23plusone: emotive dynamics & brand research that measures what...

23plusone: emotive dynamics & brand research that measures what truly moves people

Written by Alexander Koene & Kim Cramer PhD, co-founders of BR-ND People and inventors of the 23plusone method. Together they have been researching the relationship between happiness and attractiveness since 2006. Worldwide.

In this article

• Why traditional brand research misses the mark
• System 1 vs. System 2: why your brain lies in surveys
• What is emotive dynamics? The core of the 23plusone method
• The 23plusone method: origins, science and how it works
• The five domains of human drivers
• Implicit association: measuring beyond the rational filter
• From NPS to emotive dynamics: why the switch makes sense
• The science behind brand appeal: what the research proves
• From data to strategy: how emotional insight transforms organisations
• The future of brand research: AI, real-time emotion and scalable empathy
• Being honest: the limits of emotive dynamics
• Frequently asked questions
• References

Why traditional brand research misses the mark

Traditional brand research is built on a fundamentally flawed assumption: that people know why they do what they do. Surveys, focus groups and NPS measurements ask respondents to explain their behaviour and preferences through self-reporting. The problem? People are extraordinarily bad at explaining their own motivations. Not because they're lying, but because the brain works differently than we long assumed.

Imagine this: you're in the supermarket and, without thinking, you always grab the same brand of peanut butter. Asked why, you say something about price or taste. But the real reason runs deeper; it's about familiarity, safety, a feeling you can't name but that guides your hand to that one jar. That unnameable feeling is exactly what traditional research misses.

The numbers are sobering. Harvard professor Gerald Zaltman estimated in How Customers Think (2003) that up to 95% of purchase decisions are driven by the unconscious brain. A study by Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience showed that advertisements optimised based on System 1 emotional metrics achieved a 23% higher sales increase than ads guided by traditional survey data (Nielsen, 2016). And research published in Psychology & Marketing demonstrated that implicit association measurements predict actual brand choice behaviour significantly more accurately than explicit questionnaire responses (Friese, Wänke & Plessner, 2006).

And no, an extra open-ended question at the bottom of your survey won't fix it.

This is the foundation on which emotive dynamics is built: the realisation that you only truly understand what moves people when you look beyond their words. Beyond the spreadsheets. Beyond the socially desirable answer. To the emotional undercurrent that colours all their choices. (Also read: Beyond NPS and employee satisfaction surveys: measuring what truly drives employees.)

System 1 vs. System 2: why your brain lies in surveys

Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman described in Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) how our brain uses two fundamentally different systems for decision-making. This distinction isn't academic rambling; it's the key to everything we know about human behaviour, brand preference and organisational culture.

System 1 is fast, intuitive, emotional and effortless. It's the system that steers your hand toward that peanut butter. It drives an estimated 95% of our daily behaviour, including brand choices, loyalty and the degree to which you feel connected to your employer. System 1 operates on associations, feelings and patterns built up over our entire lives.

System 2 is slow, analytical and conscious. This is the system you engage when filling out a survey, comparing products based on specifications, or retrospectively explaining why you bought that expensive car ("for the safety rating, obviously"). It's also the system that lovingly fabricates rational explanations for choices System 1 made long ago. Think of System 2 as your brain's press officer: always ready with a credible story, rarely involved in the actual decision.

Here's the crux: virtually all existing brand research interrogates System 2. The survey, the focus group, the NPS form; they ask people to think and articulate. But the moment someone starts thinking about why they find a brand attractive, they're no longer reporting on the emotion. They're constructing a rational explanation. It's like asking your partner which beer you want; they know it instinctively. Ask them why, and you get stammering.

Neurologist Antonio Damasio demonstrated this brilliantly in Descartes' Error (1994). Patients with damage to the emotional centres of the brain could analyse and reason flawlessly but were unable to make the simplest decisions. No emotion, no decision. Full stop.

This isn't a bug in the human brain; it's a feature. Emotion is the compass that navigates us through a world of infinite choices. And any research that ignores this compass is navigating blind.

