The subject of Crispin’s talk was the role that emotions play in our decision-making process and their influence on and relevance to the marketing of brands, particularly in the luxury sector. Crispin began with a couple of examples from the sporting world to demonstrate how our emotions can be more powerful than our rational thought.

He recalled the football World Cup final in 2006 when Zinadine Zidane, the French star was sent off for headbutting the Italian player, Marco Materazzi. Consider the rational facts – Zidane is at the very height of his career playing in arguably the most important match of his life.

He is poised to retire from international football on a high. However, in response to an insult whispered in his ear by the opposing defender, his emotions got the better of him and he responded aggressively, resulting in a red card. Or, consider Roger Bannister, the first man to go on record as running a mile in under 4 minutes, back in 1954. Being a doctor himself, he would have been only too aware of the medical advice that it was a physical impossibility to achieve such a feat and that he could potentially kill himself in the process. However, he prevailed. Now, what was interesting was the fact that in the ensuing 18 months some 43 people also ran the mile in sub-4 minutes.

There were no significant changes in diet or training regimes of the other athletes at the time. Crispin suggested that the underlying reason was belief prompted by a positive emotional response. Bringing the discussion more up to date, Crispin then referred to a recent newspaper article from the UK, which reported that since the recession in Europe, the weight of the average Briton had increased by 1/2 a stone. Although rational thought would lead to the conclusion that weight increase can be a bad thing, it appeared that people were responding emotionally to the economic crisis and comfort-eating. Having set the scene with some examples, Crispin introduced the main themes of the presentation: -the role that emotions play in branding -the concept of Emotional Competitive Advantage, which is at the heart of the way Brandhouse approaches its work -the concept of the Proprietary Emotional Benefit, which drives Emotional Competitive Advantage -the importance of Brand Storytelling in delivering the above And, if there was one thing for the audience to take away from the presentation, he said that it was ‘Emotion Sells’.

Crispin then went on to establish a commercial context and described how the intangible value of brands had increased significantly over the years. He began by introducing the definition of a brand from Wikipedia: A brand is a name or trademark connected with a product or producer. Brands have become increasingly important components of culture and the economy, now being described as‘cultural accessories and personal philosophies’. Crispin felt that the last point was really important in the context of luxury brands, the primary focus of the audience attending. He then went on to reference data from the financial services company, Standard & Poor, which showed that in 1982 some 62% of the value of a company related to tangible assets such as buildings and stock.

By 1998 this figure had decreased to just 15%. Crispin argued that in addition to the value of intangibles such as trademarks and IP, a good proportion of the remaining 85% was attributable to the value of the ‘brand’ of which an important component is the role that the brand plays in providing emotional satisfaction. For context, some interesting numbers were presented – the purchase price of US$12.9bn paid by Philip Morris to acquire Kraft in 1988 of which only US$1.3bn related to tangible assets; and the value of Coca Cola, the ‘largest’ brand, reported to be some US$43bn.

The next section of Crispin’s talk was entitled ‘What makes us tick’ and took the audience through some interesting developments in the world of neuroscience and neurobiology. He set the scene by referencing three important figures each of whom had written about the subject of emotional intelligence: Edward Thorndike – an American psychologist who, in the early 20th Century, pioneered active learning, a theory that proposed letting children learn themselves, rather than receiving instruction from teachers. Howard Gardner – a developmental psychologist, who is best know for his theory of multiple intelligences.

And… Daniel Goldman – author and psychologist who released the seminal book, Emotional Intelligence in 1995. Crispin demonstrated that with the advancement of technology such as fMRI scanning, we were now able to better understand hemadynamics, that is to say blood movement in the brain and, in particular, in response to various sensory stimuli. Scientists now have a much better understanding of the make up of the brain and the role that the amygdala plays in relation to emotions. This technology is now being adopted by the marketing world to track, for example, emotional responses to packaging when walking down a supermarket aisle or the impact of TV advertising. Crispin then introduced the audience to another important name from the world of neuroscience, the Portuguese born neurologist, Antonio Damasio. He studied people with brain injuries that had damaged the part of the organ where emotions are generated. Damasio found that because the emotional centres were damaged, these people could no longer make decisions. He concluded that ultimately emotion drives decision-making. We feel first then we think. This was evidenced by the Iowa Gambling Task created by Damasio and his colleagues at the University of Iowa. ‘Players’ were given 4 virtual decks of card online and $2,000 with which to play. Each card told the player if they had won or lost when revealed. Two decks had high-risk cards and paid out well whilst the others paid lower amounts but rarely punished the player. On average people had to turn over 50 cards before they drew solely from the profitable decks but it took 80 cards before they could rationalise that they were doing this. Logic is slower. Damasio also had respondents wired up to measure their physiological responses and found that people’s skin began to sweat after only 10 cards.

Their subconscious emotions had worked out which decks were risky before the rational part of the brains had kicked in. In addition, the speed with which we make even the most mundane, everyday decisions is possible because the ‘pipe’ that leads from the emotional centre of the brain to the rational area is fatter and therefore faster than the rational ‘pipe’ going in the other direction. Our brains are wired for emotion. Damasio also formulated the Somatic Marker Hypothesis, which describes how the brain makes decisions when offered multiple complex solutions, for example. Crispin drew a parallel with the writings of Aristotle who described the brain as being like a wax tablet, on which memories and experiences were imprinted and stored for future reference. Crispin drew on his own past, describing how he had a teacher at school when he was 5 who always had daffodils on her desk. Every time he now smells daffodils he is transported back to that time and all of its associated memories. Familiar sights, sounds, smells and sensations easily activate somatic markers and creating them is key to brand success. Without them Crispin suggested, a brand won’t even enter a field of consideration.

