How do you
reveal what’s hidden
in your customer’s mind?

At OZA, we dig deep below the surface to uncover connections between knowledge, past experiences and perceptions. Once revealed, we help our clients use these insights to gain competitive advantage in the global marketplace.

In recent years, science has progressed rapidly in its understanding of human behavior and decision-making. At OZA, these advances form the foundation of all our work. A few key premises include:

• 95% of our thoughts and feelings are unconscious. These hidden experiences shape decision-making and behavior.
• Meaning is not “injected” into consumers. Rather, consumers’ prior meanings in memory (beliefs, past experiences, implicit and explicit attitudes) influence their interpretations of ads, companies or brands. This process is known as co-creation.

• Words are not the same as thoughts. Thoughts are activations of neural networks, which words cannot completely describe. Knowing the difference between words and thoughts is essential for going beyond what consumers say to discover what they mean.
• Thinking and emotion are largely expressed metaphorically. We use metaphors to understand our experiences, and to express and explain how we feel. Some metaphors are obvious, but they are only the surface expressions of hidden patterns underlying human thought. These patterns, called deep metaphors, are fundamental categories of human experience that shape everyday decision-making. For example, the saying “time is money” expresses a deeper understanding that like money, time is a valuable resource that can be squandered, saved, horded or given to others.

To learn more about these foundational principles, please contact us, or refer to the readings section of this website.