An interview with Douglas Van Praet, author of UNCONSCIOUS BRANDING

1. Rapid Fire with Douglas Van
Praet
Curated by Prashant Harish Hari

2. 1. What do you think is currently missing
from Market Research?
Empathy and emotion.
We are very good at asking people about their post-hoc rational stories, the reasons they
believe are important to them and the confabulations about why they think they buy brands.
This can be helpful to know but it is a very small part of the process of behavior change.
Motivations come from emotion and emotions start out non-conscious. We only become
aware of our emotions when we experience feelings and physical sensations in our body. So
what we need from research is a better ways to understand
our customers’ emotions and become better attuned to their
feelings.

3. 1. What do you think is currently missing
from Market Research?
We also need to stop treating our customers as targets. When someone is trying to sell you
We
something or take value from you, you naturally resist and reject their suggestions.
need to figure out ways to help consumers solve
life’s challenges in today’s free market digital
economies and make them feel good instead of just
trying to figure out ways to sell to them.

4. 2. In this era of fast technology and vast data, what do you see as the
future of Research? Your recent criticisms at research were somewhat
scathing, but Market Research is a million+ dollar industry. What does
the industry need to do more to survive and future proof itself?
pay more attention to the research of
The industry needs to
cognitive and behavioral sciences. In many ways just becoming
more aware of the learning from these sciences can provide practical instructions on how to
better understand customers, invent products and market to their sensibilities. . What I mean
by that is we don’t necessarily have to do many of these market research studies, we can
export information from behavioral science to business practices. The seven-step framework I
have put forth in Unconscious Branding is my attempt at an organizing framework that does
just that.

5. 2. In this era of fast technology and vast data, what do you see as the
future of Research? Your recent criticisms at research were somewhat
scathing, but Market Research is a million+ dollar industry. What does
the industry need to do more to survive and future proof itself?
When it comes to conducting market research studies, we
need to get better at
measuring emotions and putting that information into the
larger context of what that means for product and
marketing development. There are many companies out there jumping on the
neuromarketing bandwagon with all sorts of gadgets and methodologies that claim to
measure emotion- buyer beware. Like anything else, you need to find the ones who really
know what they are doing, and at this stage of the industry’s development there is still much
work to be done.

6. 3. You say " The conscious mind is simply not running the show, but we’ve
created an entire industry pretending that it does" - You've taken a dig and
pointed out a flaw in research including everything from Phone, Online to
Focus Groups. Aside from the digital space and Neuroscience, what do you
think is currently the most effective form of Research and why?
I have a launched a criticism of the focus group industry based on reasons I have detailed in
article I wrote for Fast Company called I’M NOT YOUR CONSUMER: HOW RESEARCH MISSES
THE HUMAN BEHIND THE DEMOGRAPHIC (http://www.fastcocreate.com/1682193/im-not-your-
But I
consumer-how-research-misses-the-human-behind-the-demographic).
personally find a lot of value in talking to and
observing people in person so that I can read their
micro-expressions, body language and challenge
their unconscious defenses.

7. 3. You say " The conscious mind is simply not running the show, but we’ve
created an entire industry pretending that it does" - You've taken a dig and
pointed out a flaw in research including everything from Phone, Online to
Focus Groups. Aside from the digital space and Neuroscience, what do you
think is currently the most effective form of Research and why?
My preference is to do this one-on-one and completely outside of a focus group setting without
recording and having people observing, but that is very difficult to arrange. I’m certified in
behavioral change therapy focusing on the unconscious drivers of change. The context of this
training was how to help people improve their lives not how to sell them stuff, which has helped me
better understand and connect with people by interacting with them firsthand.
I am a big fan of behavioral data such as sales data
and digitally measured engagement since you are not
relying on reported information.
I have also had success with using EEG measurement of emotional and neural engagement.

8. 4. Apart from the "Old Spice" campaign, what other
campaigns have you seen which are the most effective and
why?
Perhaps the most successful campaign in terms of efficiency has been Red Bull. I go in-depth
What Red Bull did so
into this case study in the last chapter of my book.
well was leverage the fact that branding occurs best
in real world scenarios especially when we have a
physical experience. Branding occurs best as an active not passive exercise.
Think unique, emotionally and physically charged
experiences for best results.

9. 5. You mention: "That’s because our brain is a pattern recognizer or prediction
machine."- is it possible to train someone’s brain over a longitudinal period of time to
spot emerging trends? Do you believe the brain consciously (or subconsciously) is
able to start seeing trends in things that have been around for longer periods of
time?
Yes, because that is what the brain does. The
problem often lies in the fact that you probably
already are spotting these trends but they only
register as feelings. This is the essence of gut
marketing. The goal is to become more conscious of those feelings and the roots of
their origin.
Your brain has a seemingly endless capacity to rewire itself.
The more you expose yourself to new information, the better you will
become at spotting new trends.

10. Links:
 Website for UNCONSCIOUS BRANDING: http://unconsciousbranding.com/
 Buy the book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Unconscious-Branding-Neuroscience-
Empower-Marketing/dp/0230341799
 Connect with Doug on LinkedIN: www.linkedin.com/pub/douglas-van-praet/59/409/b19

11. Thank You
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