscious hyperbolic discounting bias. (This bias causes the mind to far prefer an immediate gain over a long-term one.) The ‘’eat healthy now’’ proposition mobilised the subconscious mind more because it was far easier to do now, it was more tangible, and gains felt more instant. Arono's actual steep revenue increase proved the case.

The takeout here for brands is simple: Images profoundly influence the subconscious mastermind. Every visual cue primes the brain, shapes its frames, and instinctive reactions. To influence minds intentionally, choose and test images and their elements strategically.

And who knows: a crisp salad image could work for your website too.

References:
"The Elements of Choice" by Eric J Johnson.
"The Persuasion Code" by Christopher Morin Ph.D. and Patrick Renvoise.
"Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman.
"Pre-Suasion" by Robert Cialdini.
"Unconscious branding" Douglas Van Praet.

About. Jonathan Hall is a brand strategist and communication expert with over 40 years' experience. He is also the author of e-books 'The Power of Brand Story' and ''BrainSell" and the CEO of Brand Story, a neural narrative strategy consultancy that combines brand art and behavioural science to more effectively engage and influence customers' minds.

Visit www.brandstory.co.za for more information or mail [email protected]

07/10/2023

A simple formula to influence more minds

Most commercial messages push a product or service at the rational mind. And most fail. That's because the rational mind isn't the first receiver. In fact, the rational mind doesn't actually make many decisions at all. The brain's subconscious system is really in charge. And if the subconscious blocks a message, the message dies at its gate instantly.

Mental traction and influence are an energy thing. The 22-watt brain doesn't get enough electricity to consciously process the eleven million bits of data per second it must. So, it routes all incoming information through its automatic and very energy-efficient subconscious system first. The subconscious's lightning-fast production line uses over 300 cognitive tools to intuitively interpret millions of bits of data and snap-readied reactions to them. In nanoseconds. 95% of all decisions form in the subconscious this way. And almost all subconscious decisions stick.

Which all means that if you want your messages to get to the front of the cognitive queue and get more mental traction, your messages need to target the subconscious mind.

To help you apply the vast amounts of new neuro and behavioural science research to your subconscious engagement strategies, I’ve created a simple INFLUENCES formula. It is an acronym for the key messaging elements that need to be in place to influence any mind. The framework is copyright to BrandStory. Here it is:

Ignition: The subconscious system controls energy allocations. To influence, your message must earn a share of the brain's scarce electricity supply. Use proven devices that win subconscious attention fast. These include highlighting problems, threats, gains, changes, surprises, curiosity, dissonance, rivalry, social proof, contrast, and emotional triggers.

Narrative: The brain is a story engine. So, organise your message to fit the brain's natural narrative framework. Structure your message in a problem - solution - resolution sequence. Messages that flow as a story spare the brain energy. So, they go to the front of the cognitive queue and get processed fast.

Fluency: The brain prefers an easy to process message because simple messages reduce the cognitive load and energy demands. Make your message flow coherently. It should be clear and easy to understand. Cut jargon. Use useful metaphors, simple language and concise sentences.

Levers: Streamline information processing and decision-making by using the subconscious brain's own heuristics and biases like framing, priming, anchoring, and social proof. Messages that apply the subconscious's own cognitive tools nudge the mind to make the decisions you want.

Urgency: Unless the subconscious mind is directed to do something, it will default to do nothing. Pressure the subconscious mind to make decisions and act. Apply cognitive tools like consequences, risks, scarcity, rivalry, loss aversion, and urgent language to prompt the subconscious to react.

Emotions: The subconscious is an emotional system. It relies on emotional cues to trigger neurotransmissions and reactions. Without clear emotional direction, the brain struggles to act. Ensure your message is primed with strong emotional signals that tell the brain how to feel, and how strongly to feel.

Needs: Recognise that all human decisions and reactions are driven by the fundamental need to secure or improve life. The subconscious senses gaps between a current and an improved state all the time ,and agitates to close it. External needs are frequently driven by deeper psychological ones. Your message must focus on how your solution closes gaps from the get-go.

Credibility: For survival reasons, the subconscious mind is extremely loss and risk-averse. Build the trust the subconscious brain needs to engage by proving competency. Provide social proof through recommendations. Show that your transactions are secure.
Transparency, vulnerability and consistency grow trust.

Empathy: The subconscious responds positively to relatedness and connection with others. Empathy builds a subliminal sense of unity, belonging and trust. Build empathy by showing that you understand, feel and relate to the audience's circumstances and problems.

Self: For survival reasons, the subconscious mind is intensely self-interested. It puts itself at the centre of every story it runs. Put your audience and the audience's problem front and centre stage in your message. Link your solution to the audience's problem. Use personalised language. Offer personal choice.

