The Elephant in the Room

My friend, Noah Brier, came over for a visit this morning and we got to talking about Brand Tags, the tool he built as an experiment in commercial word association. If you haven’t checked it out, it’s here

, and it’s addictive.

Brand Tags is profound in its simplicity. There is a refreshing lack of scientific rigor. You don’t have to log in, identify yourself, or offer any information that a marketer might use to qualify responses (gender, age, education, etc.). You aren’t given any instruction for how to generate your response other than the most basic: What is the first thing that pops into your head? (A word or phrase please… there are no wrong answers).

What you get is unadulterated word association–which some believe is a key to unlocking (or at least unearthing) subconscious associations. Marketers love subconscious associations. If you agree with Carl Jung that people connect ideas, feelings, experiences and information by way of associations, then the exploration of the collected responses of many, many people is in a way a glimpse of the collective unconscious with regards to a particular brand. Continue Reading »