29. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

 Guide To Self with Dr. John Schinnerer
Optimal Human Functioning Via Positive Psychology
925-575-0258
John@GuideToSelf.com

Dear Friends:

I have been invited to conduct a training class at a speaking platform like no other and wanted to invite you to listen. The class is complimentary and you can listen to as many classes as you wish from the comfort of your home and convenience of your telephone or computer.

The class I am offering a complementary training course, Positive Psychology: The Science of Optimal Human Functioning, on November 18th, 2009 at 6 pm PST.
To find out more, please go to: http://www.globalteleclass.com
 

At this platform you will be trained, motivated and inspired by some of the most respected speakers in the Health, Personal Development and Sales & Marketing Industries.

For the month of November, scheduled speakers include:

Health Department: Steven Frank, Jennifer Hough, Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo, Elaine Petrone, Eric Rolf, Nancy Desjardins, Dr. John Schinnerer, and Jimmy Moore

Sales & Marketing Department: Beatty Carmichael, Angela Treat Lyon, Heather Picken, Jerry Ellefson, Rik Schnabel, Ed Dacey, and Mary Beth Lozano

Personal Development Department: Joan Marie Whelan, Dr. Rick Brinkman, Satyen Raja, Leslie Householder, Dr. Gloria Burgess, Ken Foster & Amazon John Easterling, Debbie Friedman, Stephanie Frank, Nanette Geiger, Katana Abbott, Philip Tirone, Deborah Skye King, Michelle Rigg, Wes Hopper, and Steve Keough.

Remember, these classes are being offered at no cost to you and you can listen from the comfort of your home and convenience of your telephone or computer.

To your success,

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.
Positive Psychology Coach
Guide To Self, Inc.
913 San Ramon Valley Blvd. #280
Danville, CA 94526
(925) 575-0258

Dr. John Schinnerer is in private practice coaching individuals to their optimal human functioning using the science of positive psychology. He is President of Guide To Self (http://www.guidetoself.com), a company that focuses on executive coaching, emotional management skills and mindful living.  He holds a doctorate from U.C. Berkeley in psychology. Dr. Schinnerer 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 is the award-winning author of Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide To Managing Emotion and Thought and numerous articles. His book may be found at Amazon.com, Target.com and BarnesAndNoble.com.

Posted in Raising optimistic children, National speakers, Emotion & learning, Science of love, Curiosity, Mindfulness, Hope, Gratitude, Danville CA, Emotion & productivity, Executive coach, Unsconscious mind, Therapist, San Ramon CA, Employee engagement, International Wellbeing Study, Corporate Culture, Resiliency, The human brain, Creativity, Life coach, Emotional IQ, Dr. John Schinnerer, Realistic optimism, Positive Psychology, Forgiveness, Innovative brand research, Staying calm, Emotional mind, Emotional management, Men's emotions, Guide To Self Beginners Guide To Managing Emotion, Positive mood music, Customer Engagement, Happiness, Sports Psychology | Print | No Comments »

20. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

ScienceDaily (Oct. 19, 2009) — Most of us won’t respond to the call of adventure while soaking in a relaxing bath. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, we’re more likely to book a weekend at a spa. 

“Imagine you are sitting in a bathtub, listening to calm music with gentle candlelight. Add lavender aroma. Then as you flip through a magazine, you come across an advertisement from an amusement park, promising you an exciting place full of adventurous offerings. How appealing would you find the prospect of visiting this amusement park?” write authors Hakkyun Kim (University of Concordia, Canada), Kiwan Park (Seoul National University, Korea), and Norbert Schwarz (University of Michigan). 

The authors found that people evaluate vacation products with adventurous appeals more favorably when they feel excited rather than peaceful, and vice versa. They found that processing advertising claims depends much on the consistency between the message and the consumer’s mood. 

The authors explain that people who see an advertisement that promises an exciting vacation ask themselves, “Would this vacation really make me feel that way?” They are more likely to think a vacation will really be exciting when they currently feel excited rather than peaceful. In other words, incidental emotions influence the perceived likelihood that the product will deliver on its emotional promises: When the current emotions match the promises of the product, people infer that it may really make them feel that way; but when the current emotions mismatch the promises, the discrepancy between their current feelings and the promises suggests that the product may fail to deliver what it promises. 

