11. June 2008 by John Schinnerer.

Most people like to enjoy the illusion that they are rational consumers. However, more and more studies are demonstrating the powerful impact that emotions play in buying decisions. In a recent study in the Journal of Consumer Research, researchers found that customers in an angry mood make different purchasing decisions than customers in a sad mood, demonstrating that negative emotions vary in how they influence consumer decision-making.  

Angry Mood Makes Consumers More Likely to Stick to Their Guns 

Angry consumers were 37% more likely to stick with their existing choices than sad individuals. In other words, angry individuals are less likely to see the advantages or benefits of a new product or service. People in an irritable or angry mood become cognitively rigid, which is to say, their neural nets are knotted. Until they calm down, new information will be ignored. 

Sad Mood Still Open to Options  On the other hand, individuals who were sad behaved the same as those in a neutral mood (i.e., a 5 on a 1 to 10 scale) when it came to consumer decision making. In contrast, folks in a funk (i.e., sad sacks) have a tendency to look at options closely and carefully and then make the best decision based on the information at hand.  Take Home Message   Different negative emotions influence behavior differently yet predictably. If you know how someone is feeling, you can predict (within a certain range) how they will behave.  For example, if you sell consumer packaged goods, you are more likely to sell new products to sad consumers than angry ones. Individuals in an angry mood are significantly more likely to stick with status quo. Angry peoples’ thoughts comingle with, and are influenced by, an angry mood. As a result, they tend to overfocus and dwell on their anger and, typically, do not look at options or possibilities.  A mood of sadness or melancholy gives one the chance to reflect and a willingness to ponder a variety of possibilities. This is typically done in an attempt to self-correct one’s mood towards a neutral middle ground.  Conclusion  As an individual, be wary of making any important decisions when you are angry. You could be missing some fantastic opportunities! As a corporation, have your finger continuously on the pulse of how your customers feel.  Awareness of the mood of the consumer can lead to a more engaging, pleasant and profitable relationship.  John Schinnerer, Ph.D.Emotion Mining Company, Inc.

www.EmotionMining.com

Incidental and Task-Related Affect: A Re-Inquiry and Extension of the Influence of Choice. Journal of Consumer Research. June 2005.

Author Information

Dr. Schinnerer is Chief Communication Officer at Emotion Mining Company, which has a powerful method to accurately quantify emotions to help craft successful change initiatives, improve brand equity, increase effectiveness of marketing campaigns, remove roadblocks to team building and allow for new scientific research.  The EM method was designed and fine-tuned over the last 15 years by a Stanford psychiatrist and neuroscientist and tested with Fortune 500 companies, such as AOL, Coke, Penske, Campbell’s, and Purina, with unparalleled results.In the past, Dr. Schinnerer has served as President of Guide To Self (http://www.guidetoself.com), a company that focuses on executive coaching and positive psychology.  Dr. Schinnerer also hosted Guide To Self Radio, a prime time radio show on positive psychology and emotional management.  Dr. Schinnerer started in the private sector as President of Infinet Assessment (http://www.infinetassessment.com), a psychological testing company to help firms select the best applicants. Dr. Schinnerer wrote the book “Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide To Managing Emotion and Thought” (Available at Amazon.com, Target.com and BarnesAndNoble.com) and many articles such as “The Marketing Revolution: Connecting Behavior with the Subconscious Mind.” His book was awarded “Best Self-Help Book of 2007.” 

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23. March 2008 by John Schinnerer.

The Solution to the Chief Marketing Officer’s Dilemma – Accurate Emotional Engagement Metrics 