What is emotive dynamics? The core of the 23plusone method

Emotive dynamics is the scientific engine behind 23plusone: an approach to brand and organisational research that measures, visualises and translates the unconscious emotional drivers behind human behaviour into strategic action. It goes beyond the rational surface layer of surveys and focus groups to reveal what truly moves people. 23plusone is a scientifically validated method that measures these 24 universal emotional drivers to explain the attractiveness of brands, organisations and cultures.

The term 'dynamics' is deliberately chosen. Emotional drivers aren't static. They shift, reinforce each other, sometimes collide. In an organisation, you see this reflected: the drivers that employees personally consider important don't always match the drivers they recognise in the organisational culture. That gap; that dynamic; is precisely where the strategic value lies.

Emotive dynamics differs fundamentally from traditional neuromarketing. While newer neuromarketing tools have made the field more accessible (you no longer need a space shuttle budget for an EEG), emotive dynamics was designed from the ground up for something different: scalability. Digital visual instruments that work in natural contexts, with large samples, faster results and significantly lower research costs. No lab required.

The scientific foundation is equally robust; the SWOCC inclusion and publications in journals including the Journal of Advertising Research confirm this. But the practical applicability is greater. And that's the difference between a fascinating research result that impresses at a conference, and a workable method that impresses on the shop floor.

The 23plusone method: origins, science and how it works

The 23plusone method didn't start as a brand instrument. It started with a far more fundamental question: what makes people happy? In 2006, Kim Cramer PhD and Alexander Koene launched an interdisciplinary study connecting the psychology of happiness to the attractiveness of brands and organisations. The core hypothesis was as simple as it was radical: what makes people happy also makes attractive.

That hypothesis turned out to be correct. Confirmed multiple times.

Happy = attractive: the origin

The starting point wasn't the boardroom but the science of happiness. Inspired by psychologist Nico Frijda and building on diverse values, interest and motivation research (including Reiss, 2000; Oppenhuisen, 2000; Deci & Ryan, 2000), Cramer and Koene identified 24 universal emotional drivers that unconsciously steer our behaviour. These drivers aren't abstract marketing concepts; they're the building blocks of human happiness. They answer the question: what do people need to feel good, whole and alive?

The breakthrough came when those same drivers were measured in the context of brands and organisations. The research, conducted in collaboration with market research agency MetrixLab, showed a pattern too consistent to ignore: brands activating the same drivers that make people happy are perceived as significantly more attractive. Happiness and attractiveness turn out to be closely associated; two sides of the same coin.

This is the foundation of the entire 23plusone philosophy: happy = attractive. An organisation that takes its people's drivers seriously doesn't just build a better culture; it also builds a more attractive brand. A brand that touches what truly makes people happy doesn't just win customers; it wins hearts.

The research consisted of an extensive literature review, the development of a measurement instrument, two pilot studies and a large-scale quantitative study. The very first visualisations of the 24 drivers weren't simply sketched and shipped. They were rigorously validated with both laypeople and visual experts, guided by qualitative market researcher Jochum Stienstra of Ferro Explore. Because an image that doesn't resonate universally isn't a key to the unconscious; it's a moat around it. The disciplines that converged: philosophy, psychology, sociology and neurology. The result was a method that could measure both individual happiness and brand attractiveness at the level where it truly matters: the unconscious.

The 23plusone model: 24 drivers, five domains

The model visualises the 24 drivers as a circle, divided into five coloured domains. Each domain represents a fundamental aspect of the human experience:

All 24 drivers have a positive effect and contribute to happiness and attractiveness. Together they form a complete picture of what moves people.

When these drivers are measured for an individual, a personal happiness profile emerges. When measured for a team or organisation, a culture profile. And when measured for a brand, a brand appeal profile. The power of the model lies in the comparison: where do these profiles match, and where do the tensions arise?

The core discovery

Statistical analysis confirmed the happy = attractive hypothesis: the more and the stronger the fundamental human drivers are activated by a concept; such as a brand; the higher the emotional appeal. In collaboration with Dr. Linda Teunter of market research agency MetrixLab and a statistician from Erasmus University Rotterdam, factor analysis was unleashed on the measured drivers for people, categories and brands. The verdict from Rotterdam was as dry as it was hopeful: 24 drivers, but statistically reducible to five stable clusters. These five domains proved universal; they transcend culture, language and geography.

