Brand Science: How we tie pleasure, rewards, and our mood to brand experiences

Source: Adobe Stock by Irina Strelnikova

We are designed to crave experiences. We spend our lives shaping our brains into masterful tools for understanding our desires, motivations, and meaning as it applies to our chosen interests, relationships with others, and the decisions we make. We observe, test, create, and learn new things all to experience satisfaction on some level; it’s simply part of our human nature. In this 3-part series, I’ll go through the science behind great brand experiences, why we love or hate them, and why we become attached and loyal to certain brands. 

You’ve likely heard of the “happy hormones” before, yes? Maybe not referred to in that exact way but these brain chemicals: Dopamine, Serotonin, and Oxytocin are responsible for influencing our mood and well-being, inspiring connection, boosting attentiveness and excitement, and feeling love. These messenger hormones are tied to experiences that we either create ourselves or participate in like physical activity, social interactions, listening to music, or any self-gratifying activity we choose to enjoy. Any time we experience pleasure, reward, a boost of energy, or an excitable moment of joy, we are firing up these neurotransmitters and forming connections in our brains that we use as markers to remember positive experiences. 

The key factor here is if we understand what makes us (and our audiences) happy, we can create brand experiences that match, creating a scientifically backed association between what we do and positive pleasure and reward feelings in others. While this may seem like an effort to manipulate market interest, it’s actually in support of learning how to create wildly entertaining, engaging, and memorable brand experiences that others enjoy. When you focus on creating a great experience, the less you have to worry about selling or explaining what you do; the experience sells itself and you end up with happier people and a loyal following.

For the first part of the series, we’ll focus on Dopamine and Serotonin specifically and how they impact the way we experience brands. 

Let’s start with a quick explanation of what dopamine and serotonin are and what they are responsible for …

Dopamine is both a neurotransmitter (aka a messenger) and a hormone. It is responsible for heightening our senses during peak moments of stress or pleasure, grabbing our attention, and aiding us in interpreting our emotional responses to any given experience. The level of dopamine we release ultimately controls how we feel, how we’re motivated, and how we maintain emotional balance in our lives. 

Serotonin is similar, as it is both a neurotransmitter and a hormone; however, it is produced in both the brain and the intestines. It is responsible for maintaining our mood and emotional regulation as well as providing us with sound sleep and overall gut health. The levels of serotonin we release in our bodies directly influence our ability to feel happiness, calmness, and satisfaction in our lives.

Even with this cliff notes style summary of dopamine and serotonin, I’m sure you can see the cause-and-effect relationship that forms between our external experiences and how our brains process them.

So how does this cause-and-effect relationship tie into our interest and ability to experience brands?

Smart brands start with a strong foundation built on their purpose, values, principles, and audience aims. In defining these key brand goals (and many others) up front, they’re able to determine who they are, how they fit in the market and collectively embody the personality (or archetype) that will best resonate with their audience and deliver an experience that matches. 

If you study the behavior of your audience and understand their tendencies and interests, then you can create a brand experience that satisfies their happy hormonal makeup. When experiences positively influence our neurological responses, we lean towards brand loyalty and develop preferences for one brand over another in a similar space. Brands can do this by testing and studying their audience's behavior through various customer experience touchpoints, experiential marketing techniques, and many other sensory-driven experiences.

Determining how they perceive brands, what they enjoy, and ultimately how they want to be engaged, says a lot about the type of experience a brand should be delivering. The more you know about your audience, the more opportunity you have to reach and leave your mark on them.

Here are three potential ways brands can leverage an understanding of dopamine and serotonin to create impactful brand experiences:

• Create positive emotional connections. Dopamine is associated with feelings of pleasure and reward while serotonin is a mood stabilizer, making the combination of the two entirely synergistic when it comes to crafting positive brand experiences. Think heartfelt and highly relatable storytelling, surprise incentives and rewards, and aspirational brand campaigns. These neurotransmitters work in tandem as humans experience motivating, emotionally moving, highly memorable experiences. Creating positive associations with your brand can increase memory recall, loyalty, and word-of-mouth fans within your market.

• Build in anticipation and surprise. The phrase “pleasantly surprised” definitely applies here. Brands can entice their audiences through teaser campaigns, exclusive experiential events, limited edition releases, and aesthetically pleasing, interactive packaging. Basically, anything that triggers anticipation and requires active participation can entertain them and grab their attention, which will undeniably increase levels of dopamine and serotonin in association with any brand experience. 

• Support social or environmental causes. Serotonin levels can also increase when individuals engage in prosocial behavior. Brands that align themselves with meaningful social or environmental causes and actively contribute to them can evoke positive emotions in others. Associating with a higher purpose creates a more profound and positive brand experience and gives your audience an opportunity to give back, peaking their serotonin levels and satisfying their emotional well-being. 

These strategies are not intended to manipulate or misguide audiences and should be implemented ethically and genuinely. Attempting to manipulate brain chemicals solely for marketing purposes without delivering authentic value to others can lead to backlash, a damaged brand reputation, and not to mention, the moral ickiness that comes with it. It’s incredibly exhausting trying to be something you’re not, so it’s best to focus on authentically connecting who you are with your chosen strategy.

The goal should be to create meaningful and positive experiences that resonate with your target audience on a deeper level. In order to do that, we need to spend some time understanding the science behind what inspires a person to enjoy certain brand experiences before just creating them. Focusing on what brings them joy, happiness, and excitement is without a doubt a great place to start.