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Top line. Despite clear neuroscientific proof that emotion—not reason—drives decisions, most brands still aim messages at the rational mind. And continue to fail. The Elliot case proved that without emotion, the brain can’t choose or react. Read to discover how to strategically leverage the brain’s emotional system for a neural edge over rivals.
Before surgery, Elliot* was intelligent, articulate, and functional. But after his brain tumour was cut out, he changed dramatically. He could still analyse options. But couldn’t decide. An inability to choose and act wrecked his business, ended his marriage, and unravelled his life.
*A pseudonym for patient confidentiality reasons.
Neurologist Antonio Damasio traced the cause. The operation damaged the part of Elliot’s brain that links emotion to judgement and action. His reasoning remained intact. But without the ability to sense emotion, Elliot couldn’t evaluate data, prioritise, or act.
Damasio’s longitudinal research into the consequences of emotional system damage helped overturn a long-held belief: that humans decide using hard rational data and logic. And that emotion is just peripheral clutter and noise. The studies, involving many cases, showed the opposite. In his 1994 landmark book Descartes’ Error, Damasio proved that without emotion, the brain can’t assign meaning or value to data. So, it can’t choose or do. Emotion, as it turns out, is critical decision-making code.
Neuroscience has long since adopted the findings of Damasio and others. So have a few pioneering brands. Yet, despite compelling scientific evidence, most organisations still default to facts and figures – believing that these motivate and persuade people. Which they don’t. So most marketing, selling and employee engagement messages bomb.
There are a few key reasons why most organisations haven’t yet made a critical strategic switch:
The organisations leaders think their own decisions are made rationally: Although the subconscious emotional system shapes almost every human decision, it loops the conscious system in on decisions to endorse them. This split-second involvement gives all brain owners the illusion that the brain’s choices are conscious and rational —when they’re not. Flawed personal perception blocks the path to revising an organisations influence strategies.
Decision makers confuse emotion with feelings: Because emotions happen in the subconscious, brain owners are mostly unaware of them and struggle to define them. The mind tends to notice only the feelings that emotions produce—so it assumes that emotion is the same as feeling. And lumps them together as soft, vague, and subjective. But emotions and feelings are distinctly different. Emotion is the brain’s hardwired, preconscious code that drives decisions and behaviour. Emotion does the mental heavy lifting. Feelings echo emotional direction after the fact.
Emotion feels hard to apply: To most organisational stakeholders, emotion seems messy, subjective, and unpredictable. And not practical to apply at scale. But science has produced proven, smarter, more structured ways to apply emotion strategically. Without a clear grasp of how the emotional system actually works, leaders lack the confidence to leverage emotion deliberately and tactically.
The leading brands that have already overcome these key blockages have put emotional science to work remarkably successfully. Here’s what they know and apply.
The emotional subconscious is the brain’s real mastermind
The brain’s primary job is survival. (Survival means avoiding all forms of threat or loss. And exploiting opportunities to gain and thrive.)
To survive and thrive, the brain must evaluate and respond to around 11 million bits of sensory and internal data every second. But because it only has 22 watts of energy to work with, the brain has no option but to outsource its data and response processing to its highly evolved subconscious system—where decisions happen automatically, at lightning speed, using almost no energy at all.(If the brain tried to process these huge volumes consciously, it would need nine times more power and over 60 hours to do what the subconscious does in a split second.)
The subconscious runs on emotional code
To manage the relentless barrage of sensory input 24/7, the energy-responsible subconscious doesn’t waste its scarce electricity by scanning and reacting to new data from scratch. It uses what it already knows to predict, model and react intuitively at high speed. It does this by configuring reactions on the fly, using patterns in incoming data and matching them to an intuitively assembled template of memorised beliefs, experiences, and behaviours that worked in similar circumstances—in a heartbeat.
Every pre-conscious reaction template the brain forms is bundled with the neurochemical and emotional coding needed to trigger superfast, reflexive action. The rational system is briefly looped in to endorse the subconscious choice. But to conserve energy and maximise speed, most preconscious decisions get rubber-stamped. So most subconscious choices stick. 95% of all human decisions get made this way.
The subconscious encodes memories with emotions
To instantly retrieve useful experiences that best match situations to a 2.5 million-gigabyte database of a lifetime worth of memories—in 12 milliseconds—the subconscious relies on a rapid, energy-efficient memory sorting system.
In preparation for a wide range of future needs, the subconscious intuitively decompiles every experience into tagged fragments, using hashtag like code, so bits of memory can be flexibly recalled and instantly reassembled as needed. Memories are not never wholesale.
To sharpen recall accuracy, the subconscious storage system encodes emotional valence and meaning with each fragment—giving substantially more weight to memory bits tied to strong emotions. (The subconscious has learned that memories linked to strong emotions are typically more relevant and useful. And memories with weak or absent emotions are not.)
When incoming data carries clear and strong emotional cues, the subconscious is able to spare scarce energy by extracting linked memory fast—complete with the emotional coding that worked before.
Designing messages to influence the subconscious mastermind
The emotional subconscious brain isn’t wired to process facts and figures or evaluate rationally. Instead, it scans for emotional cues that shortcut to meaning, memory, and behaviour—without conscious input. Messages without emotional cues won’t feel like they should matter to the subconscious. And if they don’t feel like they matter, the subconscious dumps them fast.
Science proves the subconscious uses a fast, predictable workflow to decide whether to act or ignore. So, it makes sense to design messages that work the way the brain naturally does.
Emotionally cued messages help the subconscious do 5 critical jobs:
- Detect valence and arousal: First, the subconscious checks whether the incoming signals feel good or bad (valence), and how strong it is (arousal). If the cues feel flat or ambiguous, the subconscious deprioritises or discards the message. And it flatlines immediately.