By Dr. John L. Schinnerer and Shirley Knight 

On average, companies change CMOs every two years. Is this a function of unrealistic expectations, unclear job requirements, or something more fundamental? Perhaps the solution is as simple as accurately measuring that which truly bonds consumers to brands – emotional engagement. The task of linking consumer behavior to brands and marketing efforts is a difficult one with which the best Chief Marketing Officers’ grapple daily. Solutions such as self-report surveys, focus groups, and in-depth interviews suffer from a critical disconnect between their results and consumers’ real world behavior. This ongoing challenge has put Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) into the unenviable position where their best efforts are not measureable, and as a result their job security is never assured.  The CMO’s Dilemma  In his April 2008 Gallup Management Journal article “The Chief Marketing Officer’s Dilemma,” Willam J. McEwen looks at some of the difficulties of the CMO position – rapid turnover, high pressure expectations, and a poorly defined job.  The CMO position faces inherent difficulties in the sense that customer engagement depends upon  a) Communicating the brand promise and b) Delivering upon the company’s brand promise.    Both consumer engagement and profitability rise when employees help deliver on the brand promise. The difficulty arises in that the CMO has control over the first half of the equation (communicating brand promise via advertising and marketing) but not the second half (delivering upon brand promise via employees and operations). The CMO has no direct control over the workforce. They control the packaging, promotion and promise, but not the daily deliverance and implementation. Thus, to a large extent, the real potential, and the potential pitfalls, of the brand are in the hands of employees who are outside of the CMO’s control.  Gallup’s Proposed Solution The solution to the dilemma is two pronged. First, CMOs must be capable of recognizing and understanding the entire breadth of their brand – from the brand’s promise to each interaction between employee and customer to every experience customers have with the brand. This indicates that CMOs must “look at the world from the customer’s point of view.” Second, senior executives must design more comprehensive, well-defined objectives and accountability measures for their CMOs. However, this solution proposed by Mr. McEwen falls short of the target. The assessment of the problem and its respective solutions can be extended to incorporate a broader view of the mind, the market, the brand and the CMO – a view which involves both sides of the mind, the rational and the emotional, and allows for a more accurate picture of engagement, branding and profitability. 

Rational vs. Emotional Mind 

From a neuromarketing perspective, there are at least two parts to the human mind – the rational and the emotional.   The rational mind is reasonable, logical, and linear. The rational mind is excellent at developing levelheaded explanations for behavior. It is so good it has consumers (and others) convinced that they are rational shoppers. The rational mind is so good at creating the illusion that it is in control that scientists didn’t even discover the emotional mind until a few decades ago. In other words, the rational mind has conveniently overlooked the existence of the emotional mind ever since Descartes’ famous but flawed line, “I think, therefore I am.” The emotional mind is associative, largely subconscious, irrational and intense. The emotional mind is more powerful than the rational mind. It had greater endurance than the rational mind. It works more quickly than the rational mind. This is partially due to the order in which the brain evolved over millions of years. Those areas of the brain which are primarily responsible for emotions, the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the insula, among other regions, developed 5 – 10 million years ago. On the other hand, the part of the brain responsible for rational thought, the neocortex, developed a mere 40,000 – 2 million years ago. In terms of evolutionary brain development, the rational mind is still in its infancy, while the emotional mind is like a mature adult. So the emotional mind has been through hundreds of revisions and updates, while the rational mind is still a bit ‘buggy.’ Research confirms the emotional mind is a more powerful driver of behavior. Consumers buy with the emotional mind and explain the purchase (to their spouse, for instance) with rational mind. The Importance of Fully Engaged Customers 

Gallup has convincingly shown that “profitable growth is directly dependent on the degree to which a company’s customers are ‘fully engaged.’”  Gallup defines “fully engaged customers” as “strongly emotionally attached and attitudinally loyal.” On the other hand, actively disengaged customers are “completely detached from your company…they may become virulently antagonistic toward your company or brand…they’re always eager to tell others exactly how they feel.” The inevitability of negative customer-employee interactions and subsequent drops in customer engagement make it imperative that the CMO find a way to accurately quantify and measure emotional engagement.  With an accurate method to lay out the conscious and subconscious emotions that consumers feel when they interact with the brand, the CMO has a fighting chance to ensure customers return again and again for the same “feel good” experience. Once the CMO has this emotional profile for the brand, then she can set about focusing on “increasing sales share …while meaningfully enhancing the brand.” Until then, the CMO is akin to a ship atop the sea without a rudder; adrift without a map.  Emotions and the Subconscious Drive Behavior 

Emotions and the subconscious are the primary driving forces behind consumer behavior, including buying behavior. The challenge has been to develop a tool to accurately identify and measure conscious and subconscious emotions in real time. In the absence of any such tool, CMO’s have had to rely on basic, rudimentary methods, such as observation of shopping behavior, self-report questionnaires and focus groups to predict engagement and behavior. These methods have proven inconclusive at best.  The CMO’s job security is thus tied to shaky and unreliable data collection methods. Given how consumer data is still being collected in archaic ways, it’s no wonder that the tenure in the CMO position is so short. The problem is not that the CMO does or does not know how to do the job. The problem is that no one knows how to accurately measure emotional engagement so there are no real benchmarks against which performance can be judged.  

