Your Brain on Strong Brands

If you get to see this post before the day ends and don’t already get The Wall Street Journal, make haste to pick up a copy. Or perhaps you can go online to access the article that is truly a must read for everyone who as any connection at all with marketing.

The article, by Kevin Helliker entitled “This Is Your Brain on a Strong Brain: MRIs Show Even Insurers Can Excite.”

I remember a few years ago the imperious team of Don Pepper and Martha Rogers (The One to One Future) pronounced that branding was dead. In a “one to one” world, it was irrelevant, said this dynamic duo upon whose words rested many a failed CRM (customer relationship management) program. Of course, much of the disappointment many companies suffered after spending millions on CRM consultants, software and reorganizing for the “one to one” future stems from sublime confidence in Pepper and Rogers’ highly limited view of marketing.

Don, it should be noted, came from a direct marketing background, a branch of marketing not noted for strong adherence to brand husbandry. Martha, a former biz school prof from Bowling Green, Ohio joined Don as a partner after being smitten by him as he was just getting his one to one boat into the water.

After reading the aforementioned article in today’s WSJ the case for a strong branding ethos seems more sound than ever. MRI scans have shown that weak brands provoke activity in parts of the brain associated with negative emotions. Strong brands provoke activity in parts of the brain associated with positive emotions.

One astonishing finding in the study reported in the article is that a strong insurance brand produced just as strong positive emotions as a strong car brand. And just as astonishing, there were no differences between weak car and insurance brands in the strength of negative responses.

Bottom line: If you’re having trouble convincing a client or a boss about the critical importance of a strong branding ethos, show them today’s WSJ article. And if he/she still resists, go find another job or client.

Comments

[Tom Asacker]

I'm on my way to pick up a copy. Thanks for the heads up David.

[JETT]

Since I just read this blog entry today (December 9), its way too late for me to pick up a copy of the Journal that you mention. I hope you would post quotes from it.

Having said this, I think the future belongs to the companies that can do "one to one branding".