With now 80,000+ respondents and 300+ brands across 15+ countries; spanning FMCG, tech, finance, healthcare and public sectors; this is no longer a hypothesis. It's a pattern that repeats itself time and again. The drivers that make people personally happy are the same drivers that make brands and organisations attractive. Together they form the emotional fingerprint of a person, team, organisation or brand.

Scientific recognition

The 23plusone method is included in the scientific standard reference work Brand Management Models: The SWOCC Selection, published by the Foundation for Scientific Research on Commercial Communication (SWOCC), affiliated with the University of Amsterdam. This reference work contains the models that form the scientific foundation for brand strategists worldwide.

Inclusion in the SWOCC selection isn't just an honour. It's recognition that the method is taken seriously on validity, reliability and practical applicability. Cramer and Koene, as the SWOCC paper describes, "have stepped away from essence thinking in brand positioning" and "embraced the emotional richness of the brand story" (SWOCC, 2020). (Read more: 23plusone included in the SWOCC Brand Model Book.)

Moreover, in 2012, Celeste Miller at Amsterdam-based research agency Totta independently replicated the study in a large-scale Brand Scan (online, n=9,000). The outcome? Exactly the same findings. That's not a footnote; it's the highest compliment science can pay. Finding something once is interesting. Finding it twice, by a different team, in a different context, with the same outcome; that's the moment a hypothesis stops being modest and becomes a fact.

How it works: from cards to data

The method uses physical and digital tools. The iconic visual 23plusone cards; each featuring images representing a specific driver; engage stakeholders in a dialogue about the emotional drivers they associate with a brand, an organisation or themselves.

This isn't a survey in disguise. The visual, associative nature of the method speaks directly to System 1. Images are processed by the brain many times faster than text. By using carefully selected visual stimuli, we activate the emotional centres directly, without triggering System 2's rational filter.

A recent digital variant, the 23plusone happiness scan, adds gamification and flow. By presenting the research as a visually attractive, fast interaction, respondents enter a flow state. This stops the rational mind from over-analysing and gives us access to the most authentic answers. Response times become a reliable measure: the faster the reaction, the stronger the association.

The result: an emotive profile showing which drivers are strongly present, which are absent, and where the tensions lie. Not based on what people say they find important, but on what truly moves them.

The five domains of human drivers

The 24 universal drivers cluster into five domains that touch the core of the human experience. Each domain represents a fundamental aspect of what it means to be human; at work, at home and in relation to brands. Sounds lofty? It's actually quite recognisable. Think of the last time you felt unsafe at work. Or the last time you got energy from something you were proud of. That's these domains in action.

1. Safety

Drivers: safety, control, stability, harmony, loyalty, connection, warmth

This domain encompasses the need for certainty, order and social belonging. In organisations, this translates to psychological safety; the degree to which employees feel safe to be vulnerable. Amy Edmondson (Harvard Business School) demonstrated that psychological safety is the strongest predictor of team performance (Edmondson, 1999). Organisations where the Safety domain is out of balance are characterised by avoidance behaviour, tunnel vision and high turnover. In other words: everyone's busy, nobody says what they think, and the best people are quietly updating their LinkedIn.

2. Self-development

Drivers: growth, learning, creativity, mastery, discovery, wonder, relaxation

The need to grow, learn and realise one's own potential. Deci and Ryan's Self-Determination Theory (2000) identifies autonomy, competence and relatedness as the three basic needs for intrinsic motivation. The Self-development domain directly touches on competence and autonomy. Organisations that neglect this domain see their best people leave; not because of salary, but because of stagnation. There's a reason "I have nothing left to learn here" is the most common departure reason that never gets written down in an exit interview. (Also read: How employer branding cuts recruitment costs by up to 50%.)

3. Ambition

Drivers: success, achievement, challenge, pride, recognition, influence, status, materialism

The drive to perform, be recognised and make impact. This domain is the engine of entrepreneurship and leadership. But it's also the domain where the shadow side of organisational culture can emerge: when ambition isn't balanced by safety and connection, you get an office full of competent strangers who happen to share the same Slack workspace. (Also read: How to preserve culture during rapid scaling.)