Crispin concluded this section of the talk by quoting Damasio: “Over 85% of thought, emotions and learning occur in the unconscious mind….our reasoning strategies are defective” Another interesting and important person was referenced – Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, a French born expert in archetype discoveries. Dr. Rapaille describes the ‘Intellectual Alibi’. That is to say, we decide with our hearts and then rationalise our decision with our heads. So, for example, in the world of luxury brands, we may buy a BMW because ultimately we worry about what the neighbours may say. However, we provide ourselves with a ‘good reason’, an intellectual alibi, by saying that the purchase is down to rational reasons such as the resale value or reliability.

The presentation then moved on to the subject of the naturally occurring neurotransmitter, dopamine and its association with the pleasure system of the brain. To illustrate how heightening anticipation can be used in a marketing context, Crispin talked through a short case history of the Dove/Galaxy chocolate brand. The subject of the challenge of brand switching was covered in the context of another important subject from the world of neurobiology – the engram, a hypothetical means by which memories are stored in the brain in response to external stimuli. Crispin referenced another interesting experiment from the academic world, this time by Stanford neuro-economist Baba Shiv. He supplied people with a SoBe adrenaline rush drink that promised to make them feel more alert. Some paid full price for the drink while others were offered a discount. After drinking it they were give puzzles to solve. He found that people who had paid the discounted price consistently solved about 30% fewer puzzles than those who had paid full price. According to Shiv, as people expect cheaper goods to be less effective, they generally are less effective, even if they are identical to more expensive products.

This is why Nurofen works better than generic ibuprofen, even though they are exactly the same. Crispin reflected on this time studying economics at university when he was first introduced to the concept of a Giffen good, which defies the normal laws of supply and demand in that demand rises when the price increases due to the lack of viable substitutes. He drew on obvious implication for the luxury sector. For the final section of the presentation, Crispin looked at the role that emotions play in branding. He set up this section by establishing that ultimately brands are about the anticipation of emotional benefits so in effect brand equity can be boiled down to emotional anticipation. The stronger the anticipation the bigger the competitive advantage. At this point Crispin introduced two very important concepts – that of the Emotional Competitive Advantage and also the Proprietary Emotional Benefit.

Gone are the days of the Unique Selling Proposition first invented by Rosser Reeves of advertising agency Ted Bates and the focus should now be on driving Emotional Competitive Advantage. The Proprietary Emotional Benefit, a term coined by Brandhouse founder Mark Wickens, is when a brand owns an emotional benefit that the consumer can’t get from any other brand. It is a unique statement of ‘something good the brand helps me say about myself by using it’ that actively supports the consumer’s self-model or aspirational self-model.

A brand has a Proprietary Emotional Benefit when people are driven to seek it out because they perceive a better emotional outcome than competitors deliver. Crispin touched on the psycho-evolutionary theory of Professor Robert Plutchik before demonstrating that esteemed organisations such as McKinsey and Gallup had conducted their own studies in to the commercial value of harnessing emotions. Specifically, McKinsey has shown that emotionally unique brands deliver 10% higher returns to shareholders than their competitors and Gallup has shown that emotionally satisfied customers in all categories deliver a premium in revenue and profitability. At the heart of any brand with an Emotional Competitive Advantage is a strong Brand Story. Brands such as Apple and Nike, Crispin argued, have a clearly defined Brand Story that is told across all their touchpoints. For example, Apple’s story is all about technology being cool and simple. This doesn’t just manifest itself in the design and functionality of its products but also in the service ethos to be found at an Apple store. Simple innovations like the ability to pay at the display rather than queuing are evidence of this. And, so to The Brandhouse Emotion 100™.

Launched in 2009, it was the ‘first of its kind’ study seeking to provide a means of measuring the Emotional Competitive Advantage. Specifically, it took 100 leading UK brands in 19 different sectors and surveyed the views of those brands amongst a nationally representative sample of 200 UK consumers across 7 fundamental emotional territories. Crispin revealed a number of interesting findings. Firstly, the emotional territories attracting the greatest aggregate scores across the entire survey were those of Contentment and Belonging. Conversely the emotional territories of Desire and Excitement attracted the least aggregate scores.

Secondly, the stronger performing sectors included food, computer software and technology whilst the weaker sectors included the likes of mobile telecommunications. Crispin suggested that this was because the sector had become highly commoditised in recent years. Crispin illustrated some of the more detailed findings by looking at a comparison between the Emotional Competitive Advantage for British Airways (calculated at +13%) versus that of Virgin (+77%) along with the results for troubled brands such as Whittard’s of Chelsea (a UK retailer of premium teas and coffees) and Saab. The survey also revealed some unexpected findings. For example. Kellogg’s scored more strongly than Red Bull on the emotional territory of Excitement.

Having talked through the greater understanding of what makes us tick as human beings, Crispin somewhat provocatively turned all of this on its head by referencing the book by Raymond Kurzweil, The Singularity is Near. In this seminal book, he discusses the coming technological singularity and how we will be able to augment our bodies and minds with technology. In summarising, Crispin urged the audience to: -remember that emotions sell -aim for Emotional Competitive Advantage -define the Proprietary Emotional Benefit of their brand(s) -tell their Brand Story well Crispin gave the last word to banker J.P. Morgan who is quoted as saying: ‘A man makes a decision for two reasons, the good reason and the real reason’