The researchers’ results suggest that marketers can facilitate the impression that products will deliver on their promises by displaying them in contexts in which consumers’ pre-existing feelings are likely to match the product’s claims. “Exciting sports events are a better arena for advertising exciting vacations than for advertising serene vacations, not only because an exciting vacation may match the audience’s general preferences, but also because an exciting vacation will match the audience’s current feelings,” the authors conclude.

For full article, please click here.

I suppose this makes accurate emotional measurement all the more important. Check out the work I’ve been doing with Resonance Strategies. Great work for marketing, branding, and change initiatives for those who aren’t too fearful. In the consulting work I’ve done, I’ve foudn that dealing with emotions in a business climate sends most business people running for the hills. It’s not rational, it’s emotional! Despite their fears, emotion is still a larger part of the human mind that reason (roughly 90-10%) and dominates most decision-making.

The next step will be matching internal branding campaigns to employee emotions to ensure greater employee productivity. Do I hear individualized internal branding calling? What about individualized external branding and advertising to match ads to consumer emotions and moods?

Savor the day!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Posted in National speakers, Organizational psychology, Emotional mind, Danville CA, Emotion & productivity, Executive coach, Subliminal messages, Employee engagement, Rational mind, Customer Engagement, Guide to Self, Dr. John Schinnerer, Measuring emotions, Innovative brand research, Unique marketing research, Brand Equity, Chief Marketing Officer, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

20. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

From ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2009) — Overweight women’s self-esteem plummets when they view photographs of models of any size, according to a new study in Journal of Consumer Research. And underweight women’s esteem increases, regardless of models’ size.

Authors Dirk Smeesters (Erasmus University, the Netherlands), Thomas Mussweiler (University of Cologne, Germany), and Naomi Mandel (Arizona State University) researched the ways individuals with different body mass indexes (BMIs) felt when they were exposed to thin or heavy media models.

“Our research confirms earlier research that found that normal body mass index (BMI) females’ self-esteem can shift upwards or downwards depending on the model they are exposed to,” the authors write. “Normal BMI females (with BMIs between 18.5 and 25) have higher levels of self-esteem when exposed to moderately thin models (because they feel similar to these models) and extremely heavy models (because they feel dissimilar to these models). However, they have lower levels of self-esteem when exposed to moderately heavy models (because they feel similar) and extremely thin models (because they feel dissimilar).”

This research provides important new insights into how media exposure affects the self-esteem of overweight and underweight women. “Underweight women’s self-esteem always increases, regardless of the model they look at,” the authors explain. “On the other hand, overweight women’s self-esteem always decreases, regardless of the model they look at.” Perhaps surprisingly, overweight and underweight women showed comparable levels of self-esteem when they weren’t looking at models.

Advertisements also affected participants’ eating behavior and intentions to diet and exercise. For example, overweight participants ate fewer cookies and had higher intentions to diet and exercise when exposed to heavy models than when exposed to thin models.

Turn off the TV. Smile. Hang out with friends.

Have a happy day!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

Positive psychology coach

Posted in Emotion & learning, Awareness, Emotional management, Danville CA, Emotion & productivity, Executive coach, Subliminal messages, Depression, Happiness, Dr. John Schinnerer, Managing stress, Life coach, Guide to Self, Unique marketing research, Innovative brand research, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

1. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

Science Daily

‘Today, the journal Emotion publishes a study by a UCL team led by Professor Nilli Lavie, which provides evidence that people are able to process emotional information from subliminal images and demonstrates conclusively that even under such conditions, information of negative value is better detected than information of positive value.

In the study, Professor Lavie and colleagues showed fifty participants a series of words on a computer screen. Each word appeared on-screen for only a fraction of second – at times only a fiftieth of a second, much too fast for the participants to consciously read the word. The words were either positive (e.g. cheerful, flower and peace), negative (e.g. agony, despair and murder) or neutral (e.g. box, ear or kettle). After each word, participants were asked to choose whether the word was neutral or ‘emotional’ (i.e. positive or negative), and how confident they were of their decision.

The researchers found that the participants answered most accurately when responding to negative words – even when they believed they were merely guessing the answer.

‘There has been much speculation about whether people can process emotional information unconsciously, for example pictures, faces and words,’ says Professor Lavie. ‘We have shown that people can perceive the emotional value of subliminal messages and have demonstrated conclusively that people are much more attuned to negative words.’