Communicating Brand Promise  The creator of the most successful mass-communication ad campaigns for Avis and Volkswagen, William Bernbach, said, “You can say the right thing about a product, and nobody will listen.  You’ve got to say it in such a way that people will feel it in their gut. Because if they don’t feel it, nothing will happen.”   The value of brand equity is not so much in the rational, conscious mind as it is in the emotional, subconscious mind. It’s not how consumers think about a company or its offerings. It’s how they feel about it. And oftentimes, they’re not even consciously aware of how they feel.  The most successful marketing campaigns will speak to the head and the heart, the rational and the emotional. Yet, for most CMOs, the ability to accurately measure the emotional side of the equation is not an option, if, for no other reason, than no adequate emotional ruler exists.   The one company which has best delivered on the promise of measuring emotional engagement is the aptly named, Emotion Mining Company. Emotion Mining Company has developed an online, projective technique which enables accurate and reliable measurement of the emotional mind. This information is as essential as it is unprecedented and as such it makes sense that Emotion Mining’s tool be standard for every company that wants to reach consumers at a gut level. Delivering On Brand Promise 

The second part of the CMO’s dilemma, delivering upon the brand’s promise, also has an essential emotional component to it. This should come as no surprise as we are still dealing with humans who are quintessentially emotional beings.  It is well understood that employee satisfaction is positively linked to profitability.  The more engaged employees are, the better their interactions with customers; the better the interactions with customers, the more loyalty generated; and customer loyalty equals profit.  To truly leverage employee engagement, find out how employees really feel about the customer base in general. If a call center representative thinks of and, more importantly, feels that customers are like incapable, annoying children, their interactions will obviously suffer. If a call center rep sees the customers as sources of innovative ideas who are in genuine need of help, their interactions will flourish and the brand will gain new champions as a result of their positive exchanges.  Even though delivery of the brand promise is outside the CMO’s purview, she can still influence her colleagues who oversee delivery by acquiring and sharing a deeper, more accurate, understanding of a) how the consumer perceives the brand and b) how the consumer wants to experience the brand. In this way, the CMO provides the company with the necessary hard data to create the finest possible customer experience. Such information in the hands of senior management would be a powerful driver of organizational change and brand enhancement as it creates positive guidelines for promotion and delivery.  Measuring the emotional responses of consumers is an aspect of market research that is just now coming to the fore, creating new and necessary tools for the marketing toolbox.  Dr. Tom Snyder, the founder of Emotion Mining Company Inc., whose method identifies conscious and subconscious emotional reactions to a question, brand or concept, states, “The emotion data – both quantitative and qualitative – is generated in less than a month and provides previously unavailable insights into the consumer’s perspective. As a result our clients, such as Coca-Cola, have been able to better target both marketing and delivery.” As McEwen suggested in his article, CMOs need to look at the world from their customer’s point of view, and senior management need to design more comprehensive, well-defined objectives and accountability measures for their CMO’s.  Recognizing the role of emotions and measuring emotional responses provides competitive advantage for the firm as well as job security for the CMO! About the Authors:
 Dr. John Schinnerer is Director of Client Relations for Emotion Mining Company which offers a novel, patented method to measure conscious and subconscious emotions and thoughts. In the past, Dr. Schinnerer has served as President of Guide To Self (http://www.guidetoself.com), a company that focuses on executive coaching.  Dr. Schinnerer also hosted Guide To Self Radio, a prime time radio show on positive psychology and emotional management.  Dr. Schinnerer started in the private sector as President of Infinet Assessment (http://www.infinetassessment.com), a psychological testing company to help firms select the best applicants. Dr. Schinnerer wrote the book “Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide To Managing Emotion and Thought” and the article “The Marketing Revolution: Connecting Behavior with the Subconscious Mind.” His book was awarded the “Best Self-Help Book of 2007.” 

Shirley Knight is an Executive MBA from Queens University who has 30 years experience in banking and insurance, fulfilling roles in leadership, sales, relationship management, and change management. Shirley joined Emotion Mining (http://www.emotionmining.com) as COO to help clients gain access to unique insights that can build more competitive organizations.