4. Vitality

Drivers: health, fitness

Energy, vitality and well-being. The research behind 23plusone revealed that brands strongly activating drivers from the Vitality cluster are perceived as significantly more attractive. This is no coincidence: vitality is the driver that amplifies other drivers. A team that experiences joy in their work performs better across all other domains. Fredrickson's broaden-and-build theory (2001) confirms this: positive emotions broaden the thought-action repertoire. Or in plain English: when work is fun, people get smarter. Not the other way around.

5. Attraction

Drivers: beauty, sensuality, sexuality

The domain of aesthetics and the sensory. In brand strategy, this is the domain that makes the difference between a functional brand and an iconic brand. Brands that activate Attraction in combination with Vitality reach the highest levels of brand appeal; a finding that consistently recurs in 23plusone research. It's the difference between a car that gets you from A to B and a car you glance back at as it drives past.

The interplay between these five domains is where the real insights emerge. An organisation with strong Safety but weak Vitality feels 'safe but boring'. A brand with high Ambition but low Attraction is respectable but not desirable. The art is the right cocktail; and that cocktail is different for every organisation, every brand, every team and every person.

Implicit association: measuring beyond the rational filter

Implicit association testing measures the strength of brand associations by looking at what people can't consciously control: their reaction times. The faster a respondent links an emotion to a brand, the stronger that association is anchored in the unconscious. Delay in reaction time indicates rational hesitation or socially desirable behaviour. In other words: the difference between "I like you" (after three seconds of thinking) and a spontaneous smile.

This principle, rooted in the work of Greenwald, McGhee and Schwartz (1998) on the Implicit Association Test (IAT), has been translated by BR-ND People into practically applicable instruments for brand and culture research.

The approach combines three elements:

Intuitive Association Testing. Respondents react to visual stimuli. The speed at which they link a concept (for example 'freedom', 'safety' or 'innovation') to a brand or organisation reveals the implicit association structure. This isn't an opinion; it's a measurement of what the brain has actually stored.

Visual stimuli and the 23plusone cards. Images activate the emotional centres faster and more directly than words. The 23plusone cards; each a combination of 4 images representing one driver; function as 'keys' that unlock the unconscious. Respondents don't choose rationally; they respond to what resonates.

Gamification and flow. The digital scan is designed to bring respondents into a flow state. Fast, visually attractive interactions ensure that System 2 doesn't get the chance to interfere. The result: data that's closer to the truth than any survey can deliver.

The results aren't presented in dull tables. They're fed back engagingly through visualisations, interactive sessions and internal media. So that the insights don't disappear into a drawer, but immediately prompt action. Because a brilliant insight that nobody understands is just an expensive secret.

From NPS to emotive dynamics: why the switch makes sense

The Net Promoter Score tells you that people would recommend you. Emotive dynamics tells you why; and gives you the emotional hooks to actually influence that score. That's not a subtle difference. It's the difference between a thermometer and a diagnosis.

The NPS, developed by Fred Reichheld in 2003, has grown into the most widely used metric in customer satisfaction. The problem isn't that the NPS is useless; it's that it's incomplete. Keiningham et al. (2007) showed in a study published in the Journal of Marketing that NPS doesn't perform significantly better than other satisfaction metrics in predicting actual customer behaviour. The score says something, but not enough.

The same applies to the traditional employee satisfaction survey. An annual questionnaire with Likert scales produces neat averages that nobody can act on. "Our employees score a 7.2 on job satisfaction." Lovely. Now what? What does that mean? Which emotional driver isn't being activated? Where's the gap between what people personally value and what they experience in the organisational culture?

The Gallup Q12, one of the most validated engagement instruments in the world, comes closer. But Gallup ultimately also stays at the level of cognitive evaluation. It's like asking a doctor how you feel, and they only measure your blood pressure. Useful, but not the full story.

Emotive dynamics fills this void. The question isn't NPS or emotive dynamics; it's what you're missing without both. It adds the dimension that existing metrics lack: the emotional undercurrent. In practice, we see that organisations combining emotive dynamics with their existing metrics suddenly understand why their scores are what they are; and what they can concretely do about it.