‘Clearly, there are evolutionary advantages to responding rapidly to emotional information. We can’t wait for our consciousness to kick in if we see someone running towards us with a knife or if we drive under rainy or foggy weather conditions and see a sign warning ‘danger’.’

This is a favorite subject of mine - the unconscious mind and things that affect it. Priming is an amazing example where the unconscious mind is influenced by messages that are flashed for less than .33 seconds (the point at which a stimulus is too quick for our eyes to consciously pick up and be aware of). The unconscious mind can be dramatically influenced by subliminal messages, and even sentences in which the words are mixed up.

When I present, I make a point of using such techniques to lead the audience to a more positive emotional state (e.g., joy, contentment, curiosity, awe, surprise, pride, happiness, or interest). I always tell the audience what I am doing and why. Then I let them know just how easy it is to influence the mind by way of these techniques. The scariest part, to me, is that Madison Avenue is aware of such techniques as well. And while there are laws to prevent the use of subliminal messages in advertising. There are no laws of which I know that prohibit techniques such as scrambling the words in a sentence or the letters in a word as was recently done in a Kaiser Permanente Thrive campaign ad. Fortunately, the word that is scrambled is ‘thrive’ so, in my mind, there is little or no negative impact on viewers.

However, it is to our benefit that we be mindful, cautious and aware of these techniques that speak to the unconscious mind as they do influence our behaviors, often outside of our conscious awareness.

Stay awake!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

Positive Psychology Coach

Posted in Awareness, Mindfulness, National speakers, Emotion & learning, Subliminal messages, Danville CA, Subconscious mind, Consciousness, Innovative brand research, Dr. John Schinnerer, Unique marketing research, Brand Equity, Emotional management, Emotional mind, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

6. July 2009 by John Schinnerer.

More and more, advances in technology are enabling emotion-sensing technologies with greater sophistication and accuracy. While software has monitored voices for agitation and pacing of voice in call centers for some time, we are nearing an age of gadgets that sense our moods, emotions, degree of agitation, stress, depression, and more.

Imagine your car sensing you are getting highly frustrated in a traffic jam, so the GPS suggests an alternative route with less traffic.

Picture an entertainment center that reads cues of depression and adjusts your entertainment to pick up your mood (e..g, changing the channel from drama to comedy).

Think of an iPhone that measures galvanic skin response (perspiration) and alters your playlist to calm you down when you show sign of stress or anger.

Computer programs are able to correctly identify the six universal emotions (via Ekman) at a rate of 88%. The average human correctly identifies the same emotions at roughly 49% (slightly less than pure chance).

 So how does the thought of emotion-sensing robots or computer gadgets make you feel?

Think about it from a perspective of interest and curiosity.

Then think about it from a feeling of paranoia and fear.

You may arrive at two completely separate conclusions based simply on your emotional starting point.

Here is the complete story from New Scientist

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327151.400-emotional-robots-will-we-love-them-or-hate-them.html?full=true

Cheers,

Dr. John Schinnerer

Positive Psychology Coach and  Author

www.GuideToSelf.com

Posted in The human brain, Emotional mind, Music psychology, Curiosity, Emotion and technology, Depression, Unique marketing research, Dr. John Schinnerer, Guide to Self, Emotional IQ, Innovative brand research, Measuring emotions | Print | No Comments »

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.” 

Posted in Chief Marketing Officer, Organizational change initiatives, Brand Equity, Customer Engagement, Infinet Assessment, Unique marketing research, Innovative brand research, Business & psych, Dr. John Schinnerer, Guide to Self, Emotional IQ, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

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.

Posted in Chief Marketing Officer, Brand Equity, Customer Engagement, Organizational change initiatives, Unique marketing research, Dr. John Schinnerer, Emotional IQ, Innovative brand research, Business & psych | Print | No Comments »

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 Unique marketing research, Organizational change initiatives, Innovative brand research, Emotional IQ, Dr. John Schinnerer, Creativity, Business & psych | 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

Posted in Unique marketing research, Organizational change initiatives, Innovative brand research, Emotional IQ, Business & psych, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

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

Posted in Innovative brand research, Unique marketing research, Organizational change initiatives, Emotional IQ, Creativity, Business & psych, Realistic optimism, Dr. John Schinnerer, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »