The Neuroscience of Brand Choice
The productive tension
Explicit stated preferenceandimplicit emotional association
The synthesis
The traditional market research model asks consumers what they think and takes their answers at face value. The neuroscience model demonstrates that much of brand choice is driven by implicit emotional associations that consumers cannot articulate and may not even be aware of. Both methods have value. Both have blind spots. Explicit measures capture what consumers can and will tell you — useful for functional attributes, price sensitivity, and stated intentions. Implicit measures capture the emotional shortcuts and somatic markers that actually drive behaviour in the moment of choice. The researcher uses both, understanding that what people say and what people do are related but not identical — and that the gap between them is where the most important marketing insights live.
Learning objectives
- →Explain the somatic marker hypothesis and its relevance to brand choice
- →Describe the Pepsi Challenge paradox and what it reveals about the gap between blind and branded preference
- →Distinguish between explicit and implicit measures of brand association and explain when each is appropriate
- →Apply Barden's decoded framework to understand how brands function as neural shortcuts
- →Articulate the Both/And of explicit stated preference and implicit emotional association in consumer research
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