Consumers don't just perceive a brand through its messages, logo, or campaigns. Their judgment is also shaped by experiences, emotions, and mental associations that are sometimes difficult to articulate. It is precisely in this gap between what is expressed and what is truly felt that a brand's image, preference, and loyalty are forged.
A brand study is a strategic tool for understanding how a brand is perceived by its various audiences. It allows us to measure how a brand is perceived, evaluated, and felt by its audiences. Abrand study combines the analysis of three key dimensions: image (consumers' actual perception), identity (the values and messages a company wants to convey) and awareness (spontaneous or aided visibility). This data helps assess a brand's health, adjust its positioning, and anticipate market changes.
However, traditional approaches often rely on conscious declarations, whereas most decisions and perceptions are guided by emotional and unconscious processes. Applied neuroscience in marketing offers a solution: it allows us to capture implicit signals, identify the true emotions felt by consumers, and link these reactions to purchase intentions.
In this article, we will see how to conduct a brand study and integrate emotional measurements into this study, what methods and indicators to follow, and how tools like Igonogo can capture consumer perception. You will also discover concrete examples of brands that have optimized their strategy through this dual approach: marketing and neuroscience.
A brand study is an analytical framework designed to understand how a brand is perceived by its various audiences: customers, prospects, partners, and even the general public. It doesn't just measure awareness; it explores the quality of the perceived image, the consistency between the intended and received identity, as well as the brand's position within its competitive landscape.
In a context where brand equity represents a growing share of companies' overall value, these studies become a strategic tool. They help to:
• Identify the strengths and weaknesses perceived by the market
• Measure the impact of marketing campaigns on perception
• Anticipate the risks of a mismatch between projected image and perceived image
From a neuroscientific perspective, a brand study doesn't just collect opinions: it seeks to capture the affective memory and the implicit associations that influence behavior. As Antonio Damasio explains in Descartes' Error, our decisions are largely shaped by somatic markers: emotional signals stemming from our experiences, which often guide our choices unconsciously. Applied to branding, this means that a logo, a slogan, or a lived experience can trigger lasting emotional responses, whether positive or negative.
In this sense, only measuring self-reported data (what people say) is incomplete. The challenge is to connect rational data (e.g., awareness) with emotional data (e.g., trust, attachment), in order to build a robust and coherent brand image. This dual approach allows for long-term brand management, ensuring it remains relevant, loved, and memorable.
An effective brand study is structured around three inseparable pillars: image, identity and awareness. Each provides a complementary understanding of a brand's perception and position in the public's mind.
Thebrand image refers to the mental representation consumers have of a company, product, or service. It is built over time through lived experiences, received communication, and direct or indirect interactions.
A strong and positive image acts as a cognitive shortcut (Kahneman, System 1/System 2), allowing consumers to make quick decisions without analyzing all parameters. Conversely, a degraded image creates a negative bias that hinders conversion, even in the presence of rational arguments.
Thebrand identity is the vision the company wants to project: its values, positioning, and visual and verbal universe. It's an internally defined framework, often formalized in a brand charter.
The discrepancy between intended identity and perceived image is a critical signal. It reveals either a communication problem or a lack of consistency in the customer experience. Neurosciences show that perceived inconsistency activates brain areas associated with uncertainty and distrust, which reduces trust and engagement.
Brand awareness measures the degree of brand recognition. It comes in several levels:
• Unaided awareness : the ability to name the brand without assistance
• Aided awareness : the recognition of the brand when it is presented in a list
• Top of mind : the first brand that comes to mind in a given category
These levels reflect not only visibility, but also the mental presence of the brand. Strong and positive awareness is a major competitive advantage, as it directly influences the likelihood of choice in quick purchase situations.
By combining these three components, brand research allows for the creation of a comprehensive mapping of a brand's position, both conscious and unconscious, in the minds of its audiences. This 360° vision serves as the basis for any optimization strategy.
Before the integration of neuroscience into marketing studies, companies used (and still use) traditional methods to measure brand perception. These approaches are based on the collection of declarative data and statistical analysis.
