Penguin Brands and the Brain: How to Use Neuroscience to Create Impactful Brands

From its humble origins in the USA where the word ‘branding’ came into being perhaps in the Eighteenth century, when ranchers used to ‘brand’ their cattle meaning ‘to mark an animal with a hot iron to show who owns it’, brands have come a long way. Today the book value or the physical assets account for a minuscule part of the market capitalization of mega consumer companies, while the value of their brands is over two third of enterprise value.In a crowded market place with thousands of products competing for the consumer’s elusive dollar, brands are an ultimate tool to win. Powerful brands have an emotional connect with the consumer. A person feels that something is missing from their life without the brand. It becomes a part of a person’s identity.While studying at IIM- Ahmedabad three decades ago, subjects like Market Research and Brand Positioning, were the means to find a way into the consumer’s mind. Data collection based on laborious questionnaires, analysis using statistical tools like factor analysis and multi-dimensional scaling were reasonably effective. Creativity came in during advertising, but again measuring the effectiveness of the overall customer experience was not easy. We were focused on data to get indirect inferences into the consumer’s psychology. Insights were mostly on hindsight.This path-breaking book from Prof Arvind Sahay, is a huge step forward to get right into the consumer’s brain, its biology, psychology and the resultant behavior, thanks to 21 st century scientific breakthrough techniques like f-MRI (Functional Magnetic Resource Imaging), Electroencephalogram (EEG). Skin Conductance Response (SCR), Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (FNRIS) and Eye Tracker. These technologies allow us to have a look into the human brain, quite literally. The understanding of the biology of the human brain, its subparts, the different neuro transmitters (best known to neuro scientists) is breath-taking. Personally, I was overwhelmed by the sheer complexity of the brain function, despite best efforts by the author to simplify the neuroanatomy.The five Brain Operating Principles (BOP) are the foundation of this book. For example, BOP#1 (The brain wants to feel good, to avoid pain, to feel secure, to get rewards and so on) is governed by the levels of neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, vasopressin etc, (sounds Greek to engineers), and their levels can be altered by external stimuli.Hence, the framework of this book can be summarized as Stimuli – BOP-Decision and Action based on Reason, Emotion, Consciousness and Unconsciousness, aided by inputs from Memory. Another important concept that is at the core of this book is System-1 (effortless and intuitive) vs Ststem-2 (Cognitive and hence conscious effort, from Daniel Kahneman’s book ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’. Human beings are cognitively lazy, thanks to BOP#2 or ‘energy homeostasis’. Hence ‘the most powerful brands are those that get into the unconscious and have an emotional meaning so that the brand almost becomes a habit-a part of a person’s life,’ as aptly stressed in the book.Full of case studies that involve both Indian and International brands, this book is outstanding. Best discussed in a diverse team (valuable inputs from diverse fields, which is the hallmark at IIM-A), Branding as an academic discipline is a multi-disciplinary science, starting with the human brain.Needless to say, great brands need to be supported by great products, experience and commitment from the entire organization. Brands are the deep moats and impregnable forts to sustain market leadership. The leading FMCG companies have deep knowledge and power to influence consumer behavior with new technologies including social media. With great power, comes great responsibility. ‘Trust comes on foot, but leaves on horseback’ is an old saying. The customer shall always be the king.Thank you, Prof Sahay for this un-putdownable and exceptionally good book. As an alumnus (PGP) of IIM-A, for me, this is one of the finest books that brings nostalgic memories of life at ‘WIMWI’, where we had deep and animated discussions on case studies like ‘Pasta Products’ in the classroom.Vidya viniyogadvikasa !

Listening to Prof. Arvind Sahay's podcast episode on 'Brands and the Brain: How to Use Neuroscience to Create Impactful Brands' was eye-opening. His exploration of how neuroscience intersects with brand strategy was not just informative but truly inspiring. Prof. Sahay skillfully illustrated how brands can leverage neuroscience to build deeper, more meaningful relationships with their audiences.

The Content is good but paper quality is not good.More examples should be addedBut overall book is good.

The concepts blew me away

The book is very difficult to read, gives good insights but is made for the elite .