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3. March 2008 by John Schinnerer.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Anxiety (But Were Too Afraid To Ask)!

Dr. John Schinnerer, Emotion Mining Company (www.EmotionMining.com)

Anxiety is the third largest psychological problem in the world today but few people are even aware what anxiety is. A young man wastes time sitting in front of the telephone, agonizing becausehe’s afraid to make a call. He’s afraid to call a stranger in a business officeabout the phone bill because he’s afraid he’ll be imposing and they’ll be madwith him. It’s very hard for him to take rejection, even over the phone, evenfrom someone she doesn’t know. He’s especially afraid to call people he doesknow because he feels that he’ll be calling at the wrong time — the otherperson will be busy — and they won’t want to talk with him. He feels rejectedeven before he makes the call. Once the call is finished, he overanalyzes andthinks about the words that were used, the tone it was said in, and how hewas perceived by the other person….his nervousness and speeding thoughtsconcerning the call prove to him that he “screwed” this conversation up, too,just like he always does. Just thinking about the call is enough to call us hisanxiety. A young lady resists going to work since a meeting is scheduled the nextday. She knows that such meetings always include her co-workers discussingtheir current projects. The mere thought of talking in front of her peersspikes her anxiety. Sometimes she loses sleep the night before due to theanticipation of her upcoming nervousness. In other words, she becomesnervous about the prospect of being nervous. When the meeting is finallyfinished, a huge wave of relief comes over her as she begins to let go of theanxiety. Yet the memory of the meeting remains in the forefront of her mind.She is convinced she embarrassed herself and that everyone present sawhow nervous she was when she spoke, and how foolish she acted in themeeting. She recalls that in front of the boss she stammered, paused toolong, her face turned red, and she won’t remember what to say. The moviesare replayed in her mind over and over and over again. 

Another individual would like to go to out socially— and, in fact, he is trulylonely—yet he never goes out as he is unbearably nervous when meetingnew people. Groups of people make things worse for him. The idea of talkingto unknown people scares the daylights out of him. He is certain people willstare at him and expose him as an imposter. He is afraid they will reject himand humiliate him. Even if they act nice, they’ll surely notice his flushed face,frozen look and stuttering speech. They’ll sense his discomfort, mistake it forarrogance and dislike him. He feels he has no way to win. And so he spendsthe night alone again. He is in his comfort zone at home. Home is the onlyarea in which he feels totally at ease. Home is the only place he can relax. Hehasn’t gone out in seven years. In public, people with social anxiety feel that everyone is scrutinizing theirevery move and judging them, despite the rational knowledge that this is notthe case. Socially anxious people cannot relax in public. They cannot enjoythemselves when they are out. They can never truly settle down when othersare around. To them, it always seems like other people are negativelyjudging them. Regardless of their rational thoughts, they still feel extremelyself-consciousness while they are in the presence of others. For many, it isnearly impossible to relax and focus on anything other than the anxiety andthe fear. The anxiety is agonizing, making it easier to avoid social situationsand other people completely. Social anxiety is an extreme fear of social situations and conversing withother people which creates feelings of self-consciousness, fear of judgment,evaluation, and criticism. This often leads to feelings of inadequacy,humiliation, and depression. Social anxiety disorder (or social phobia) causes relationship problems formillions of people all over the world every day of their lives. In the UnitedStates, studies have recently shown social anxiety disorder to be the thirdlargest psychological disorder in the country. Such anxiety affectsapproximately 15 million Americans each year. In general, social anxiety isnot well understood by the mental health care field. As a result, people withsocial phobia are frequently misdiagnosed. Socially anxious people have beenmisdiagnosed as “schizophrenic”, “manic-depressive”, “clinically depressed”,and “personality disordered” to name a few. Often, anxiety exists together with depression or bipolar disorder. 

