The Power of Instinct

Award-winning Fortune 500 brand consultant and behavioral expert Leslie Zane shatters conventional marketing wisdom, showing readers how to tap into the hidden brain where instinct prevails, creating a powerful network of connections that drive people to buy your product, company, or vision.

People don't make decisions with their conscious mind, but on instinct. In The Power of Instinct, marketing consultant and behavioral science expert Leslie Zane shows that to grow a brand, business, or even a social movement, traditional persuasion tactics fall short. Instead, you must connect to the instinctive mind. And to do this, you need to understand the science of consumer choice and employ techniques that work with a person's brain, not against it.

Zane uncovers the hidden network of connections that dictates the snap decisions we make and cracks the code on how to influence it. With a revolutionary set of rules for expanding the network, Zane shows us how to make any brand, business, political candidate, or idea the dominant instinctive choice. With science as your guide, as well as stories from the world's most successful brands from McDonald's and Lululemon to the Yankees and Taylor Swift, you'll learn:

- What kind of messages create the greatest amount of positive associations;

- Why finding new customers accelerates growth and relying on existing ones is a trap;

- Why emotional stories are not enough to drive trial and long-term brand loyalty.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, Fortune 500 executive, marketing professional, or job seeker, mastering the power of instinct will help supercharge your growth and make whatever you're selling the first choice for any audience.

"The key to successful corporate messaging...useful advice."
--Wall Street Journal
"If you enjoyed Blink by Malcolm Gladwell and Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, this book is another game-changer that will immediately change how you think and act. Whether you're a start-up founder, growth-oriented CMO, seasoned CEO, or anyone seeking to move your priorities forward, The Power of Instinct will help you unlock the untapped potential of the instinctive mind."--Jim Citrin, leader, Spencer Stuart Board and CEO Practice, and bestselling author of You're in Charge, Now What?
"A compelling blend of behavioral science and marketing strategy, this book is a must-read for anyone aiming to create lasting business and brand success."--Michael Platt, director, Wharton Neuroscience Initiative, and author of The Leader's Brain
"A groundbreaking work that illuminates the hidden influences that drive our instinctive decisions and the formula for consistent financial success. It's a playbook for success in business and life."--Farnoosh Torabi, host, So Money, and author of A Healthy State of Panic
"A masterclass in understanding and leveraging the instinctive mind, this book dismantles traditional notions of consumer behavior and persuasion. Invaluable for CMOs and any leader navigating the future of marketing."--Raja Rajamannar, CMO, Mastercard, and bestselling author of Quantum Marketing
"This is not your average marketing book--it's a brain-bending, rule-breaking manifesto that challenges norms and shifts your perspective on the science of persuasion and influence."--Jonah Berger, professor, Wharton and bestselling author of The Catalyst
"Zane cracks the code on human decision-making by showing us how to bypass the conscious mind and create a lightning bolt to your business. This is the must-read marketing book of the decade."--Linda Kaplan Thaler, Advertising Hall of Fame, founder of the Kaplan Thaler Group, and bestselling coauthor of The Power of Nice and Grit to Great
"Zane's Growth Triggers(R) approach was instrumental in revolutionizing our brand strategy during my tenure as CMO at Aetna. It not only shaped our brand positioning and messaging but guided our prioritization of investments in customer experience--resulting in significant enhancements in market share and satisfaction levels. Reading Zane's book now underscored the universal applicability of these techniques to foster extraordinary business growth across industries."--David Edelman, professor, Harvard Business School, and former CMO, Aetna

Leslie Zane is an award-winning marketer, TEDx speaker and the foremost authority in harnessing the instinctive mind to accelerate brand and business growth.

Like many pioneers, Zane's ideas were dismissed early on. In 1995, she founded Triggers , the first brand consulting firm rooted in behavioral science, where she continued to champion the primacy of the instinctive mind in brand decisions.

With her groundbreaking discoveries in boosting salience, the Brand Connectome and Growth Triggers , Zane and her team have delivered over $20bb in incremental revenue growth for their Fortune 100 clients. Today, Triggers' strategies are evident in diverse fields from consumer-packaged goods, health care and insurance to fighting racism and anti-Semitism, showcasing its versatility.

An alumna of Yale, Harvard Business School and Bain & Company, Zane is a recipient of the Congressional Women of Distinction and the Ogilvy Award. In 2021, she coined the term "Covid-stasis" forecasting the pandemic's lasting psychological and behavioral effects. Zane has been published in Knowledge@Wharton, Harvard Business Review, World Economic Forum, Newsweek and Ad Age among others. Zane is a board member of El Centro Hispano, the leading non-profit empowering Hispanic immigrants with skills to thrive in the United States.

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