An example. A medium-sized consultancy firm consistently scored an eNPS between -5 and +10; well below the sector benchmark. The traditional employee survey pointed to 'communication' and 'leadership' as areas for improvement. Vague enough to do precisely nothing with. The 23plusone scan revealed a pattern: employees scored personally extremely high on drivers like connection, warmth and health, but barely recognised these drivers in the organisational culture. The gap wasn't in 'communication'; the gap was in a culture that unintentionally ignored the human need for closeness and care. With that insight, management could intervene precisely; not with a communication plan, but with concrete changes in how teams collaborate, how successes are celebrated and how the physical workplace is designed.

The science behind brand appeal: what the research proves

The large-scale scientific research behind 23plusone has produced findings that fundamentally change the way we think about brands. And the beauty is: these aren't theoretical models that only work in a lecture hall. They're patterns that keep showing up in the data.

Finding 1: The more drivers a brand activates, the higher the brand appeal. There is a significant correlation between the degree to which the 23plusone drivers are activated and declared brand attractiveness. In plain language: brands that are emotionally richer are more attractive. This undermines the classical 'essence thinking' that reduces brands to a single core value or positioning. Brands aren't bumper stickers; they're conversations.

Finding 2: The influence of brand awareness, brand expectations and emotional drivers on brand appeal is interwoven. This confirms that brand strategy isn't a linear process (first awareness, then preference, then loyalty), but a dynamic interplay of rational and emotional factors. The marketing funnel isn't a funnel; it's a dance.

Finding 3: Drivers from the Vitality and Attraction clusters give an above-average boost to brand appeal. Brands that activate vitality (energy, health, fitness) and attraction (beauty, erotica) perform significantly better on emotional attractiveness. This explains why brands like Nike, Apple and Patagonia hold such an ironclad emotional position. They don't sell products; they sell a feeling of being alive. (Also read: Why B2B buyers decide with emotion and Greenwashing vs. impact branding.)

Finding 4: The five driver clusters are stable across cultures and contexts. Whether it concerns brands, organisations or individuals; whether in the Netherlands, Southeast Asia or South America; the five domains consistently return in the factor analyses. With 80,000+ respondents and 300+ brands worldwide, this is no longer a hypothesis; it's robust empirical evidence.

From data to strategy: how emotional insight transforms organisations

Emotive dynamics data isn't a destination; it's a departure point. The real return emerges when emotional insight is translated into strategic decisions across three crucial domains. And yes, that sounds like a consultancy sentence. But the difference is that here we're talking about real, measurable emotions; not post-its on a wall.

Internal branding and culture development

Understanding what truly drives employees is the basis for a culture that sticks. The 23plusone scan exposes the gap between personal drivers and organisational culture. That gap isn't a problem; it's the starting point for targeted change. (Also read: Change communication that works: from resistance to ownership.) When employees score high on autonomy and discovery but the culture is dominated by control and order, it's no wonder innovation stalls.

The intervention then isn't 'more innovation training' (the standard answer from every HR department frantically trying to justify a budget), but a fundamental rearrangement of how decision-making and ownership are organised. That's the difference between a paracetamol and a diagnosis.

Brand positioning

Which emotional space is unoccupied in the market, and simultaneously fits the authentic identity of the organisation? Emotive dynamics answers both questions at once. By measuring both internal drivers (employees, leadership) and external perception (customers, market), a positioning emerges that rings true from the inside and resonates from the outside.

This is fundamentally different from classical positioning models (Brand Key, Bulls Eye) that start with a rational analysis of market and competition. 23plusone starts with the human. With the emotion. The rational underpinning follows; not the other way around. (Also read: Brand purpose: the buzzword that refuses to die.) It's a bit like building a house: you can start with the foundation (the human) or with the facade (the rational). Only one of the two is still standing in a storm.

Customer experience and brand experience

Does the emotional promise of marketing match the actual experience of the customer? The 23plusone brand experience scan measures not just conversion and traffic, but also whether digital and physical brand expressions evoke the right emotional associations. Because a website that rationally works perfectly but emotionally misses the mark is like a restaurant with a flawless kitchen but no atmosphere: technically correct, emotionally empty. You eat well enough. You don't come back.

