Taming the Elephant: Why Emotional Branding Wins!

My previous blog discussed how many agri-marketers still believe (or wish) that farmers base their purchase decisions on rational thinking when in reality, emotions play a critical—sometimes even dominant—role. This article digs deeper into the psychology and physiology of human decision making.

As with many advances in agriculture, this understanding is relatively recent. My original undergraduate teachings in the 80’s didn’t even mention Behavioral Economics. I first started thinking seriously about the relationship between emotion and logic after learning the story of Phineas Gage—a 19th-century railroad worker whose prefrontal lobe was destroyed in a construction accident. With the emotional centers of his brain compromised, Gage didn’t become more rational. In fact, the opposite happened: he lost the ability to make even simple decisions. His case showed early evidence that emotion is essential, not optional, in human decision-making.

More recent research in psychology and behavioral economics prove that human decision-making is not just rational but deeply influenced by emotion. One of the most influential books on this topic, Thinking, Fast and Slow by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, explains why.

Kahneman describes two modes of thinking:

· System 1 (Fast Thinking): Intuitive, automatic, and emotional. It operates without conscious effort, forming instant impressions and making snap decisions.

· System 2 (Slow Thinking): Deliberate, logical, and effortful. It processes complex information and scrutinizes choices carefully.

A helpful way to picture this dynamic comes from social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, who uses the metaphor of the rider and the elephant. The elephant represents System 1—large, powerful, and emotionally driven—while the rider symbolizes System 2—the smaller, rational part that tries to guide the elephant. The rider can tug at the reins and attempt to steer, but if the elephant decides to charge in a different direction, there’s little the rider can do. In other words, our rational mind may think it’s in control, but more often than not, it's just along for the ride. And just like in real life, the elephant usually goes where it wants—leaving the rider to explain the journey afterward.

Farmers, like all people, rely on the elephant (System 1) most of the time—up to 95% of daily cognitive activity. It helps them react quickly, recognize patterns, and make decisions efficiently, but it’s also subject to biases and shortcuts and influences that operate below our level of consciousness.

Why Emotion Shapes Brand Choices

System 1 doesn’t just process data; it creates narratives based on limited information. This means that brand familiarity, gut feelings, and emotional associations strongly influence decisions—often more than the cold, hard facts. Overall, System 1 thinking is deeply rooted in the cultural norms, upbringing, and personal experiences that shape an individual's worldview and intuitive responses.

Two key concepts from Kahneman’s work explain why:

WYSIATI (What You See Is All There Is): People make decisions based on the information immediately available to them, rather than seeking out all possible facts. The Elephant is primed to make a decision immediately and rationalize the decision later! If your brand (or positioning) isn’t top-of-mind when a farmer is making a decision, you’re already at a disadvantage.

Heuristics (Mental Shortcuts): The Elephant relies on quick decision-making rules, such as:

· Affect Heuristic: If a brand “feels right,” it must be the right choice.

· Availability Heuristic: If a brand is familiar or memorable, it seems more trustworthy and relevant.

The Implications for Agri-Marketers

1. Brand Familiarity and Sense of Connection Attracts the Elephant

Farmers, like all buyers, often go with the brand that comes to mind first. The one they feel a connection with. Brand anthropologist Dr. Robert Duetsch says that “a brand helps me to explain to myself and the world around me, who I am and what I stand for”. This is the emotional connection that we as marketers are striving for, and it requires a deep understanding of your customers motivations.

Many brands leverage this brilliantly—think Apple or John Deere, which evoke strong emotional connections. Even in B2B and agriculture, emotional attachment to brands drives loyalty and purchase behavior.

2. The Rider (System 2) Still Matters—Don’t Ignore Logic

While emotion drives many decisions, expensive or high-stakes purchases (like machinery or inputs) often trigger System 2 thinking. Farmers will scrutinize details, compare specs, and look at ROI – but this scrutinizing is happening where the elephant is still in the background—shaping what the rider pays attention to and how they interpret it.

This means agri-marketers must appeal to both systems:

• Use emotion-driven marketing to attract the Elephant and create strong brand preference and top-of-mind awareness (System 1).

• Support it with solid data, product benefits, and logical reasoning when the farmer (Rider) takes a deeper look (System 2).

In our previous work at Quarry (now MarketBridge), and more recently here at CentricEngine, we have found that there are consistent patterns among farmers System 1 thinking that agri-marketers can take advantage of in order to build narratives around their brands. Our research showed that farmers may be grouped or segmented by their natural System 1 response to certain situations such as problems that need to be solved or opportunities (innovations) that could be considered. Understanding these Stances in the context of your brands could provide a way to breakthrough with messaging and I will talk more about this in an upcoming article.

The Bottom Line

Farmers don’t make decisions in a purely rational vacuum. Like everyone else, they rely on instinct, familiarity, and emotion to simplify choices. Brands that harness this reality—by balancing emotional storytelling with rational justification and winning over the Elephant And the Rider —will have the edge in agri-marketing.

Share your thoughts in the comments, and stay tuned for our next post, where we’ll talk about the importance of and how to find the best emotional drivers for your brand. If you want to take 15 minutes to discuss some options on working together - let’s arrange a time - contact Maurice at maurice.allin@centricengine.com.