I was pleased to discover yesterday that Southwest Airlines has taken top honors as "most desired brand" in a recent study, published today in Forbes Magazine.
The study, put out by a neuromarketing firm named "Buyology," is rather unique, in that it uses a technique called "latency response" to garner results. The method, in essence, makes the subject choose quickly before conscious thought takes place. The milliseconds of delay before each choice gauge the difficulty of the choice, essentially evaluating non-conscious preferences. 4,000 subjects were used to evaluate 220 diverse brands.
This particular query was conducted in the first week of February, starting after the Super Bowl, so the results are very fresh. Both men and women were tested separately (yet we still took top honors among both).
Men's Top Five:
1. Southwest Airlines
2. Cadillac
3. BMW
4. Dove
5. Bed Bath & Beyond
Women's Top Five:
1. Southwest Airlines
2. Google
3. Hallmark
4. Dove
5. JetBlue
It's a popular myth that we only use a small portion of our brains (10% - 20%, depending on which subscribing party is asked). By scientific definition, your brain is a thinking organ that learns and grows by interacting with the perception and action. I suppose a person's brain also could be seen as a type of air traffic control. Whatever the case, recall is a powerful thing. And we should all be proud to know that Southwest Airlines is, by a large margin, the first thing both men and women think of when asked about great companies.
