Meet Kevin Perlmutter | Chief Strategist & Founder, Limbic Brand Evolution

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kevin Perlmutter and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kevin, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I’ve always sought out the edge of the frontier, at each phase of my career. Staring Limbic Brand Evolution, a brand strategy and neuromarketing consultancy, as a first time entrepreneur, put me on the edge of yet another frontier to help business and brand leaders have more effective approaches to attracting and retaining customers and driving business growth.

Twelve years earlier, I shifted from advertising to brand consulting as online reviews and social media made it impossible for brands to hide behind good advertising with poor customer experiences. Reality now had the ability to overwhelm perception. While serving as senior director of brand strategy Interbrand, one of the world’s leading brand consultancies, I pushed out the edge of the frontier, creating their first global customer experience practice at the beginning of the customer experience era.

Several years later, I joined a sonic branding music studio, as the sonic branding era was beginning to exponentially grow. In my role as chief strategist and chief innovation officer my internal job description was “Kevin is here to help us do things we’ve never done before.” One mind-opening and soon-to-be life changing part of my work at the studio was creating a proprietary and award-winning research capability, rooted in neuroscience, in collaboration with an outside research partner. We were not only pushing out the edge of the sonic branding frontier, our work shed light on the inextricable link between our instinctive emotional responses and conscious desires and behaviors.

I became fascinated by this correlation between subconscious emotional instincts and conscious consumer behavior. I came to the realization that this undeniable relationship between emotion and desire is fundamental in human behavior, but it’s not insight that most business and brand leaders consider or apply to their work. The commonly understood but often ignored “we buy on emotion and justify with logic” is not woven through the fabric of the traditional brand strategies that guide marketing and customer experiences, and it’s a big, missed opportunity. It became clear to me that traditional brand strategy is in need of a significant evolution.

I decided to launch the next phase of my career, and set out on the next frontier. I launched Limbic Brand Evolution, and I created the Limbic Sparks® brand strategy approach. It puts behavioral science understanding and emotional insight at the center of how brand spark desire.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I love making things better – being curious, connecting the dots in unexpected ways, and setting the foundation of a future that has yet to unfold. As a brand strategist, I often talk with Brand Leaders who also want things to be better. They feel their brand deserves to be better understood and more desired. They want to strengthen connections, simplify complexity, increase engagement, earn loyalty and drive business growth.

I’ve found that the biggest challenge brand leaders face is an over-reliance on traditional brand strategy. Despite good intentions, so much brand activity lacks deep customer understanding and lacks relevance. It’s too focused on what companies do, and not enough on why people should care. There’s too much answering “what’s your why?” and not enough understanding of “who’s your who?”. Too much “about us” and not enough “for you.”

It’s why in 2019 I I launched Limbic Brand Evolution and created the Limbic Sparks® approach to brand strategy. I help business and brand leaders overcome the limitations of traditional brand strategy with an approach that’s rooted in behavioral science, fueled by emotional intelligence, and designed to spark brand desire. I work with business and brand leaders to craft brand strategies that set the foundation for how the brand comes to life through messaging, experiences and product/service offerings. You’re feeling Limbic Sparks when a brand has you at “hello” and you want to keep coming back for more. We create Limbic Sparks by uncovering and standing for the emotional benefits that drive behavior.

There are three core steps to the Limbic Sparks approach:
Focus – Discovering the Shared Emotional Motivation that a brand has in common with the people it serves.
Connect – Strengthening connections with customers by standing for the benefits people care about the most.
Evolve – Creating evolved brand messaging, offerings, and experiences to address how people want to feel, resulting in more relevant and effective brand efforts.

Like any other business and brand leader, my experience in becoming a business owner was not easy. I started with an idea and an ambition to be on the edge of another frontier. I launched the business before I had my first client, and I’ve steadily been building momentum. I’ve grown primarily through relationships and referrals. My biggest inspiration, and a foundational idea that informs how I help my own clients evolve their brands, is from Maya Angelou: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Since launching Limbic, I’ve enjoyed working with dozens of brand leaders who now understand their customers better and strengthen connections in real and relevant ways that spark brand desire.

What’s next for me? I’m going stay curious and keep refining my ideas as new insights emerge. I’m going to continue talking with and being inspired by brand leaders who are driving business growth leverage emotional insight on my Let’s Talk Limbic Sparks podcast. I’ll continue to work with business and brand leaders one-on-one to help them strengthen emotional connections between their brand and the people who they serve. I’m also writing a book that I hope to publish soon, so that more and more business and brand leaders can bring the Limbic Sparks brand strategy approach into their work. No matter where my work takes me, I’ll keep pushing out the edge of the frontier.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m from the New York City area, and have worked in the city most of my career. If a good friend was visiting, I’d suggest spending as little time as possible in the touristy areas – Rockefeller Center, Times Square, etc. I’d suggest enjoying places like Central Park, Union Square and the High Line, wandering neighborhood like SoHo, Dumbo, the Upper East or West Sides and Chelsea. I’d suggest trying great restaurants serving the cuisines that you enjoy most. I’d suggest walking around a lot and taking it all in.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are so many people in my life and career who have mentored and encouraged me on my journey. Specific to the launch of Limbic Brand Evolution, I thank my behavioral science mentors, Joe Sauer and Cyrus McCandless PhD. I also thank Barry Martin for encouraging me to focus the next phase of my career on my unique understanding of how our brain works and the power of our subconscious instinctive emotional responses. I thank Rebeca Arbona, who inspired me to consider the benefits of starting my own business vs. giving away my ideas and insights to an employer. I thank my parents and siblings for their support and encouragement. Most of all, I thank my wife Sarah and my daughters, Emily and Rebecca, for their endless devotion, encouragement and for believing in me.

Website: https://www.limbicbrandevolution.com/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinperlmutter/

Other: https://limbicsparks.substack.com/