According to the Data & Marketing Association, the decline in overall marketing effectiveness has been staggering, reaching a 62% decrease since 2022. This alarming trend, which dates to the early 2000s, has been fueled by several factors. The dilution of media audiences, perceptions of brand parity, ubiquitous product availability, challenges with attribution and measurement, and the dramatic increase in impulse purchases - now accounting for 88% of consumers - have made marketing performance as challenging to predict as it is to ensure. In fact, Gartner reports that 72% of all Chief Marketing Officers say they lack sufficient budget to achieve their marketing goals.

The Harvard Business Review first reported on the impact of emotional connection on brand performance in 2016 through their study, "The New Science of Customer Emotion." The study identified ten emotional factors out of over 400 that directly correlated to positive purchase behavior across industries. Additionally, it found that customers who felt emotionally connected to a brand spent 52% more and were 71% more loyal compared to those who were merely satisfied with the product or service. Over time, as brands have become more commoditized, the impact of emotional connection has increased by 29% annually, and emotionally connected customers now have a lifetime value four times that of typical customers. Furthermore, they tend to remain loyal to these brands for an average of 21 months longer. In today's landscape of declining overall marketing effectiveness, emotional connection has emerged as the most impactful means of performance improvement.

The Sooth Method results from over a decade of work, drawing on over twenty years of achieving record results in nearly every consumer and business marketing category despite increasing competition, economic disruption, and declining marketing performance trends. Companies in various categories, including technology, apparel, travel, automotive, consumer products, healthcare, financial services, and entertainment, have used Sooth Method strategies to achieve performance improvements ranging from 300% to 2400% in as little as 90 days.

Ian Baer, the founder of Sooth, held executive leadership roles at renowned advertising agencies such as TBWA, Publicis, Rapp, and Deutsch over the past three decades. During this time, he developed a unique methodology that involved research, quantitative analysis, and in-market testing to identify emotional need states as a means of differentiating brands. The results were exceptional.

For a leading consumer technology brand, his strategies increased brand acquisition by 9 times while reducing acquisition costs by 93% over a decade. He helped a major insurance brand increase social media engagement by 12 times in just two months, improved customer loyalty for a national airline by over 70%, and tripled the online sales of a major restaurant chain within 18 months.

Recognizing that applying artificial intelligence to his methodology could now provide the same depth of insight as two years of research and testing within weeks, Ian Baer founded Sooth in 2022. The Sooth Method is currently pending a patent with the US Trademark and Patent Office.