The future of brand research: AI, real-time emotion and scalable empathy

Five years ago it was science fiction. Now it's our inbox. The convergence of emotive dynamics and artificial intelligence opens possibilities that fundamentally change the game. The future of brand research isn't more surveys, but fewer; supplemented by smarter, faster and deeper measurement methods.

Hyper-personalisation. AI makes it possible to interpret emotional profiles at individual level and respond to them in real time. Imagine a brand interface that adapts to the emotional state of the user, while the brand's core values remain intact. Not manipulation; empathy at scale.

Conversational brands. Chatbots and voice interfaces that don't just give the right answers, but embody the tone of voice and emotional intelligence of the brand. The difference between a helpdesk where you take a number, and a conversation where you feel heard.

Predictive emotive analytics. By combining historical 23plusone data with behavioural data, predictive models become possible. Which culture intervention has the highest chance of success for an organisation with this specific driver profile? Which brand message resonates most strongly with this emotional segment? Data that doesn't look back but looks forward. Think of it as a crystal ball, except peer-reviewed.

Continuous measurement instead of snapshots. The traditional annual measurement gives way to pulse surveys and embedded emotional measurements that provide a continuous picture of the emotional health of an organisation or brand. Because a photo from January doesn't say much by September.

But; and this is essential; greater possibilities demand greater responsibility. AI can amplify what already works, and damage what's fragile. Transparency about how data is used, honesty about what AI does and doesn't do, and privacy as a design principle: these aren't nice-to-haves, but prerequisites. A brand that loses its soul to an algorithm ultimately loses its customer.

Being honest: the limits of emotive dynamics

No method is perfect, and the 23plusone method is no exception. Being honest about this makes us more credible, not more vulnerable. Besides: if we preach that emotional honesty is the basis of good relationships, we'd better apply that to our own method too.

The complexity of emotional data. Emotional drivers are richer but also more complex than an NPS score. They require interpretation by people who know what they're looking at. A spreadsheet with driver scores without guidance is like an MRI scan without a doctor: technically impressive, practically useless.

The 'soft' reputation. Let's be honest: in some boardrooms, 'emotional drivers' sounds about as serious as 'horoscope'. As the SWOCC companion acknowledges: "this richness combined with the 'soft' reputation of feelings is harder to manage than rational KPIs." The irony? The boardrooms that most loudly avoid the word 'feeling' make the worst decisions about people.

No quick fix. If you're looking for a method that 'fixes' your employer brand in three weeks: call someone else. Seriously. Emotive dynamics requires the willingness to look deep, accept uncomfortable truths and place the long-term relationship with people above the short-term KPI. It's an investment in understanding, not a plaster on a bleeding dashboard.

Cultural nuance. While the five domains are universal, the expression of drivers varies by culture. The way 'safety' is experienced in a Japanese organisation differs from a Dutch one. The method accounts for this, but it requires local knowledge and sensitivity in interpretation.

Correlation, not causation. The happy = attractive finding is a strong, consistent statistical association; not a proven causal mechanism. We're transparent about this: the data shows that it works, robustly and repeatedly. The why behind the correlation is a question we continue to explore. (Then again, neither is the link between advertising spend and sales; that hasn't stopped anyone.)

Frequently asked questions about emotive dynamics and the 23plusone method

What's the difference between the 23plusone method and traditional brand research?

Traditional brand research politely asks people why they do what they do. The 23plusone method, based on emotive dynamics, measures what they actually feel while they're doing it. The difference? Try asking someone why they're in love. You'll get a charming story. The truth is in the heartbeat.

How reliable is research into unconscious emotions?

More reliable than your annual employee satisfaction survey, to put it somewhat irreverently. The methods stand on the shoulders of decades of cognitive psychology (Kahneman, Damasio, Greenwald). The 23plusone method is included in the SWOCC selection of brand management models; that's the scientific equivalent of a Michelin star. With 80,000+ respondents worldwide, the patterns are statistically robust.

How large does the sample need to be for reliable results?

