Strategy
Brand research & emotive dynamics: measuring what truly moves people
Emotive dynamics research is a scientifically grounded approach to brand research that measures the unconscious emotional drivers behind human behaviour — going beyond surveys and focus groups to reveal what truly moves people. What truly moves people? It is the holy grail of marketing and organisational identity. We often simply ask people in a survey or focus group. The problem? People frequently don't know themselves why they do what they do. Traditional brand research delivers rational answers to rational questions, but the reality is that we are emotional beings who rationalise after the fact.
What is emotive dynamics research?
Emotive dynamics is our scientifically grounded approach to brand research that looks beyond the rational outer layer. With our digital instruments, including the brand experience scan, we map culture, engagement and brand perception as they are truly experienced — not based on opinions, but based on deeper underlying drives.
This type of research is the starting point for everything we do: from brand purpose and brand strategy to culture development and storytelling. Without deep insight into what moves people, every strategy is a gamble.
Why do classic research methods often miss the mark?
Most brands still rely on methods that ask: "How likely are you to recommend us?" or "Which three core values fit us?" Although this data seems useful, it mostly measures the 'socially desirable' or 'reasoned' answer.
The science behind System 1 and System 2. Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman described in Thinking, Fast and Slow how our brain uses two systems for decision-making:
When brand research only interrogates System 2, you miss the essence. The actual drive — the emotive dynamic — lies deeper. As neurologist Antonio Damasio demonstrated in Descartes' Error: without emotion we simply cannot make decisions. Emotion is not noise; it is the foundation of every action.
The data confirms this. Harvard professor Gerald Zaltman's research, published in How Customers Think, concludes that 95% of purchasing decisions are driven by the unconscious mind. A Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience study found that ads optimised using System 1 emotional metrics delivered a 23% increase in sales volume compared to those guided by traditional survey data alone. Meanwhile, research published in the Journal of Advertising Research demonstrated that implicit association measures predict actual brand choice behaviour 2.5 times more accurately than explicit questionnaire responses.
- System 1 (the unconscious) — fast, intuitive, emotional and effortless. This system drives an estimated 95% of our behaviour, including brand choices and loyalty.
- System 2 (reason) — slow, analytical and conscious. This is the system we use to fill in surveys and to explain after the fact why we chose that expensive car or that particular job.
Our approach: measuring with the implicit association methodology
At BR-ND People we have developed methodologies that directly engage the System 1 layer of brand experience. We bypass the rational filter by using advanced psychological techniques:
1. Intuitive Association Testing (IAT). We measure the strength of brand associations by looking at response times. The faster a respondent links an emotion (such as 'freedom' or 'safety') to your brand, the more strongly that association is anchored in the unconscious. A delay in response time often indicates rational doubt or socially desirable behaviour.
2. Visual stimuli and the [23plusone method](https://www.br-nd.com/23plusone). Images are processed by our brain 60,000 times faster than text. By using carefully selected visual stimuli in our scans, we directly activate the emotional centres in the brain. This forms the basis of the 23plusone method, which is scientifically validated to uncover fundamental human drives.
3. Gamification and flow. By presenting the research as a visually appealing, fast-paced interaction, respondents enter a state of 'flow'. This stops the rational mind from overanalysing and gives us access to the most authentic answers. Response times become a reliable measure: the faster the reaction, the stronger the association.
The results are not presented in dull tables, but fed back in a stimulating way via internal media, visualisations and interactive sessions. So that insights don't disappear into a drawer, but directly prompt action.
From data to strategy: building the bridge
Brand research at BR-ND People is never an end in itself. It is the fuel for your brand strategy and culture development. Our emotive dynamics data directly feeds three crucial domains:
Our research instruments are included in the academic reference work Brand Management Models: The SWOCC Selection for good reason. It is a recognition of the robustness and practical applicability of our data.
- Internal branding — do we understand what truly drives our employees to give their best every day?
- Brand positioning — which emotional space in the market is still unoccupied and also fits our authentic identity?
- Customer experience — does the emotional promise of our marketing match the actual experience of the customer?
Brand research examples: what good looks like
What does emotive dynamics research look like when applied at scale? These globally recognised organisations show how measuring unconscious emotions transforms brand strategy:
Notice the pattern: the organisations that invest in understanding unconscious emotions don't just build better campaigns — they build better strategies. The data beneath the surface changes everything above it.
