I am a great admirer of Kevin Roberts, Saatchi & Saatchi's worldwide CEO, and his "Lovemarks" recommendations for creating "loved" brands (check out saatchikevin.com and lovemarks.com). But in my view his record has a major blemish - he has joined the ad agency protectorate which seeks to deny us market researchers space at the top table.

This is because he sees us as vampires and co-conspirators with brand managers in stifling the ad agencies' or, less often, the brand owners' "big ideas". Put simply, he's suggesting that only ad agencies (by which, of course, means Saatchi's) and a few brand owners such as Lego, Zippo and Harley-Davidson, really understand the power of emotions and how to tap into them.

Does he expect us to simply sit back and accept our place below the salt? No way. Having found our inspiration in Giep Franzen and Margot Bouwman's seminal book, The Mental World of Brands, which explains how the brain forms memories and associations, and how to use this knowledge to leverage brands, we've revealed the weak spot in the ad world's supercilious argument and are preparing to fight back.

Yes, agencies know how to recognise and exploit what psychologists call third order "societal" emotions such as greed, pride and jealousy and are shameless in their application of this knowledge. Just look at the ads for Amex and the spookily similar Morgan Stanley Card, and most car ads.

They also know about the power of first order, or hardwired, emotions, such as anger, fear and excitement, as these give them the pretext for either a hard-hitting public service ad or those glossy magazine ads featuring a scantily-clad model draped over the hi-fi.

But what do they know of love and other second order emotions; those behavioural drivers that often exert their power in our subconscious? Very little, I suspect, as neither they nor we, until recently, had the tools or depth of understanding to probe these areas of the mind.

There are a few examples of ads that work at this level, for example the Andrex puppies and Saatchi's "love-based" campaign for the Toyota Yaris. But has the emotion encapsulated by these "ideas" been discovered by lucky accident or by intent? Might I suggest that, more often than not, that it's the former?

So why do I feel we should be in training for the top table? Because I have seen the evidence that we market researchers have the perspicacity, intellect and creativity to see deep into the hearts and minds of consumers - a skill that would appear to be lacking in the ad world, where they only seem to trust their own wisdom and "gut feel".

mick.williamson@trbi.co.uk

Mick Williamson is the creative director of market research company The Research Business International

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