Smaller than you'd think. Because we measure drivers that lie deeper than fleeting opinions, the scans have high statistical power. We often see very stable patterns in the data with a relatively small group (from 30-50 people per segment). That's not a marketing trick; that's the advantage of measuring at a deeper level.

Why should I choose 23plusone over NPS?

Because an NPS score of 42 tells you about as much as a weather report that says: "it's outside." Correct, but you still don't know if you need an umbrella. NPS measures that people recommend you; 23plusone tells you why; and gives you the hooks to actually move that score.

Does the 23plusone method work internationally?

Absolutely. The drivers are universally human and transcend language barriers. Because we work extensively with visual stimuli, the scan is extremely suitable for international organisations with diverse cultural backgrounds. The method is currently applied in more than 15 countries. From Amsterdam to Jakarta; the same drivers, different expressions.

Can emotive dynamics be used for employer branding?

Yes, and it's one of the most powerful applications. The emotional drivers that determine how consumers experience a brand work just as strongly for employees. We measure how employees implicitly relate to the organisational culture, the employer brand and the core values. Those insights form the basis for authentic employer branding and culture development that doesn't stay on paper. Also read: Translating core values into concrete workplace behaviour.

How does emotive dynamics differ from neuromarketing?

Neuromarketing uses hardware-intensive methods (fMRI, EEG, eye-tracking): expensive, hard to scale, limited to lab environments. Emotive dynamics works with digital, scalable instruments; no scanners needed, no lab coats, no people wondering why they're lying in a tube. The scientific foundation is equally robust, but the practical applicability is greater.

How do you translate research results into action?

We don't deliver an 80-page report that enjoys a glorious career as drawer filler. Results are presented in interactive sessions where we directly link data to strategic choices for brand, culture and communication. Every session ends with concrete interventions, owners and a timeline. No vague recommendations, but names and dates. Because an insight without an owner is an orphan.

Can I learn to apply the 23plusone method myself?

Yes. The 23plusone method is licensed through the 23plusone Collective, a network of more than 50 certified professionals worldwide. Licence holders are trained in the method and gain access to the tools, data interpretation and the collective. (Read more: A new chapter for the 23plusone visual values method.)

What is the role of the 23plusone Happiness Scan?

The Happiness Scan is the personal variant of the method: an interactive digital experience where individuals discover their own driver profile. It's simultaneously a powerful lead generation tool and an accessible introduction to the science behind 23plusone. Think of it as a mirror that doesn't show you your face, but your drivers.

How does emotive dynamics relate to ESG and B Corp?

Emotive dynamics measures the emotional drivers that determine whether employees and stakeholders actually feel connected to an organisation's sustainability ambition. A B Corp certification on paper is valuable; a B Corp culture that truly touches people is transformative. Emotive dynamics makes the difference measurable.

23plusone in numbers

• 24 universal emotional drivers
• 5 stable domains (Safety, Self-development, Ambition, Vitality, Attraction)
• 80,000+ respondents worldwide
• 300+ brands analysed
• 15+ countries
• n=8,050 in the original large-scale study (253 brands, 23 categories)
• n=9,000 in the independent replication by Totta (2012)
• Included in the SWOCC standard reference work Brand Management Models
• Independently replicated with identical findings

23plusone vs. NPS vs. traditional employee surveys

About the authors

Kim Cramer PhD received a doctorate in 2005 from the University of Amsterdam on the relationship between brand seduction and emotional drivers (Under Mother's Umbrella: The Effect of Brand Appeal on Brand Extension Behavior). Together with Alexander Koene, she developed the 23plusone method and co-founded BR-ND People; a creative change agency that transforms brands and organisations through emotive dynamics.

Alexander Koene is co-founder of BR-ND People and co-inventor of the 23plusone method. With a background in brand strategy and entrepreneurship, he bridges scientific insight with practical applicability. Together with Kim Cramer, he researched the relationship between happiness and brand attractiveness across 80,000+ respondents worldwide.

Both authors are also co-founders of the 23plusone Collective and Let's Play Equal.

References

For the sceptics, the curious and the people who enjoy reading footnotes with a glass of wine.

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