Apply the INFLUENCES framework to your messaging to move more minds and money in your direction. To get a free comprehensive guideline on how to implement this framework, mail me on [email protected]. I'll send you the e -book right away. For more information visit www.brandstory.co.za .

15/06/2023

For hard-nosed evidence that your subconscious mind is a narrative engine, see what your own brain does with these random few words:

Railway station. Midnight. Love lost.

Take a second to look at these words again. Then notice how your unconscious mind immediately and automatically joined these unrelated dots into a coherent story. From a beginning, through a middle, to an end. Also note how your powerful associative memory and imagination got cued to recall and add relevant experiences, images, and emotions to close any gaps in the data instantly. And how it leapt to conclusions in nanoseconds.

Your incredible mind directed and produced your personalised sense-making epic on the smell of an oil rag. Your conscious thought couldn’t stop it from rolling; it just did. The imagined context, characters, settings, and storyline all played out virtually in a flash. But your mind experienced it as real. And now this story is in your head. Released by the few-word Trojan Horse that took it there. No PowerPoint or pop-up Ads needed. It has affected your mind already.

You've just experienced your brain's subliminal narrative engine at work first-hand. Your own experience just proved the brain runs on a story making formula all the time. Shouldn't you put this powerful subliminal marketing tool to work for your business?

Get a standout brand story for your business. Count on Brand Story to craft a compelling marketing message for your business. Connect with us to find out how we can help you move more minds and money in your direction. Email us at [email protected] or call us on +27 83 2510716 to explore options.
www.brandstory.co.za
See more resources here.

15/06/2023

The odds of anyone hearing your marketing story today are slight.

Easy-to-access and use modern media has made it simple for any business to beat a marketing drum. And they do. Intensifying competitive pressures to promote, push and sell have reached peak levels in every industry. $700 billion in annual global advertising spend already makes a loud noise. A projected 18% increase per year will make the noise deafening. At this volume, you can be sure few customers are listening.

The Harvard Review reports that the average human mind now processes some 5,000-10,000 marketing and selling signals daily. Most inboxes receive a few hundred emails a day. A lot are spam. According to a study by HubSpot, the average person subscribes to between five to nine newsfeeds, blogs, and newsletters that churn out content continuously. 7.8 million new sites now go live every month, adding to the existing 1.9 billion websites that compete for 5.6 billion customer searches per day. Online searchers get exposed to thousands of ads and pop-up messages with every click. The fight for slight mental bandwidth is now intense.

Because the badly barraged human mind can't cope, almost all messages get dumped fast. A recent HubSpot study found that the average email campaign click-through rate is under 3% and dropping rapidly. The engagement rate for organic social media posts is only 0.09%. Ad displays get a click rate of just 0.05%. Only 30% of marketing campaigns deliver a meaningful payback on investment. And now, thanks to mail and ad blocking tech, 26% of messages will never get seen. Ever.

The evidence is stark. Conventional marketing tools aren't getting mental traction. And without it, sales don't happen. The winners in today's over-traded and over-messaged markets will be the businesses that earn mental traction and mindshare. And keep it.

But how? Recent behavioural science research has some answers.

Research by Professor Robert Cialdini shows that some key things get the brain's attention fast:

Novelty: For survival reasons, the brain is geared to detect any change or disruption to the status quo instantly. Unusual or unexpected elements in a message or environment alert the brain immediately.

Contrast: Highlighting contrasts or differences draws immediate attention. Emphasising distinctions between options or ideas grabs the brain's attention smartly.
Personal relevance: Messages that are personally relevant to beliefs, needs, interests, goals, or values, individuals command attention.

Curiosity: The brain's circuits are wired to seek knowledge and resolve curiosity. Triggering curiosity is a powerful attention-grabbing technique. By creating gaps in information or posing intriguing questions, the mind is motivated to seek answers.

Emotional Triggers: Emotions are known to be potent drivers of attention. Messages that evoke strong emotions, whether positive or negative, are more likely to capture and hold attention.

Visual and sensory stimuli: Because the visual sense is the one the brain relies on primarily, the brain is mostly influenced by visual stimuli. Using eye-catching visual elements significantly enhances attention. Engaging multiple senses simultaneously creates a more immersive experience and increases attention levels.

Immediate benefits: Communicating immediate loss avoidance or gain benefits captures attention quickly. For survive and thrive reasons, the brain is biased to respond to immediate results far more than longer-term ones. So, messages that suggest a fast payback seize attention effectively.

Get a standout brand story for your business. Count on Brand Story to craft a compelling marketing message for your business. Connect with us to find out how we can help you move more minds and money in your direction. Email us at [email protected] or call us on +27 83 2510716 to explore options.
www.brandstory.co.za
See more resources here.

