Consumer brand research

An early discussion of brand research and the power of human emotion in driving consumer decision-making comes from what might seem a surprising source.

Alexis de Tocqueville, a young aristocratic French lawyer, traveled to the United States in 1831 to study its penal system. His visit resulted in the classic Democracy in America, a masterpiece of United States cultural and political analysis. Without framing it as such, he offers a compelling statement early in Volume One of the power of emotional imprints upon the human mind, and how they guide us throughout life:

[To understand a man] we must watch the infant in his mother’s arms; we must see the first images which the external world casts upon the…mirror of his mind, the first occurrences which he witnesses; we must hear the first words that awaken the sleeping powers of thought, and stand by his earliest efforts—if we could understand the prejudices, the habits and the passions which will rule his life. The entire man is, so to speak, to be seen in the cradle of the child.

Some 170 years ago, de Tocqueville had it right. To understand consumers and identify their emotional drivers, good consumer research uncovers what the consumer does not know that they know, by reaching into the subconscious and uncovering what was imprinted at an early age when encountering a variety of experiences for the first time.

It is these imprints — the first experiences in life — that are the context by which a consumer will see things throughout their entire adult lives, and react to communications and experiences intended to influence them.

Before the importance of research into the effects of human emotion upon brand development were understood by some, de Tocqueville prophetically pointed the way to success. He could foresee the power of those first impressions in most any effort to own the conversation within any industry, even in today’s popular culture.

He understood there is no second chance to make a first impression.

Consumer brand research - To learn more about this author, visit Steve Cranford's Website.

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