our emotional foundation

Although we have changed our name from experiEmotive^® analytics to Emotive Analytics, we continue to base our research on the experiEmotive^® model, illustrated below.

The experiEmotive^® model says that experiences initiate largely unconscious cognitive, emotional, and physiological processing that together drive behavior. However, emotions are the fuel that does the serious driving. This is summarized by our belief that “EMOTIVES” are why we behave. We do what we do, we buy what we buy, to achieve an optimal state of feeling.

This model was conceived from, and is backed by, a great deal of recent research in neuroscience and psychology showing that without emotions, effective decisions (and subsequent behavior) would either not happen or would be quite dysfunctional. In their classic book The Marketing Power of Emotion, O’Shaughnessy and O’Shaughnessy powerfully and eloquently communicate this when they conclude:

"Emotion is not an aberrant element when making buying decisions, but a necessary condition if decisions are not to be continually postponed."

Realizing that emotions strongly, if not exclusively, drive behavior, led us to focus on emotions. But two critical aspects of emotions led us to focus on special techniques for effectively assesing them.

"Emotions operate in large part unconsciously, below people's awareness. Emotions are often guarded because they are socially unacceptable to express."

We call these the “unconscious” and “unwilling” aspects of emotions, or collectively “implicit.”

These two aspects of emotions led us to realize that traditional consumer research techniques (e.g., traditional focus groups and surveys) often do not accurately and comprehensively assess emotions because they only deal with explicit emotions and feelings – those that people are aware of and willing to share. Therefore, along with explicit emotional assessment techniques, we effectively utilize implicit emotional assessment techniques. Speaking at Esomar’s 2005 Innovate! Conference, Peter Cooper and John Pawle called for this combination of techniques by saying…

"In review of the techniques available to measure emotion...market research must allow for the measurement of both explicit conscious feelings and implicit cognitive emotions for a more comprehensive account of the consumer-brand relationship."

For sound references supporting our emotional foundation, visit the Literature/Educational Resources section of our website.