An example of a specific social phobia is the fear of speaking in front ofgroups. On the other hand, generalized social anxiety makes a personanxious, nervous, and uncomfortable in the vast majority of social situations.People who suffer from social anxiety disorder typically experienceconsiderable emotional distress in situations such as: Introductions to other peopleCriticism and JudgmentsBeing the center of attention (e.g., birthdays)Having someone watch while doing somethingTalking to people in positions of authority (e.g., doctors, PhDs and police)Social encounters, especially with strangersMaking “chit-chat” at social engagements The physiological symptoms that are associated with social anxiety frequentlyinclude intense dread, a quickening heart rate, blushing face, dry throat andmouth, shaking, difficulty swallowing, and muscle tension. Constant,pervasive, ongoing and intense anxiety is the most common symptom. People with social anxiety know that their anxiety does not make rationalsense. We know now that each one of us has two “types” of brain – theemotional brain and the thinking brain. These account for our emotionalintelligence and traditional intelligence. Therefore, knowing something is notthe same is not the same as feeling it. Sometimes we have feelings that areinconsistent with our thoughts. This is frequently the case in anxious people.They feel anxious despite their rational knowledge that there is nothing to beafraid of. 

Here are a few tips to help alleviate your anxiety… 1.     Think of the brain as a computer. In order for a computer to run any program at peak efficiency, it must have sufficient memory, disk space and processing speed. Many individuals with problems of impulsivity, disorganization, and distractibility do not have sufficient RAM (i.e., short-term memory), disk space (i.e., long-term memory) or processing speed in their brains due to underactivity in the prefrontal and temporal lobes of the brain. To best run the programs, the hardware (the brain) must be first optimized and then the programs (the information) need to be reinstalled (as it wasn’t properly received the first time through). Once the brain is running efficiently, strategies need to be introduced to help them be more effective at home, at work and in social relationships.  It is essential to improve the brain (biological), the outlook of the individual (psychological), and the intersections between the person and their environment (social) (Amen, 2001). One particular part of the brain has been shown to be involved in shifting from one thought to another – the anterior cingulate gyrus. When the anterior cingulate is too active, it results in people getting stuck in certain thought patterns and behaviors. Many difficulties with anxiety and depression have to do with a lack of flexibility of thought (or obsessing on certain negative thoughts) and may be related to an overactive anterior cingulate. If the rigidity of your thoughts and behaviors are causing difficulty in your relationships, you may want to discuss with your doctor the possibility of a serotonergic medication such as Prozac, Zoloft or Paxil which has been shown to be helpful in calming down the anterior cingulate gyrus (Amen, 2001). 2.     Eliminate all toxic elements from your lifestyle. This includes caffeine, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamines, nicotine, and sugars. For instance, marijuana use damages the physiology of the brain decreasing blood flow to key areas and reducing overall effectiveness. Marijuana use is especially harmful to the temporal lobes, which play an important role in memory, emotional stability, learning and temper control. Substance abuse of all kinds is particularly harmful to brain functioning. For example, a study done at UCLA demonstrated that cocaine addicts had 23 percent less brain activity overall compared to a group of people who had never used drugs (Amen, 2001).  

3.     The recommended diet according to many experts, including Barry Sears, PhD (author of The Zone) is a higher protein – lower carbohydrate diet with a minimum of sugars. This helps promote a more even mood, better focus, and improved cognitive ability. However, this is precisely the opposite form of diet that most of us are on currently. 4.     All of us benefit from intense aerobic exercise 30-45 minutes 5 times a week. Exercise increases blood flow to the brain. It also improves the availability of serotonin in the brain which provides a calming effect and allows individuals to shift their focus from one are to another more easily. This helps those who tend to obsess on certain thoughts or ‘overfocus’ on areas of interest.  5.     Work on correcting Automatic Negative Thoughts, or ANTs. Negativity haunts us all at different times. This habit, when particularly strong, can lead to depression and social withdrawal. There are seven primary types of ANTs as laid out below: 

