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The Certainty Principle

By Robert Passikoff, Ph.D. and Amy Shea

Read An Excerpt

"Call it brand psychotherapy. Dr. Robert Passikoff has been asking thousands of consumers for decades to talk about their favorite brands. The Certainty Principle has culled together years of insights to help marketers understand what engages consumers and drives behavior. Considering people's tastes can change faster than a teen can triple tap a text message, such bits of wisdom might just help keep marketers from going insane."

—Kenneth Hein, News Editor, Brandweek

"Consumer engagement" may be the most used phrase of this new marketing century, yet brands still struggle with how to define it, let alone actually achieve it.

But any definition needs a starting point, and the Ideal for any product or service, the consumers' core of the world of brands, is where certain understanding of loyalty and engagement begins. As this book shows, properly measured, the category Ideal and how brands measure up against that Ideal is predictive of consumer behavior – 9 to 18 months before it shows up in the marketplace.

In this book you will find validated case studies demonstrating how measuring the consumer's Ideal can be the most valuable benchmark you can have — far exceeding any average of past performance, no matter how specific. And once you know the Ideal, you will know for certain what consumers think – as opposed to what they say they think – how they view the category in which you compete and how they will behave toward your brand. You will be able to predictively measure any marketing or communication effort: your brand, your brand in combination with various media platforms, programs or touch points, sponsorships, events, co-branding opportunities, and any brand advertising or marketing communication.

Any brand, no matter the size, can profit from understanding the central principle behind the case studies in this book: that only a deep, consumer-generated understanding of what creates customer loyalty and engagement will take brands profitably into the future. Innovation — whether technical or theoretical — is far easier to support and manage when the brand knows with absolute certainty what is important to the consumer, what the consumer really expects, and where the brand will get the greatest ROI.

Real-world examples like Starbucks, Dove, Apple, Target – even Barack Obama – bring the dynamics of engagement into sharp relief, and offer a validated road map of how to guarantee profits in today's ever-more-challenging consumer engagement marketplace.

Praise for The Certainty Principle

Robert Passikoff is my fellow warrior in the fight against creeping commoditization in Brandworld. Anything he writes is worth reading.

–Jack Trout, Brand Guru

Passikoff's and Shea's new book is crucial for any marketer focused on ROI.

–Joe Plummer, Ph.D., Professor of Marketing, Columbia University School of Business

Brand Keys provides the most actionable metrics I've ever worked with.

–Catherine Gordon, SVP, Marketing, Wall Street Journal Office Network

Brand Keys is what all customer research should be: simple, intuitive, elegant, and above all predictive of success.

–Mark Loughney, Vice President, Sales & Strategy Research, ABC TV Network

Amy Shea is a brilliant researcher and a real thought leader in the science of brands. This is a game-changing perspective on brands that can help you to craft a new, more effective template for improving brand equity.

–Craig S. Boaz, Market Research Manager, Bob Evans Farms

More confirmation that Robert Passikoff is right!

–Don E. Schultz, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus-in-Service, Northwestern University

Click here to read an excerpt from The Certainty Principle.

Buy The Certainty Principle Now

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