Unconscious Processes and Marketing. Joel Weinberger, Ph.D. Owner, Implicit Strategies Professor of Psychology, Adelphi University

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1 Unconscious Processes and Marketing Joel Weinberger, Ph.D. Owner, Implicit Strategies Professor of Psychology, Adelphi University

2 What We ll Do Today The main thing to remember today is: A great deal of what goes on in the minds of consumers takes place outside of their awareness; it s unconscious. We need to measure it if we want to understand them. I am going to discuss a bit about how the unconscious parts of the brain/mind work and provide an audience participation example. Then I am going to review some research that shows the importance of unconscious processes in consumer research.

3 The Science Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, and Psychological Science Agree on core principles of how the brain and mind work.

4 Much of Functioning occurs Outside of Awareness Most of our mental functioning is unconscious. Conscious processes play a role but are only part of the picture.

5 The Mind and Brain are Organized in Networks of Associations

6 The Mind and Brain are Emotional Our minds and brains are emotional at their core. Emotional parts of our brains react first and more quickly than more cognitive regions. We respond emotionally before we are even aware of what we have experienced. This emotional reaction colors all later reactions.

7 Let s Look at How this Translates into How We Operate On the next slide is a jar. It is filled with 100 personality descriptions of people. 90 are engineers; 10 are artists.

8 The Personality Description Jar: 90 Engineers; 10 Artists I remove one of the descriptions and read it.

9 Here s What the Description Says: Emotionally Sensitive and Creative Is this person an artist or an engineer?

10 The Answer Those of you who said that this person was an artist are wrong. Here s why: Remember, I said that 90/100 were engineers. You should guess engineer no matter what I say, unless I specifically say something that could only be true of an artist.

11 What Happened? You relied on your unconscious associations and used them automatically without thinking about it.

12 Associations and Stereotypes: The Engineer Here is the general and media view of the engineer.

13 The Artist And here is the general and media view of the artist.

14 Reality: The Engineer Here is one of the top engineers in the country. He teaches at Yale.

15 Reality: The Artist And here is one of the founding fathers of Rock and Roll. The famous artist Buddy Holly.

16 So What Happened? Numerically, it was a no brainer. 90/100 engineers. Logically it was a no brainer. Go with the odds. All of us know that an engineer can be emotional and creative and that an artist can be logical and nerdy. So why didn t we guess correctly?

17 It s the Associations Our automatic associations to engineers and to artists overcame our good sense and math abilities. And it was all unconscious. No one said: I ll just ignore the math and pick artist based on my associations. Our minds and brains just did it and it felt right.

18 A Case Study: Values and Brands A research study conducted by IS and Y&R

19 Examining Conscious and Unconscious Values IS and Y&R looked at values in three cultures: US, Brazil, and China. To assess values, we employed the Schwartz Circumplex, a highly regarded measure of values.

20 The Schwartz Circumplex Model of Values

21 Examining Conscious and Unconscious Emotional Reactions to Brands We looked at major brands in the US. We picked 15 major brands, in various market sectors.

22 Brands Examined

What We Asked Consumers to Do Personal Values Implicit Networks Test In this test you will see a word printed in one of four colors: yellow (YELLOW), Red (RED), Blue (BLUE) or Green (GREEN.

Emotional Reactions to Brands Implicit Emotions Test This test presents respondents with a stimulus too quick to register consciously/cognitively but slow enough to make its mark

23 What We Asked Consumers to Do Personal Values Implicit Networks Test In this test you will see a word printed in one of four colors: yellow (YELLOW), Red (RED), Blue (BLUE) or Green (GREEN.) Your task is to ignore the meaning of the word and indicate the color it is printed in. Emotional Reactions to Brands Implicit Emotions Test This test presents respondents with a stimulus too quick to register consciously/cognitively but slow enough to make its mark unconsciously/emotionally. This is followed by a relatively neutral stimulus that the person consciously sees. The respondent is then asked to rate a series of statements about it. The more active a word is in your brain, the harder it is to ignore and therefore the longer it will take you to correctly identify word with color. Regular (Explicit) Survey Questions The answers are biased emotionally by the first stimulus, but the person does not know it. Regular (Explicit) Survey Questions

Conscious and Unconscious Values are Independent and Sometimes Oppose Each Other USA Conscious Rank Unconscious Rank Helpfulness 1 16 Choosing Your Own Path 2 10 Meaning in Life 3 12 Maintaining

24 Conscious and Unconscious Values are Independent and Sometimes Oppose Each Other USA Conscious Rank Unconscious Rank Helpfulness 1 16 Choosing Your Own Path 2 10 Meaning in Life 3 12 Maintaining Security 4 1 World Peace 5 15 Pleasure 6 8 Respect for Tradition 7 3 Excitement 8 11 Success 9 14 Sexual Fulfillment 10 2 Environmentalism Self-Interest 12 5 Wealth 13 7 Fitting into Society 14 4 Indulgence 15 9 Values that are highest ranked consciously are among the lowest unconsciously Values that are lowest ranked consciously are ranked much higher unconsciously

25 Is This the Real American Consumer Psyche? Top 3 Values, USA Conscious Values Unconscious Values 1. Helpfulness 1. Maintaining Security 2. Choosing Your Own Path 2. Sexual Fulfillment 3. Meaning in Life 3. Honoring Tradi on Oprah Meets Tony Sopran o?

26 And What About Brands?

27 As With Values, We See That Conscious vs. Unconscious Brands Rankings Don t Match Conscious Top Box Ranking Amazon 1 Google 2 Apple 3 Microsoft 4 Unconscious Top Box Ranking Target 1 Amazon 2 Facebook 3 Wholefoods 4 Target 5 National Inquirer 5

28 The Conscious-Unconscious Brand Landscape Secretly Disliked Low Apple Google Microsoft AT&T K-mart Playboy Unconscious Ranking High Target Amazon Whole Foods Facebook Exxon National Inquirer Truly Liked High Low Conscious Ranking Truly Disliked Secretly Liked

29 The Meaning of What We Found 1. Values: The Secret World What consumers say is important is often the opposite what is unconsciously important. 2. Brands: Silent Grudges, Secret Crushes Consumers often hide their true feelings about brands, even from themselves.

30 Summarizing A great deal of our functioning is unconscious. Our minds are organized associatively. Emotional reactions are primary. A case study showed how our ability to assess unconscious associations and emotions can tell us about about values and reactions to brands.

31 Thank You

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