6.     Deep breathing is essential in reducing temper flare-ups, anxiety, impulsivity, restlessness, insomnia, and lack of focus. Diaphragmatic breathing is a method of deep breathing where you breathe into the stomach or diaphragm. The emphasis is on exhaling all air in your lungs with each breath. The purpose of exhaling is to rid your body of waste products in the lungs, such as carbon dioxide. This allows the lungs to fill more completely with new air, which increases the flow of oxygen to all cells in your body, particularly the brain cells. Brains cells are among the most sensitive to oxygen deprivation. Slight variations in oxygen availability can change the way an individual thinks and behaves. When you get angry or anxious, your breathing becomes shallower, and oxygen content in the bloodstream is reduced. Less oxygen is then available to the brain, possibly resulting in increased irritability, impulsivity, anxiety, or confusion. To account for this, you must learn to breathe slowly and deeply with your stomach, not your chest.  7.     Smile. When we are happy we smile and when we smile, we feel happier. One of the most significant emerging principles in the neurology field in the 1990’s is the idea that the feedback between levels of the brain is bi-directional. In other words, messages travel both ways between various levels within the brain. So if you activate a higher level, such as the cortex, you will be priming a lower level, such as the cerebellum. And vice-versa. Thus, smiling, even when you don’t feel like it, can improve your mood! 8.     Socialize with other intelligent and interesting people. This is one of the best ways to keep expanding the networks in your brain, in your social life and in the business world. The verbal interaction with other capable individuals challenges your brain to create new connections and pathways.  9.     Challenge your brain daily with vocabulary exercises, quizzes, puzzles, crosswords, debates, anagrams and brainteasers. Attend current events seminars. Write in a journal. Axons and dendrites (i.e., neural pathways), which would normally shrink with age, branch out and make new connections. Given enough intellectual stimulation, you create an increased backup capability in your brain. In other words, the intellectual stimulation creates alternate pathways by which chemical messengers can communicate. Thus, if old pathways fail or are damaged, you are more likely to be able to reroute the necessary messages to essential parts of the brain.  Studies shave shown that people who taught, continued learning and constantly challenged their brains into old age lived longer and resisted Alzheimer’s better than those who did not.  To address overall health of the brain: 

Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program That Allows You to See and Heal the 6 Types of ADD. Daniel G. Amen, M.D. Berkeley Press, 2001.

Change Your Brain, Change Your Life. Daniel G. Amen, M.D. Random House, 1999.

To improve self-assertiveness skills: Managing Assertively: How to Improve Your People Skills.  Madelyn Burley-Allen. John Wiley and Sons, 1995. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Stephen Covey, Ph.D. Franklin Covey Co., 1990. 

Goals and Goal Setting. Larrie Rouillard. Crisp Publications. 1998. To increase tolerance to stress and reduce anxiety:  The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook. Edmund Bourne, PhD. MJF Books, 1990. To address emotional sensitivity: The Heart of the Soul. Gary Zukav. Simon & Schuster, 2002.  Self-Coaching: How to Heal Anxiety and Depression. Joseph Luciani. John Wiley & Sons, 2001. Undoing Depression: What Therapy Doesn’t Teach You and Medication Can’t Give You. Richard O’Connor. Berkeley Pub. Group, 1999.

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27. February 2008 by John Schinnerer.

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Director of Client Relations

Emotion Mining Company, Inc.  A scientific revolution is taking place. This revolution has to do with the exponentially increasing understanding of the human mind – the subtle yet profound influence of the subconscious mind on behavior.

Conscious awareness is merely the beginning of the journey into the mind. Neuroscientists agree the vast majority of cognitive processing takes place outside of conscious awareness. Most neuroscientists estimate between 90-95% of mental and emotional activity occur outside our conscious notice. Much of this “underground” activity is automatic and emotional. Much of this commotion is bubbling just below the level of our awareness.

So what’s the fuss? Why care about mental activity that goes on behind the scenes? The main reason is that subconscious activity has a massive impact on our perception of the world, behaviors, buying decisions, and satisfaction with life.

For example, the price of wine influences how people perceive the same bottle of wine. When people are told the price of wine is higher, they subconsciously create the perception of a better tasting wine. The higher priced wine is perceived to have new characteristics such as improved body, taste, and aroma once the price is revealed. Another study showed that brand recognition plays a large role at the subconscious level in influencing how we perceive objects, such as soda. Blind taste tests may show that individuals like drink A over drink B by a large percentage.  However, when those same individuals can see the product packaging and brand, they prefer B. No change in the two drinks, just an awareness of the brand which subtly yet powerfully kicks the subconscious mind into motion and changes the way the taste buds perceive the drink A and drink B.

In addition, conscious self report measures such as polls, surveys and focus groups are poor predictors of consumer behavior. Self report measures are notoriously flawed in their ability to predict future behavior.  The relationship between the stated intention of consumers and their actual buying behavior is low and can even be negative at times. For instance, over 60% of individuals who tested a new kitchen appliance in their home stated they were “likely” or “very likely” to purchase the appliance within three months. Nearly a year later, only 12% of those consumers had actually made the purchase. A follow up survey among those who said they were going to buy but did not discovered that those consumers could not explain the disconnect between their stated intention and their behavior.