The quantitative surveys allow for measuring awareness, image, and satisfaction on a large scale, with a representative sample. The qualitative interviews (individual or in focus groups) aim to explore perceptions, expectations, and barriers in more depth.
Advantage: they offer a clear view of trends and expressed opinions.
Limitation: they do not capture implicit reactions or unverbalized emotions, which are nevertheless crucial in purchasing decisions.
These studies measure:
• The recognition of a brand (spontaneous and aided)
• The positive and negative associations linked to it
• Comparison with competing brands
They allow for identifying a brand's relative positioning in its market, but rely on respondents' ability to accurately recall and express their feelings.
Competitive analysis examines:
• The strengths and weaknesses of the brand compared to its rivals
• Perceived differentiating factors
• Repositioning opportunities
It is often complemented by a perceptual mapping, a visual tool that positions brands along two axes (e.g., perceived price / perceived quality). This representation helps visualize available competitive spaces.
These methods provide a solid foundation for understanding brand perception, but they have a major limitation: they do not measure the real emotional impact. As Jennifer S. Lerner et al. demonstrated in Emotion and Decision Making, emotions influence decisions predictably, but they often elude conscious responses. This is why integrating implicit measures has become essential to complement these approaches.
Traditional brand research methods offer valuable insights, but they miss a fundamental reality: the majority of decisions and judgments are formed unconsciously, influenced by cognitive biases and automatic emotional responses. Applied neuroscience in marketing, or the neuromarketing, helps bridge this gap.
The literature review conducted by Oliveira, Guerreiro & Rita (2022) on 469 articles on applied neuroscience in consumer behavior shows that purchasing decisions are strongly influenced by implicit processes related to memory, attention, and emotion.
The authors specifically identify:
• A growing interest in brand memory, as memories associated with a brand influence the likelihood of future purchases.
• The importance of rapid emotional responses, often recorded before the consumer forms a conscious judgment.
• The correlation between emotional valence (positive or negative) and purchase intention, confirming that emotions are more reliable predictors than verbal statements.
Consequently, limiting oneself to declarative surveys amounts to ignoring an essential part of decision determinants. Neuroscientific methods make it possible to capture these early signals and obtain a more accurate picture of the levers that truly trigger action.
Neurosciences make it possible to measure physiological and behavioral signals that reveal the consumer's emotional state:
• Physiological reactions : heart rate, skin conductance, facial micro-expressions
• Eye tracking : attention zones and reading order
• Implicit Association Tests (IAT) : speed of links between concepts and emotions
These data offer an objective reading of emotional engagement and the affective valence (positive or negative) associated with the brand.
Savoie Mont Blanc Agency used Igonogo during events to go beyond traditional questionnaires. Their challenge was to measure the attitude-behavior gap : " capture the gap between the expression of sustainable intentions and the actual actions of vacationers ".
The team explains that the approach has enabled them to move beyond superficial responses and to gain deeper insights, by incorporating implicit factors and the emotional dimension in the analysis.
Business outcome: the tool has won over the field teams and provided "arguments for wider deployment" within the agency, thanks to an experience that was enjoyable and engaging for respondents. Explore the Agence Savoie Mont Blanc case study
By integrating these neuroscientific tools, brand studies no longer merely capture stated perceptions: they map the true emotional experience and allow for the alignment of strategy, communication, and customer experience with what truly drives engagement.
Traditional indicators provide a solid foundation for evaluating overall performance:
• Brand equity (brand equity) : perceived value and differentiation from competitors
• Loyalty and retention rates : proportion of customers who remain loyal to the brand
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) : customers' likelihood to recommend the brand
• Engagement rate : social media interactions, event participation, etc.
These data are easily measurable but don't always tell us why a score goes up or down.
Neuroscience provides complementary measures to evaluate the quality of the emotional connection between the brand and its audience:
• Emotional intensity : strength of the reaction evoked by a message or visual
• Emotional valence : positive or negative direction of this reaction
• Emotional consistency : alignment between the intended identity and the emotion actually perceived
These indicators allow us to know not only if the brand makes an impression, but how and in what way it does so.
