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Brand Desire

Spark Customer Interest Using Emotional Insights

Turn emotional insight into a competitive advantage to develop a brand strategy that deepens brand engagement and loyalty.

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EAN: 9781398621046

Edition: 1

Published: 03 Jul 2025

Format: 234 x 156

264 pages

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About the book

How can leaders use emotional insight to deliver lasting brand growth?

Brand Desire is a strategic playbook for senior executives who want proven tools for building brands that achieve measurable results by putting emotional intelligence at the center of decision-making. Written by brand strategy expert Kevin Perlmutter, it combines data-led insight, behavioral science and practical frameworks to help leaders design strategies that outperform traditional approaches.

Drawing on interviews and examples from diverse organizations including AT&T Performing Arts Center, Sundless, Rise, Scratch Event DJs, ServiceByte, and Blue Ridge, as well as emotionally intelligent brands like Lemonade Insurance, Trader Joe's, Zappos, Cutco, Bose, and Ben & Jerry's, it offers evidence-backed models for creating stronger customer connections and unlocking sustainable growth.

You will learn how to:
- Align brand strategy with emotional drivers that influence buying decisions
- Apply behavioural science to strengthen brand positioning and differentiation
- Build governance models that ensure consistent, customer-focused execution
- Measure ROI and track impact through data-led performance metrics

With strategic models, real-world examples and actionable tools, Brand Desire equips leaders to inspire loyalty, safeguard brand equity and deliver growth in an evolving market.

Themes include: brand strategy, emotional intelligence, governance, behavioural science, ROI, leadership in marketing

About the authors

Kevin Perlmutter is Chief Strategist and Founder of Limbic Brand Evolution, a brand strategy consultancy which puts emotional insight at the center of how brands attract and retain customers. Based near New York City, NY he works with business and brand leaders to create stronger connections between their brand and the people they want to reach. Throughout Kevin's 30+ year career, including his time as Senior Director of Brand Strategy at Interbrand, he's worked with dozens of top global and regional brands in various roles and has consistently guided the development of more effective methods for brand evolution and engagement.

Kevin Perlmutter

Section - ONE: Feel
- Chapter - 01: Evolving Brand Strategy
- Chapter - 02: Shifting from “About Us” to “For You”: AT&T Performing Arts Center Case Study
Section - TWO: Focus
- Chapter - 03: Discovering Emotional Insights
- Chapter - 04: Finding a Durable Competitive Advantage: Sundless Case Study
Section - THREE: Connect
- Chapter - 05: Developing Brand Benefits & Invitations
- Chapter - 06: Turning Customers into Heroes: Blue Ridge Case Study
Section - FOUR: Evolve
- Chapter - 07: Designing Brand Expression & Experiences
- Chapter - 08: Amplifying the Most Compelling Brand Benefits: Scratch Event DJs Case Study
- Chapter - 09: Differentiating on Brand Experience: ServiceByte Case Study
Section - FIVE: Lead
- Chapter - 10: Revealing Emotional Insights with Research
- Chapter - 11: Championing Customer Centricity
- Chapter - 12: Sustaining Ongoing Brand Evolution: Rise Case Study
- Chapter - 13: Embracing Your Limbic Sparks Mindset
Section - SIX: Glossary

Reviews

Paco Underhill, Global Best-Selling Author of Why We Buy

Branding, like Retail, is in a constant evolution-Kevin Perlmutter gives us 21st century coaching.

Flavia Barbat, Editor-in-Chief at Brandingmag

Kevin is a thought leader you can trust. Recognizing our industry's need for experts who do more than identify strategic gaps, he offers the practical guidance to fix them by openly detailing his entire approach to more effective branding. I'm among his biggest supporters because he's honest and willing-qualities I look for in the people who I listen to and learn from.

Dominik Prinz-Barley, Head of Brand at Google

This book shines a light on one of the most powerful (and most overlooked) principles in marketing: Only if you truly understand what moves people and their behavior can you be a builder of great brands and businesses. Brand Desire reveals precisely how to act on this simple and timeless human truth.

Stephan Gans, SVP, Chief Consumer Insights and Analytics Officer at PepsiCo

Perlmutter's Brand Desire insightfully catapults brand strategy into a new era-one that evolves from persuasion-based approaches to creating meaningful connections rooted in the emotional drivers of customer decisions.

Nancy Harhut, Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer at HBT Marketing, and Author of Using Behavioral Science in Marketing

The smart, new way to spark brand desire. Perlmutter reveals exactly how any brand, big or small, B2B or B2C, can identify and implement emotional insights to refine their strategy for attracting customers. Brand Desire is an indispensable compass for marketers, as well as brand and business leaders.

Barry Martin, Branding Consultant and Adjunct Professor of Consumer Behavior at New York University

This book is a masterclass in unlocking the emotional drivers of consumer behavior-offering insight and inspiration far beyond any textbook. Perlmutter blends human understanding and real-world application with clarity and heart. He outlines an intuitive and practical guide for creating emotionally intelligent brand strategies. Brand Desire is now on my consumer behavior class reading list because it captures what students need to understand most.

Craig Albright, Chief Executive Officer at Valera Health

Perlmutter's Limbic Sparks approach is unique, and helped my company evolve our branding to better connect with the underlying emotions of our most important stakeholders. Whether you're a branding veteran steeped in marketing and behavioral science, or an executive looking to strengthen brand credibility and relevance to your customers, Brand Desire simplifies the process with real world examples that translate to practical application in organizations.

Dr. Jez Frampton, Adjunct Professor at University of Westminster London Business School, and Former Global Chief Executive Officer at Interbrand

In an age of influencers and exponential messaging, brand clarity and emotional resonance is ever more important. Great brands have always captured our hearts and Perlmutter's approach forces us to seek deep customer insights, while embracing the science of emotion, to accelerate sparks of connection.

Rajiv Pancholy, Global Chief Executive Officer and Brand Practitioner

Brand Desire shares clear direction that will enable any CEO to uncover blind spots in their brand strategy. These are not just conjectures or ideas-rather, actionable pillars of brand management that I've found to be indispensable in steering organizations internally, so that the brand delivers the best possible experience for customers externally.

Michelle Niedziela PhD, Neuroscientist and Behavioral Science Consultant at Nerdoscientist

Perlmutter's focus on aligning the emotional motivations of customers and brands is a great reminder of what really drives successful branding. His Focus-Connect-Evolve model adds structure to emotion-centric branding, echoing key principles in behavioral science. Reading it was a joy and even made me reflect on how emotion shows up in my own work.

Della Mathew, Executive Creative Director at 22Squared, formerly with Ogilvy NY, Arnold Worldwide NY, and Publicis NY

As a creative lead, I know that there's nothing more frustrating than being challenged to create effective marketing with a less than helpful brief. Kevin's Limbic Sparks approach to understanding the who reminds us that emotional impact is often why people respond and remain loyal to a brand. It's those nuggets of customer understanding that feel like a secret cheat code to elevate the work with emotional storytelling that connects.

Branding, like Retail, is in a constant evolution-Kevin Perlmutter gives us 21st century coaching.
Paco Underhill, Global Best-Selling Author of Why We Buy

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