Podcast Summary: "Stop Chasing the 'Why': Here's How Real People Actually Buy"

Podcast: Brain Driven Brands
Host: Sarah Levinger
Episode: 125
Date: December 18, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Sarah Levinger and co-host (Nate) tackle a core neuromarketing myth: the obsession with finding a single “why” behind customer purchases. Drawing on their experience with top e-commerce and consumer brands, they argue that real buying decisions are far more situational and multifaceted, shaped by emotions, context, and timing—not just motivation alone. The conversation blends actionable tactics, memorable anecdotes, and clear psychological insight for marketers aiming to build stronger, more resilient brands.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why the "Find the Why" Mantra Is Broken

• Background: The episode is inspired by Sarah’s viral tweet: “Finding the why might be the single worst thing we could have ever told marketers to do.”

• Sarah’s Argument: Marketers waste time hunting for a single universal motivation, missing the complexity of real customer behavior.

  • “There has to be one reason why people purchase from us. That's what I meant by that tweet.” (01:45)
  • Over-optimizing for a single “why” leads to tunnel vision and misguided strategies.

• Nate’s Insight: Even if you find the most popular “why,” eventually that pool runs out. Real longevity requires range:

  • “Even if you find your most popular why, there's a finite amount of people who have that why... you need to be able to sell things to people who don't think that one thing.” (03:13)

2. It’s Not "Why"—It’s "When": Situational & Emotional Context

• Customers have different reasons for buying the same product, depending on time, place, and mood.
  • “You could purchase one product for 17 different reasons at any one point... depending on the day, depending on the hour, depending on what you just experienced.” – Sarah (02:36)
• Memorable Example: Nate’s whiskey buying:
  • “When I am sad, angry, frustrated, I buy cheap whiskey... When I'm happy, I buy the nice stuff.” (04:22)
  • The same customer, same product, but motivations shift with emotional state and context.

3. The Illusion of a Single North Star

• Marketers often chase metrics and “magic bullets” that don't actually exist in human behavior.
  • “We start looking at one metric that that one just has to show us... that doesn't exist either. There is no one North Star anything.” – Sarah (06:09)
• Brand Takeaway: Brands should not aim to “own” a single meaning or idea—people’s perceptions and emotional responses are fluid and situation-dependent.

4. The Subjectivity of Brand Meaning

• Psychological Insight: We never actually experience a customer (or even loved ones) objectively—only our brain’s interpretation.
  • “You only experience them the way that your brain interprets them... your customers aren't experiencing your brand the same way every single time.” – Sarah (08:00)
• Brands mean different things to different people, even with identical products.
  • “Rolex to one guy means ten times more than the other.” – Nate (09:20)

5. Branding in the Age of AI & the Search for Authenticity

• With AI-generated marketing and “fake” content on the rise, the hunger for authentic brands is stronger than ever.
  • “I personally think that brands are going to become even more important because people are going to look for places to go to feel safe.” – Sarah (10:09)
• Recent Experience: The gap between AI-generated content (even with the best prompting) and human-written brand communication is still significant.
  • “All the humanity came back... all of that became clear and, like, I think it cut through a lot of words that just didn't need to be there and didn't speak to people's real emotions.” – Nate (11:46)

6. Tactical Approaches for Modern Marketers

• It Must Be Human Led: Deep customer understanding requires real human interaction.
  • “One, it's got to be human, led and created.” – Nate (11:59)
  • AI is “just not done yet,” and can't replace genuine connection.
• Get Closer to Customers: Go beyond digital metrics and actually spend time with your buyers.
  • “Go try to hang out with them. Put on a brand event... your brand is the least important thing in this customer's life... you need to learn the nuances about them.” – Nate (12:45)
• Segmentation by Emotion Over Demographics:
  • Sarah segments ads by “emotionally experienced avatars” (e.g., Optimizers) versus just age/gender.
  • “I structure all of my ad accounts these days to go after emotional avatars, not demographic ones.” (13:15)
  • The environment and situation drive behavior more than demographic buckets.
• Customer Journey Is Blended: Old models (top, middle, bottom funnel) are outdated—the path is nonlinear. Focus on observed behaviors and emotional states instead.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Sarah:

  • “Over-optimization causes us to go after just the most ridiculous things in marketing... That's not how humans work.” (01:49)
  • “Our personalities are not consistent across the board. We all have conflicting and at times hypocritical views and thoughts and actions.” (06:30)
  • “You cannot experience one person in one way all the time. Every single time.” (08:00)
  • “If you can identify lots and lots of different whens, you can expand out quite a lot instead of just going after that one.” (16:54)

• Nate:

  • “Even if you try to bucket them by motivation, there's probably like 14 different reasons. And in those 14, there's a million different ways each of them can manifest and be talked about and be experienced.” (03:50)
  • “Each [customer type] deserves an ad written just for them.” (15:14)
  • “Top, middle, and bottom of funnel are totally incomplete descriptions for, like, how we bucket customers.” (15:53)
  • “If you are launching a thousand ads a month all saying the same thing, then you're better off just launching like 10.” (17:09)

Audience Q&A: Personal Examples of "When" and "Why"

• Nate: Whiskey buying behavior depends on mood (sad = cheap, happy = top shelf). (04:22)
• Sarah: Coffee as both treat and necessity; Starbucks chosen out of convenience during busy mornings, but buys specialty beans at home, proving environment and situation dictate purchase. (17:52–18:52)
  • “My logical reasoning... is like I go to Starbucks because I can get it within five minutes... but at home I will... So it. The environment changes my behavior.” – Sarah

Actionable Takeaways for Marketers

• Stop searching for a single “why.” Instead, map out the multitude of “whens”—the situations, moods, and triggers that lead customers to buy.
• Replace demographic targeting with emotional avatar segmentation.
• Invest in real customer interaction (live events, research, DMs) to understand nuance.
• Accept and plan for complexity—there is no magic bullet, and the customer journey is messy.
• Use creative volume not to repeat one message, but to address different segments, moods, and contexts.

Key Timestamps

• 01:06 – Sarah’s “why” tweet and the trouble with over-optimization
• 02:29 – Multiple “whys” and the importance of “when”
• 04:22 – Nate’s whiskey example: emotional state influencing purchase
• 08:00 – The subjectivity of brand/customer perception
• 10:09 – The growing importance of brand in the era of AI
• 11:46 – Human-written stories vs. AI-generated content
• 13:15 – Segmenting by emotional avatar and “whens”
• 15:14 – The limits of old funnel models and the rise of blended journeys
• 17:52 – Coffee as “when”-driven; environment-driven buying

Final Thoughts

This episode dismantles the simplistic “find the why” marketing advice and offers a richer, more human perspective for building dynamic brands. Sarah and Nate’s playful, honest banter will leave marketers rethinking their research, segmentation, and creative strategies to better reflect how real buying decisions actually happen.