Beyond Guesswork: Unlocking the Real Needs of Your Audience
Have you ever picked up a chocolate bar at the checkout without really knowing why? Almost as if someone else made the decision for you? Welcome to the world of subconscious decision making.
Read this article to find out…
- How unconscious decisions drive customer behavior and why understanding them is key for effective marketing.
- A three-step approach to audience insights that uses deep psychological interviews, AI pattern analysis, and social listening to reveal hidden needs.
- How brands can turn insights into impact, creating campaigns that resonate on a deeper, emotional level.
Organizations today face a significant challenge in truly understanding their audiences. They collect mountains of data, but often lack clear insights – as if they're fishing in murky waters. Why is that? Because people often can't explain why they behave the way they do. In fact, about 90% of our buying decisions are made subconsciously*, making it difficult for companies to accurately gauge their audience's needs.
The Dilemma: Data Without Insight
Imagine working on a jigsaw puzzle where all the pieces are the same color and none of them fit together. This is what audience analysis feels like for many companies. They have reams of demographic data, but little understanding of the deeper motivations and needs that drive their audiences' decisions.
The result? Shooting in the dark. Marketing that's like gambling – blindfolded. And the risk? A watered-down message based on shallow assumptions that miss what the audience really cares about.
Our Solution: Diving Deeper
At standing ovation, we don't just rely on superficial data. We go beyond the obvious and delve into people's subconscious motivations. Our approach combines deep psychological analysis with advanced technology and creative visualization. This helps us uncover the hidden association networks – the invisible threads that shape how people think.
Using technologies such as large language models, we analyze motives and behavioral patterns, revealing opportunities and risks for brands. After all, branding is about building relationships. And to align people's needs with a brand's mission, we need to understand what really drives the audience and what the brand truly stands for.
«It's like cracking the secret codes of the subconscious when we unravel a brand's association networks from billion data points.»
Real-World Insights: That «Aha» Moment
If this brand were an animal, which would it be? This was the opening question in deep psychological interviews we conducted for our insurance client in September 2024.* Through a series of questions like this, we tapped into the subconscious and uncovered deep-rooted motivations. For instance, when participants identified the brand as an elephant, it indicated a desire for security, protection and stability. A tiger, in contrast, represented energy, strength, and a willingness to take risks.
Surprisingly, despite the diversity of stakeholders – including customers, brokers, employees, management, and partners – two core motivations repeatedly surfaced. The findings were so strong and consistent that they gave us a new foundation for the brand's entire communications strategy, moving beyond predictable topics like «security». We found the last missing piece of the puzzle and now had a clear sense of the core motivations that could unify the brand's message across all audience segments.
* Specific insights cannot be disclosed due to confidentiality.
Insights Beyond Numbers
Powerful insights go beyond data. It's about understanding the people behind the numbers – uncovering their desires, fears and hidden motivations to create real value for brands. Unconscious motives shape how we see the world and how we act in it. By understanding them, we can predict likely responses and connect with people in emotionally resonant ways.
Our Three-Step Approach:
- Deep Psychological Interviews with stakeholders: Through thoughtful listening and implicit questioning, we reveal hidden needs and motivations that drive behavior.
- Uncovering Association Networks with AI: Using AI, we uncover complex patterns and connections that are usually hidden, creating «mind maps» that bring people’s thought pathways into focus.
- Social Listening: By tapping into social networks and the «digital public», we gain raw, authentic insights into people’s real thoughts and feelings.
Together, these three levels of insight give us a deep understanding of our target audience, which fuels our creative processes. The result? Campaigns and brand experiences that not only grab attention, but have a lasting impact.
The Future of Insights: A Look Ahead
Generating insights is a powerful tool that's becoming increasingly essential. But insights alone aren't enough–the real value comes when they're turned into strategic brand experiences. Brands that take this approach and address the core needs of their audiences will be the ones to secure a strong market position in the future.
«Our vision? To empower companies, brands and institutions with this knowledge, so that marketing isn't just a shot in the dark, but a direct hit.»
Our approach not only saves valuable resources, but also ensures that all actions are based on real human needs, creating a positive, lasting impact. As AI advances, the balance between technology and humanity becomes critical: technology is an exciting tool, but creativity and empathy are the true drivers of success. Ultimately, understanding human needs and motivations is what matters most – technology is the means, but empathy and creativity are the fuel.
*The Science Behind the Insights: 90% of All Decisions Are Made Subconsciously.
The finding that about 90% of decisions are made unconsciously is backed by various psychological and neuroscientific studies. Here’s an overview of four significant studies and publications that have, from our perspective, contributed to the scientific foundation of this insight:
Libet conducted a groundbreaking study demonstrating that the brain makes decisions before a person becomes consciously aware of them. In his experiments, Libet and his team measured «readiness potentials» (RP) in the brain, which occurred several seconds before the conscious decision to perform an action. This research suggests that conscious intention is often just the final outcome of unconscious decisions.
Source: Libet, B., Gleason, C. A., Wright, E. W., & Pearl, D. K. (1985). Unconscious cerebral initiative and the role of conscious will in voluntary action. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 8 (4), 529-539.
In a later study, John-Dylan Haynes demonstrated that researchers could predict participants' decisions up to seven seconds before they became consciously aware of them using fMRI. Haynes and his team found that specific brain regions, particularly the prefrontal and parietal cortex, were already active before a person made a conscious choice. This study supported the hypothesis that decisions are prepared unconsciously.
Source: Soon, C. S., Brass, M., Heinze, H. J., & Haynes, J. D. (2008). Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain. Nature Neuroscience, 11 (5), 543-545.
Damasio proposed that emotional and unconscious processes play a crucial role in decision-making. He introduced the theory of «somatic markers», suggesting that physical and emotional signals unconsciously contribute to faster and more effective decisions. His research shows that many decision-making processes are guided automatically and emotionally, without requiring conscious reflection.
Source: Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. New York: Putnam Publishing.
In his work, Kahneman distinguished between two systems of decision-making: System 1, which operates quickly, automatically, and unconsciously, and System 2, which is slower and more deliberate. He argued that most of our decisions are influenced by System 1, representing automatic, intuitive decision-making. This model has significantly shaped research on unconscious decision-making, supporting the idea that most of our choices are, in fact, made subconsciously.
Source: Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