What’s more, the subconscious mind works at lightning fast speed. It works so quickly that it can pick up information from the environment that does not even register in the conscious mind. For example, a message which appears for 30 milliseconds (below the threshold of conscious awareness) dramatically affects individuals’ behavior in the near future. An automobile manufacturer tested a new sensor system which could automatically measure the speed of the car as well as the distance of an object directly in the path of the car. When the program discovered a high probability of a crash, it flashed a message on the windshield which stated, “Brake!”

During testing of the program, it was found that the ideal length of time to flash the message on the windshield was 30 milliseconds – so fast that the conscious mind was not even aware of it, but the subconscious mind was. When the message was shown for 30 milliseconds, drivers demonstrated optimum braking ability. When the message was displayed for longer periods of time (so the conscious mind could “see” it), braking performance declined in speed.

These examples are just the beginning of a revolution in marketing, advertising, branding, and improved consumer experiences.

With the birth of new imaging tools and innovative methodologies such as Emotion Mining’s patented approach to get at subconscious thoughts and feelings, the mind is rapidly beginning to reveal its secrets. Similar to exploring the deepest depths of the ocean, we are on the verge of stunning new discoveries.  And, among others, marketing and branding professionals stand poised to reap the benefits. 

Posted in innovative brand research, unique marketing research, new approaches to organizational change initiatives, emotion mining company, emotional intelligence, dr. john schinnerer, creativity, business | Print | 1 Comment »

6. February 2008 by John Schinnerer.

My clients teach me many new things; so that each contributes to the success of the others.  One of my oldest clients, Emotion Mining, is a research and software firm in Wellesley, Massachusetts.   They have been doing breakthrough research for select companies for over a decade; but are now reaching out to a broader market.  We’re delighted to announce that Emotion Mining’s long-awaited new web site is now live and ready for your visits at   www.emotionmining.com

I am writing this because I believe you may know people who are interested in gaining deeper insights into what drives human behavior, either in the field of brand marketing, public policy, or organizational development.   Emotion Mining is an Internet-based research technology that combines the qualitative and unique insight of an in-depth personal interview, the concept testing and idea-building of a focus group, and the efficiency and quantitative output of a survey…..and does all of this in a fraction of the time of traditional research. Emotion Mining offers this unique methodology to gain unprecedented insight into markets, and has already contributed directly to increased sales and brand recognition for many companies.   In the last year, Emotion Mining has also helped executive management identify and address human resource issues that arise from company culture changes, mergers, and reorganizations.

Our experience has taught us that people feel before they think or act; thus it is feelings that drive behavior.   Yet most of us are not conscious of the emotional reactions our brand or management creates.   Emotion Mining distinguishes between conscious (stated, surface reactions) and unexpressed (more powerful, deeply felt, unstated) behavior drivers to give market strategists and/or organizational leaders insight into the messages and actions that are most likely to change behavior.  Before Emotion Mining, decision makers had to guess at feelings and motivations - now we can reliably capture this important information about key behavior drivers.

We invite you to visit our new site at www.emotionmining.com to learn more.   We encourage you to register so that we can easily keep you updated on ways your organization can benefit from a relationship with Emotion Mining.   Most importantly, I urge you to please pass this email invitation on to your professional associates who may be interested.

Thanks for reading this far !!

Questions?   Call or email me at any time.

Barry Neagle

774-238-6073

barryneagle@emotionmining.com

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4. February 2008 by John Schinnerer.

Emotion Mining - Capturing, Understanding, and Leveraging the Emotions Underpinning Brand Behavior
by Greg Thomas

Deep Diving into Emotions

Wouldn’t it be great if you could really understand your customers? Reach deep down into their psyche and latch onto the right emotional buttons to trigger their buying decisions? Better yet, reach down there and test their reactions to the brand you are putting on the table, your latest promotion, your customer service, or even the new layout of your store. It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds.

In fact, Liam Fahey and Dr. Tom Snyder of Emotion Mining Company are already doing it.

They described their methodology at a ZIBS Forum, sponsored by Zyman Institution of Brand Sciences at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University.

Fahey, an adjunct professor of Strategic Management at Babson College, is Executive Director of Emotion Mining Company. He previously taught at Northwestern and Boston universities. Dr. Snyder, the founder of the company, is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist with MD and PhD degrees from Stanford University. He invented “Emotion Mining” to measure emotions and prioritize the “(subconscious) heart of the matter” in work with his therapeutic clients.