- Run a goal relevance and energy ROI check: Next, it does a split-second check: does this affect survival, status, belonging, or comfort? Is it worth scarce cognitive energy? No relevance, no engagement.
- Frame meaning using emotional code: If relevant, the brain pares down the data to frame the message into simple emotional binaries: safe/dangerous, win/lose, gain/loss. Framing dramatically narrows the terms of reference for memory search.
- Cue emotional memory: The framing triggers the retrieval of stored experiences with similar patterns, helping the brain shortcut to meaning, run predictions and assemble a best fit reaction pattern.
- Prepare action readiness: Finally, the brain forecasts the emotional consequences of acting—or not—and primes the most efficient behavioural response, including the neurochemistry to move. (The word emotion is derived from the Latin emovere meaning to agitate to act.
To work with—not against—the subconscious workflow, messages must:
- Make relevance and personal stakes obvious upfront: Show the gain or loss. Will this protect status? Boost belonging? Avoid danger? The brain needs to see what’s in it for ‘me’—fast.
- Help the subconscious predict outcomes at a glance: Use a narrative schema and cues that help the subconscious forecast what happens if they act—or don’t. If the brain can’t predict the story, it defaults to inaction.
- Prime the right emotion early — The subconscious relies on six primary emotions—happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust—and hundreds of nuances beneath them to guide preconscious choice and behaviour. Each emotion directs the brain’s framing and memory retrieval down a specific path. Cue the desired emotion upfront to steer action. Emotion first. Logic later..
Use familiar emotional cues to trigger targeted memory: Lever known patterns, symbols, or scenarios that feel familiar. The more familiar the pattern, the easier the brain can process and act.
- Keep it fluent and low effort: The subconscious equates easy with safe and true. Use simple, clear language, familiar framing, and clean visuals. Reduce cognitive load to lower resistance.
- Direct action: Remove ambiguity. Tell the brain what to do now—and why it matters now. If the path is unclear, the brain defaults to status quo.
When messages are coded this way, the subconscious emotional system engages, memory reinforces the meaning, and behaviour becomes automatic.
How leading brands use subconscious emotional code for neural advantage
Brands that outperform their rivals don’t put up rational arguments. They speak fluent emotional code that helps the subliminal brain see opportunity to survive and thrive. Here’s how the world’s best strategically leverage the brains subconscious emotional system effectively:
They signal identity: Apple doesn’t push its computing hardware. Apple products tell the world that an Apple owner is unique, innovative, creative and disruptive – willing to challenge the status quo. Apple’s emotionally loaded messages say “Standout bravely for your difference” The subconscious will queue overnight for that identity—not the product.
They cue positive memory retrieval: John Lewis leverages the emotion of sentimental longing for the past. By using nostalgic storytelling in its Christmas campaigns, John Lewis triggers emotionally loaded memories of childhood, family, and festive rituals. These create a powerful sense of emotional familiarity, which the subconscious instinctively interprets as safe, trustworthy, and rewarding. No rational justification needed.
They drive motivational emotion: Nike doesn’t sell shoes. It sells an emotional drive to defy personal limits. No-one should be held back from realising their full potential. The iconic Just Do It isn’t about product specs. It’s a rallying cry that a personal best is do-able. The ambitious, defiant and determined individual is the hero in the Nike story. The shoes are just the enabler.
They drive inclusion: Dove’s Real Beauty campaign challenged narrow beauty ideals by showcasing real women of diverse shapes, ages, and ethnicities. By reframing beauty as inclusive and attainable, they leveraged deep-seated emotions of identity, fairness and self-worth. The story wasn’t about soap—it was about dignity and belonging.
They harness exclusivity and status: Rolex doesn’t sell watches. It sells a badge that represents membership to an elite group. Every campaign reinforces scarcity, prestige, and achievement. By associating ownership with personal success and social elevation, Rolex drives up emotions of pride, aspiration, and status anxiety, positioning the brand as a symbol of having arrived.
They harness belonging and connection: Coca-Cola’s brand story has always gone beyond the drink. By consistently associating Coke with moments of happiness, sharing, and global togetherness, it hardwires feelings of belonging, warmth, and joy—making the brand feel like an instant passport to social connection.
The bottom line: The Elliot case was one of many that helped science prove that emotion is critical to the brain’s decision making. Messages that don’t fit the brain’s subconscious emotional system stall minds. Messages that do—will move them.
Avoid making your brand message an Elliot case. Leverage emotion.
References
- Damasio, A. (1994). Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain.
- Mlodinow, L. (2022). Emotional: The new thinking about feelings.
- Feldman Barrett, L. (2017). How emotions are made: The secret life of the brain.
- Bagozzi, R. P., Gopinath, M., & Nyer, P. U. (1999). The role of emotions in marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 27(2), 184–206.
About
Jonathan Hall is the CEO of ThinkWorks, a behavioural science consultancy that helps organisations move more minds with influence and narrative science. ThinkWorks blends the disciplines of business and brand strategy, behavioural science, and storytelling art to produce messaging tactics that persuade effectively.
Jonathan is a graduate of Wits Business School, has trained in strategic modelling at Aix-Marseille University in France, and is certified in behavioural economics, brand, and narrative science.
He is the author of the e-books The Power of Brand Story and BrainSell. His work has earned several accolades, including the IMM Marketing Company of the Year award, a Deloitte Best Company to Work For award, and a PSA Innovator of the Year award.
To find out if ThinkWorks can help your organisation to influence the minds you target, contact ThinkWorks, for no-obligation exploration.
jonh@thinkworks.co.za | +27 83 251 0716
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