Peter Noel Murray, PhD - Founder / CEO - EFM Discovery
My exposure to the question of “How Behavior Happens” began early in my business career when I worked
as a marketing executive on national and international consumer brands - for companies which today
(as a result of mergers and acquisitions) are known as the Kraft Heinz Company and Colgate Mennen.
My experience taught me that the worldwide marketing community holds the view that the greatest influence on consumers’ purchase of their brands are the rational factors of product claims, product features, and data-driven arguments. In the context of this experience, I pursued doctoral and postdoc in psychology and neuroscience, focusing on how emotions, feelings, and meanings create and determine behavior.
Psychology and neuroscience answer the question of ‘how behavior happens’ - in our complex multifaceted world that question takes a wide range of specific forms, such as:
‘How does purchase ‘behavior happen’ for a new designer collection in luxury apparel categories?’
‘How does non-adherent ‘behavior happen’ by patients who have been prescribed medications?’
‘How does trial and purchase ‘behavior happen’ a new product in the food category?’
‘Why are trial juries fequently more influenced by the psychological and emotional meaning of a legal case than the facts?’
To gain a more in-depth understanding of ‘how behavior happens’, I embarked on a post-doc study program, in which I studied with several noted psychologists who were working at the intersection of psychology and neuroscience. With them, I developed the EFM methodology which was designed to capture the full range of emotions, feelings, and meanings that create and shape behavior.
For over twenty years I have been conducting EFM Discovery studies for leading US and international companies in categories that include: pharmaceuticals, advertising agencies, financial services, consumer products, publishing, retailers, electronics and technology, non-profit organizations, luxury categories, Insurance, telecommunications, travel, political candidates, ,and others.
EFM Discovery Team - includes professionals with academic and professional backgrounds in psychology, communication, research, and creative development.