Unconscious Branding

Consumers make decisions unconsciously, so asking them directly why they buy is the wrong question, argues Douglas Van Praet, because they cannot really say. He proposes asking how behavior change happens instead, and applies ideas from cognitive science to marketing, advertising and consumption in the digital age. Van Praet reduces the workings of the human brain to seven steps to behavior change. The steps are illustrated with real campaigns, including the Volkswagen Punch Buggy launch, Nike's Just Do It campaign and the Super Bowl ad The Force, featuring a Mini Darth Vader. The aim is to explain what successful marketers have long done by instinct.

Activision Publishing chief executive Eric Hirshberg praised Van Praet as one of the few advertising researchers who can explain why a campaign works. Deutsch LA chief executive Mike Sheldon called it a practical how-to for applying neuroscience to marketing and said his team uses it.