- Nike — Nike's famous "Just Do It" positioning wasn't born from a focus group. It emerged from deep understanding of the emotional drivers of amateur athletes: not the desire to win, but the drive to push personal boundaries. By tapping into System 1 associations of determination and self-transcendence, Nike built a brand that resonates far beyond sportswear.
- Philips — When Philips repositioned from "electronics manufacturer" to "health technology company", implicit research revealed that trust and care were stronger unconscious associations than innovation. This insight fundamentally changed the brand strategy: instead of leading with technology, Philips began leading with humanity — resulting in a brand architecture that connects meaningfully across medical, personal health and consumer segments.
- ING — ING used behavioural science and implicit association research to understand how customers truly feel about banking. The insight that people associate banking with anxiety and loss of control (rather than the "empowerment" banks typically claim) led to a customer experience strategy built on reducing friction and building emotional safety.
- Municipality of Tilburg — Our own emotive dynamics research among 200,000+ residents revealed a shared unconscious drive that no traditional survey had uncovered. This emotional common denominator became the foundation for a city positioning that was not only distinctive, but genuinely felt by the community.
Frequently asked questions
- The NPS (Net Promoter Score) tells you that people would recommend you, but not why. Emotive dynamics gives you the 'why' and the emotional hooks with which you can actually influence that score.
- Very reliable. The methods are based on decades of scientific research in cognitive psychology (Kahneman, Damasio). Moreover, the 23plusone method is included in the SWOCC selection of brand management models, which confirms the scientific validity.
- Because we measure drives that lie deeper than fleeting opinions, our scans have high statistical power. We often see very stable patterns in the data with a relatively small group (from 30–50 people per segment).
- Absolutely. The drives from the 23plusone method are universally human and transcend language barriers. Because we work extensively with visual stimuli, the scan is ideally suited for international organisations with diverse cultural backgrounds.
- We don't deliver a thick report that gathers dust at the bottom of a drawer. The results are presented in interactive sessions where we directly link the data to strategic choices for your brand, your culture and your communication.
- Explicit research asks people directly what they think (surveys, interviews, focus groups) and measures System 2 responses — rational, considered and often socially desirable. Implicit research bypasses the conscious filter to measure System 1 associations — fast, intuitive and emotionally authentic. Research published in the Journal of Advertising Research shows that implicit measures predict actual brand choice 2.5 times more accurately than explicit methods. We use both, but the implicit layer is where the real insight lives.
- Absolutely — and it's one of the most powerful applications. By measuring how employees unconsciously experience the organisational culture, we reveal the gap between the culture on the wall and the culture on the floor. This data directly informs the brand culture playbook and the EVP (Employer Value Proposition), ensuring your employer brand is built on what people genuinely feel, not what HR hopes they feel.
- Neuromarketing typically uses hardware like fMRI, EEG or eye-tracking to observe brain activity — effective but expensive, slow and limited in sample size. Emotive dynamics uses digital, scalable instruments (like our brand experience scan) that measure implicit associations through response time and visual stimuli. The result is comparable depth of insight, but at the speed and scale needed for strategic brand decisions.
Related stories
Municipality of Tilburg: the heartbeat of a city
How do you measure the identity of a city with more than 200,000 inhabitants? For the Municipality of Tilburg we conducted a large-scale emotional research study among residents, entrepreneurs and civil servants. The data revealed a surprising common denominator in drives, which became the foundation for a powerful and broadly supported city positioning.
Quinso: the human behind the technology
In the world of SAP implementations, much revolves around reason. Yet through our emotive dynamics scan we discovered that the real strength of Quinso lay in their deep engagement and entrepreneurial spirit. By making this emotional layer measurable, we were able to build a positioning that immediately distinguished them from the 'grey' competition.
Bernhoven: the power of vulnerability
For hospital Bernhoven, our research uncovered a unique culture of 'love for people'. This was not a marketing pitch, but a measurable, deeply rooted drive present in all layers of the organisation. The research gave the board the confidence to choose a radically human-centred course.
Further reading
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Start a good conversation.
Get in touch with Kim Cramer or Alexander Koene - we'd love to think with you about emotive dynamics research for your brand.