Brands Stimulate Emotions and Emotions Stimulate Brand Behavior

In 1989, when it became evident to Snyder that his methodology could reliably identify how to motivate and inspire new interest and new behavior based on uncovering unappreciated but recognizable feelings and thoughts, he began to consult with major corporations. The results, especially those derived from understanding both customers and employees, provide critical input in determining marketing strategies, advertising programs, and sales approaches.

Fahey joined Snyder to develop a web-based implementation of the methodology to capture emotional responses. The Result? “Emotion Mining” - a versatile research, communication and decision-making system that can be employed to capture and analyze emotional responses to any facet of a brand, including name, icon, attribute, functionality, experience, service, quality, ideal, etc.

Going Beyond the Focus Group

Focus groups have traditionally been used in marketing to explore consumer attitudes. However, focus groups have limitations. Typically people cannot tell you the nuances of the emotions they are feeling, either due to inhibitions in an open setting or simply their inability to adequately describe things or even know what they truly feel.

Emotion Mining uses a different approach; it uncovers hidden - unappreciated but recognizable - subconscious emotions and motivations. Remember Freud’s iceberg from Psychology 101? Our most intense feelings are buried deep beneath the surface. With simple training, subjects can identify and explain these feelings through a set of self-expression steps on their computer screen. The data gathering method only requires the subject to relax and play, and draw and type in a freeform manner.

“All of us know that brands go to the heart of building value for the customer,” says Fahey. “Think of all the major issues concerning brands. The question of emotions always comes into play. What has been needed is a sensitive, rigorous and reliable discipline to plumb emotions.”

“What happens if we don’t understand the emotional context of a brand? What investments might be in peril?” asks Fahey. “We find that companies are largely unaware of the depth and strength of the emotions customers feel about brands - both positive and negative. Do you think this gets the attention of the management team?”

“Surveys, in-depth interviews, and focus groups only take us so far,” says Snyder. “These methods are suitable until we run into something like ‘I think it, but I won’t say it’ or ‘I sense it, but I can’t articulate it’. Emotion Mining overcomes these limitations by providing a way around interpersonal and personality biases, and thus is able to obtain the “heart of the matter”.

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Emotion Mining: Amassing Customer Perceptions Above and Below the SurfaceEmotion Mining uses a specially designed “sonargram” to plot the breadth and depth of conscious and subconscious feelings towards a brand or concept. On the right side of the diagram, positive emotions are plotted; the left side plots negative emotions. Externally focused emotions are on the top half, and internally focused are on the bottom. Once all emotional results are plotted on the diagram, the result is a profile of the customer’s emotional feelings about a brand or concept - in fact, why and how to motivate and inspire new interest and new behavior. This information can be used to build emotional “bridges” between customer needs and experiences, and the products developed by a company with its own definable image.

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Emotion Mining Sonargram: High Level View

Whole Emotional Understanding: The Golden Fleece

Through Emotion Mining, a marketer not only gains the ability to better understand brands, but also the ability to (1) discern unmet customer needs through deconstructing the customer experience; (2) explain product/service failures, deficiencies, and vulnerabilities - as well as successes, strengths, and advantages - in customer language; and (3) prioritize the emotional, rational, and social aspects of a brand to guide external and internal marketing investments. Sensitive emotion benchmarks can be established to continually improve and inspire brand positioning, product enhancement, and service delivery.

For example, Emotion Mining can aid the sales process by showing what specific emotions are “in play” on both sides of the table. Customers and employees experience different emotions. When employees exhibit a stronger emotional competency in dealing with clients, they greatly improve their productivity. Snyder and Fahey believe that organizations have much to gain in developing an integrated understanding of customer and employee emotions. Interrelated outcomes can be expected on many fronts, including: dramatically improved customer experience, increased sales, enhanced employee job satisfaction, reduced employee turnover, and lowered employee training and development costs.

It is no small feat to uncover and unravel the complexity of emotions that a single customer experiences during a brand experience. Through use of such clarified emotional reference points, brand managers can focus on the gaps in the delivery of brand experience, and use these insights to create new customer value and enhanced financial returns.

For more information…

John Schinnerer, Emotion Mining Company, Inc., johnschinnerer@emotionmining.com, 925-944-3440

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