Human beings are powered by emotion, not by reason. "The essential differences between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action, while reason leads to conclusions" - Donald Calne.

Primary emotions. These are emotions that can be felt alone. They are very intense and cannot be controled:
* Joy
* Sorrow
* Anger
* Fear
* Surprise
* Disgust

Secondary emotions combine head with heart. These require another person around before they can be worked up:
* Love
* Guilt
* Shame
* Pride
* Envy
* Jealousy

.. and the greatest of these is love ...1 Cor 13:13

I've been reading Kevin Roberts blog recently http://krconnect.blogspot.com (he's the CEO of of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide). He's a very smart man who has learned a lot about marketing/how people tick.
Today I picked up a copy of his book Lovemarks. Over the next week, I plan to blog a few thoughts about it as I read.

To start here a few quotes:
* "Women wear clothes to make them feel good and to feel sexy. Women turn themselves on. Men like to look at women be turned on-to feel sexy is too know you're alive."

A few months ago I read the book "No Logo" by Naomi Klein (http://www.naomiklein.org/no-logo) which was recommended to me by a number of friends. The book was very insitefull. N. Klein is a very insightful cultural exogite and has a firm understanding on the role marketing and branding has on the human psychie. Before reading this book, I didn't have much time for advertising or branding - dismising it on the assumption that branding is merely a tool (amongst many) to sell stuff.