Regular monitoring over time allows for:
• Identifying changes in perception
• Detecting micro-trends before they become major problems
• Evaluating the impact of a campaign or strategic change
The work of Lerner et al. (Emotion and Decision Making) show that emotions influence not only immediate decisions, but also memory and future judgments. Tracking emotional KPIs over time therefore makes it possible to anticipate behavioral changes, long before business metrics shift.
By combining Marketing KPIs and emotional KPIs, brands have a comprehensive dashboard that illuminates both tangible performance and the strength of the emotional connection with their audiences.
Nothing beats looking at examples to understand how a brand study can transform a company's strategy. Here are three scenarios illustrating the complementarity between traditional approaches and neuroscience.
A high-end ready-to-wear brand observes a decrease in its customer retention rate. The classic brand study reveals maintained brand awareness but an erosion of perceived image regarding the “exclusivity” dimension.
The integration of emotional measurements (eye-tracking and facial analysis) shows that the new graphic charter generates fewer positive emotions among long-standing customers. Reverting to visual codes more aligned with the initial DNA helps restore the original sense of rarity and increase customer retention.
A major retail chain wants to test the effectiveness of a TV commercial. Self-reported results are good, but neuro analysis (micro-expressions and implicit tests) reveals an emotional disconnect : the humorous images made people smile, but diverted attention from the key message.
By adjusting the editing to strengthen the consistency between humor and product promise, the brand improved ad recall and purchase intent.
In this project, the goal was to understand the gap between customers' expressed interest in a topic and their actual action. As Fabian Flammang explains:
"We particularly wanted to measure the importance of eco-responsibility among our customers, because we had the impression that the general public was somewhat uninterested in it. It's a widely discussed topic that's gaining importance, but we struggled to measure customers' real engagement and their propensity to act."
Thanks to implicit and emotional measurements, the study helped to:
"determine customers' expectations regarding eco-responsibility, to find out if they expected more information, more offers, and to understand the true importance they placed on it."
The Flammang Fabian Travel client case study clearly illustrates that stated intentions are not always enough to predict actual behavior, and that emotional analysis can reveal the true propensity to act.
These examples show that brand research enriched by neuroscience not only allows us to measure, but above all, explain and optimize perception. It becomes a strategic management tool rather than a simple barometer.
Before any data collection, it is essential to know what you want to measure:
• Evaluate brand awareness in a specific market
• Diagnose a gap between image and identity
• Measure theimpact of a campaign
• Monitor theevolution of perception over several years
This step helps choose the right indicators and avoid scattered efforts.
Combining both approaches allows for:
• Understanding deep motivations
• Detecting inconsistencies between stated claims and behavior
• Identifying the most effective emotional levers
Once data is collected, its utilization should not be limited to a PDF report. Emotional insights can guide:
• The choice of visuals and communication tone
• Competitive positioning
• Optimizing the customer experience (online and offline)
By directly influencing the emotional triggers, the brand can strengthen its differentiation and build more lasting loyalty.
For a long time, brand studies relied on the implicit assumption that consumers were rational decision-makers, objectively weighing pros and cons before making a choice. This view, inherited from the model of thehomo economicus, is now largely contradicted by cognitive science and neuroscience.
The work of Antonio Damasio, Jennifer Lerner, and other researchers has shown that our decisions are inseparable from our emotions. We don't decide despite our feelings, but thanks to them : they filter information, direct our attention, and influence our preferences long before we are consciously aware of it.
Consequently, a brand study that ignores this emotional dimension provides only a partial, sometimes misleading, picture of reality. Classic approaches, focused on self-reported data, reveal what customers think say. Neuroscientific approaches reveal what they truly feel.
By combining these two dimensions, we gain a 360° view of brand health, enabling us to:
• Identify weak signals before they become threats
• Identify the most powerful emotional levers
• Align identity, communication, and experience with what truly drives engagement
At a time when markets are evolving rapidly and competition often hinges on a few seconds of attention, integrating emotion into brand research is no longer an option: it's a strategic imperative.
Are you looking to uncover true emotions in your brand research?
Discover how during a demo of our intuitive software
Candice François
Co-founder Igonogo – PhD in Psychology and Cognitive Sciences
.png)
%20(1).png)
.png)