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. It goes beyond surveys and focus groups to reveal what truly moves people.
What is emotive dynamics research?
Traditional brand research often delivers rational answers to rational questions. The problem is that people frequently do not know themselves why they do what they do. We are emotional beings who rationalise after the fact.
Emotive dynamics is our answer to that limitation. With digital research instruments such as the brand experience scan, we map brand perception, culture, and engagement as they are truly experienced rather than only as they are reported.
Why do classic research methods often miss the mark?
When research only questions the rational layer, it misses the emotional associations that actually drive brand preference, loyalty, and behaviour. The essence lives deeper than the answers people can easily explain.
This is where the distinction between System 1 and System 2 matters. System 1 is fast, intuitive, emotional, and largely unconscious. System 2 is slow, analytical, and conscious. Both matter, but the emotional layer is where strategic insight often becomes much more powerful.
- System 1: fast, intuitive, emotional, and automatic
- System 2: slow, analytical, and consciously reasoned
- Brand choice is heavily shaped by unconscious emotional associations
Our approach: measuring with the implicit association methodology
We developed methodologies that engage the System 1 layer directly. Instead of only asking people what they think, we use techniques that help reveal what is anchored more deeply in the unconscious.
The result is not a dull spreadsheet but a sharper picture of the emotions, tensions, and drives most strongly linked to your brand or organisation.
- Intuitive Association Testing: response times reveal the strength of associations
- Visual stimuli and the 23plusone method: images activate emotional processing faster than text
- Gamification and flow: fast-paced, intuitive interaction reduces overthinking and surfaces more authentic reactions
From data to strategy: building the bridge
Research is never the end point for us. It is the fuel for sharper choices in brand strategy, culture development, employer branding, and customer experience.
We use emotive dynamics to help answer three strategic questions: what truly drives employees, which emotional space in the market is still open and credible for your brand, and whether the promise of the brand matches the lived experience.
- Internal branding: what drives employees to give their best?
- Brand positioning: which emotional territory is open and authentic?
- Customer experience: does the promise match the lived reality?
Brand research examples: what good looks like
The organisations that invest in understanding unconscious emotions do not just build better campaigns. They build better strategies. The data beneath the surface changes everything above it.
- Nike: understanding amateur athletes as people driven by personal transcendence, not only winning
- Philips: discovering that trust and care mattered more deeply than innovation alone
- ING: building around emotional safety instead of abstract empowerment
- Municipality of Tilburg: uncovering a shared unconscious drive no traditional survey had found
Frequently asked questions
- Why would I choose emotional research over a traditional NPS measurement?
- NPS tells you that people would recommend you, but not why. Emotive dynamics helps uncover the emotional hooks that actually drive those scores.
- How reliable is research into unconscious emotions?
- Very reliable when designed well. These methods build on decades of scientific work in cognitive psychology and behavioural science.
- How large does the sample need to be for reliable results?
- Because we measure deeper drives rather than fleeting opinions, clear patterns often emerge in relatively compact but well-selected groups.
- Does this method also work internationally?
- Absolutely. The drives in the 23plusone method are fundamentally human and work well across cultures, especially because visual stimuli play such an important role.
- How do you translate research results into action?
- We connect the insights directly to strategic decisions around brand, culture, storytelling, and communication rather than handing over a report that disappears in a drawer.
- What is the difference between implicit and explicit brand research?
- Explicit research asks people directly what they think. Implicit research measures fast, intuitive associations that bypass the conscious filter. Both are useful, but the implicit layer often contains the deeper insight.
- Can emotive dynamics research be used for employer branding?
- Absolutely. It helps reveal how employees actually experience the culture, which makes it possible to build an employer brand on what people genuinely feel instead of what HR hopes they feel.
- How does emotive dynamics differ from neuromarketing?
- Neuromarketing often relies on hardware such as EEG or eye-tracking. Emotive dynamics uses scalable digital tools to measure implicit associations through response time and visual stimuli, making it more practical for strategic decision-making.
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