Behavioral Science Research Jobs in Minnesota (NOW HIRING)

Role: Strategy + Research, Intern (4-Month)

Who are we?

KNOCK, inc. is a full-experience creative agency driven to cultivate love and loyalty for brands. We are women and minority-owned, fostering a culture that promotes collaboration and inclusion, and supports non-profit partners and advocacy groups that make the world a better place.More agency information canbefound at

www.knockinc.com

Strategists at KNOCK:

At KNOCK, we believe great ideas come from asking the right questions, staying curious, and understanding the world around us. As a creative agency, we blend cultural insights, strategic thinking, and data-driven research to shape brands and experiences that truly connect with people. Our strategy and research team is at the heart of this process-digging into trends and data, uncovering audience behaviors, and helping craft the stories that make an impact. We're increasingly grounding this work in behavioral science, pairing traditional brand research with principles from behavioral neuroscience to get closer to the "why" behind human decision-making, not just the "what."

Our breadth of strategic capabilities includes Brand, Experience (physical & digital), Marketing & Communications, and Social Strategy. This role engages across these disciplines based on client needs, utilizing data and research to help address business objectives and expose creative opportunities.

The opportunity:

We're looking for a Strategy & Research intern who's naturally curious, loves to solve problems, and has a keen interest in how brands show up in the world and build relationships. This is a unique opportunity for someone with a foundation in behavioral neuroscience or psychology to help us bring rigor to the "why" behind brand research-applying principles of human decision-making, cognitive bias, and behavior change to our methodologies. If you find yourself analyzing why a campaign went viral, reading up on the latest cultural trends, or diving down internet rabbit holes just to understand what people are talking about (and why they do what they do), this might be the perfect opportunity for you.

Summary of the Role:

• Research & Insights: Explore industry trends, audience behaviors, and cultural shifts-applying behavioral neuroscience principles (e.g., cognitive biases, motivation, decision-making frameworks) to help shape strategic recommendations grounded in why people do what they do.
• Behavioral Science Integration: Help build out and pressure-test new research methodologies that draw on behavioral neuroscience-things like heuristics, motivation, and decision-making models-to deepen how our strategy team understands and predicts consumer behavior.
• Competitive & Market Research: Keep tabs on what brands are doing across different industries and pull insights that inform our strategic approach.
• Storytelling & Strategy Development: Help translate data and research findings into compelling narratives, reports, and presentations.
• Brainstorming & Idea Development: Collaborate with strategists, creatives, and account teams to bring fresh ideas to brand positioning, campaign strategies, and content planning.

What we're looking for:

• You're naturally curious. You love figuring out what makes people tick-whether it's through research, observation, or endless scrolling through niche internet communities. You're willing to dive headfirst into new software and platforms.
• You have a pulse on culture. You keep up with social trends, pop culture moments, and emerging platforms, and you're eager to connect the dots between brands and their audiences. You have passion for brands and thoughtfully designed experiences.
• You think strategically. You enjoy breaking down complex problems, making sense of data, and finding meaningful insights that lead to big ideas. You are a critical thinker who contributes to the conversation.
• You love storytelling. Whether it's through writing, presenting, or visualizing ideas, you know how to bring information to life in a compelling way. You demonstrate strong written and verbal communication skills.
• You're detail-oriented but big-picture driven. You're comfortable analyzing numbers and patterns, but you also understand how research plays into the larger brand strategy.You're a self-starter who can manage their time and a consummate problem solver, comfortable exploring in the gray areas.
• You have a background in behavioral neuroscience or psychology. You're genuinely fascinated by why people do what they do, and you're excited to translate concepts from behavioral science into practical tools and frameworks our strategists can use in day-to-day brand research.

Throughout your four months, you'll:

• Have the opportunity to meet & greet with a variety of KNOCK team members across many clients and disciplines
• Immerse yourself in a handful of brands and teams to gain familiarity with the work and people you will work alongside
• Collaborate with a diverse set of KNOCK Strategists to understand the different ways insights, data, and storytelling are used across an array of project types
• Work within KNOCK's research tools, and help develop new frameworks that bring behavioral neuroscience principles into our brand research methodology
• Collaborate cross-functionally with teams including Strategy, Account, PM, Design, Copy

Our commitment to fostering an inclusive workplace

As a certified woman- and minority-owned business (WBE & MBE), and a compliant Affirmative Action company, we have made it our mandate to foster an inclusive working environment that represents a broad array of voices in our growing team of 80+ brand design professionals. We are dedicated to creating additional mentorship programs, internships and recruitment practices that are decidedly centered around diversity, equity and inclusion.