15/06/2023

A well-crafted brand story is the foundation for building a strong brand identity, establishing brand loyalty, and creating a memorable customer experience that goes beyond simply selling products. A brand story is more than just a description of your company or the features of your products and services. It is a narrative that connects your brand to the emotions, values and experiences of your customers and sets your business far apart from your rivals.

Studies have shown the benefits of having a strong brand story. A study by Nielsen found that 66% of consumers are willing to pay more for products from brands they are emotionally connected to, and a study by Forbes found that storytelling can increase brand recognition by up to 22%. The Brand Storytelling Institute found that brands with strong stories outperform competitors by up to 20% in terms of customer engagement and sales.

So, how can your business create an effective brand story? There are four key elements to consider: solving a customer problem, making an emotional connection, connecting with the customer’s identity and reducing brain friction by providing certainty, transparency, autonomy and simplicity.

First, your brand story should focus on addressing a problem your target audience is facing and showing how your brand can help solve it. The human brain is wired to identify and solve problems, so by focusing on a problem, your brand story will be more engaging, memorable and increase the chances of customers acting.

Second, tap into universal emotions that are relevant to your target audience and make your story relatable to customers’ experiences and values. Emotions play a significant role in driving consumer behaviour, and a positive emotional connection with a brand can lead to feelings of loyalty, trust and engagement.

Third, connect with the customer’s identity and values. Humans have a fundamental need to belong and identify with others. By connecting with the customer’s identity, the brand can establish a deeper and more meaningful relationship, driving long-term brand loyalty.

Finally, reduce brain friction by providing certainty, transparency, autonomy and simplicity. Certainty helps to reduce brain friction by providing clear and concise information that customers can use to make informed decisions and predict and avoid risk. Transparency helps to build trust and credibility and creates a sense of security and stability. Autonomy empowers customers to take control of their experience with the brand, and simplicity makes information easy to understand and remember.

Get a standout brand story for your business. Count on Brand Story to craft a compelling marketing message for your business. Connect with us to find out how we can help you move more minds and money in your direction. Email us at [email protected] or call us on +27 83 2510716 to explore options.

www.brandstory.co.za

See more resources here.

20/10/2021

Drug the human mind with these chemicals to get the reactions and decisions you want.

If you think humans make decisions consciously and deliberately using data and logic, you’re very wrong. Neuro research proves that 95% of human decision making occurs subliminally, intuitively and emotionally. Chemical transmissions play a key role in the way the brain senses, interprets and reacts to data. If you want to influence the human mind better than your rivals, here’s an overview of the key neurotransmitters you need to apply to your brand story.

Dopamine is responsible for the brains anticipation of an outcome. It drives up focus, memory, motivation and activates the brains learning system. It gets activated when curiosity or puzzlement arouses the brain and answers or resolutions are required. It is a useful neurotransmitter to use at the beginning of your brand story.

Cortisol is the stress hormone that orients the brain to situations that require a fight or flight response. It produces intense alertness and prepares the brain for action. Drawing attention to personal hazards, struggles or dangers drives up cortisol. Use it to get decisions.

Oxytocin flows when human emotion is stirred. It achieves strong empathy, grows trust and bonds humans together. Vulnerability, humility, heartfelt emotion and honesty all help to trigger this neurotransmitter.

Serotonin is the key hormone that stabilizes the human mood, feelings of well-being, and happiness. The hormone impacts the entire body. It enables brain cells and other nervous system cells to communicate with each other. Stories that lift mood drive up serotonin.

Endorphins make the human mind happy. And happy minds make decisions quicker and easier. Humour drives up endorphins. Add appropriate anecdotes and funny stories to your tale to ignite endorphins.

Strategically harness these key neurotransmitters in your brand story to put any audience under your spell.

20/10/2021

The science of story

Story is the tool the human mind uses to interpret data. The brain is biologically wired to intuitively join any number of dots into a narrative pattern in order to snap best-fit emotions and reactions to each at lightning speeds. 500 million years of evolution have perfected this energy efficient survival process.
When the brain gets presented with data, only the Broca and Wernicke areas of the brain activate to form a story. Because each brain uses a complex process and unique memory to prioritise and arrange the dots, it frequently creates a narrative quite different from the one the information sharer intended. But when the information is embedded in a story, the motor cortex, frontal cortex and sensory cortex all kick in to help the brain to receive the story as designed. Story also activates a number of other things that ensure the data is well understood and remembered. The receiver is mentally and emotionally transported so that the story is experienced as real and personal. The receiver also experiences mirroring and coupling; phenomena that result in an ability to see the information through the tellers frame and achieve cognitive coherence. Additionally, story fires up Cortisol, Dopamine, Oxytocin and Serotonin; powerful neurotransmitters that attract and focus attention, engage, lift trust and bond with the audience - in the same way they do in real life. To get the human mind to see things your way, tell a story.

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