Blog - Brand Marketing Psychology

Marketing Psychology Book Summary: Insights from “Made to Stick” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date January 25, 2016
No Comments on Marketing Psychology Book Summary: Insights from “Made to Stick” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Marketing Psychology Book Summary: Insights from Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

For most marketers and business owners, coming up with marketing ideas isn’t a tough task. As marketers, we have more marketing ideas stored in our back pocket than useless business cards you get at most networking events. Most of them you’re never going to use.

The marketing ideas you do use however, must be memorable, powerful, legendary, and prone to virality. In other words, they must be ‘sticky’.

After years of research, Chip and Dan Heath neatly present us with the common characteristics that all successful, long-lasting, “sticky” ideas have, in their bestseller Made to Stick.

Those characteristics can be easily summed up in the mnemonic of SUCCESs:

SIMPLE
UNEXPECTED
CONCRETE
CREDIBLE
EMOTIONAL
STORY

In this review, I’ll sum up each one in order.

By the end of this post, you’ll have all the essential insights you need to:

Quickly and easily evaluate the “stickiness factor” of the next brilliant marketing idea you have.
Tweak your marketing ideas, to ensure they spread quickly when implemented.
Create memorable marketing ideas from scratch.
Create marketing campaigns predisposed to going viral

Are Your Marketing Ideas SIMPLE?

“Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

“When in Rome… Do as the Romans.”

“When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.”

You’ve heard these proverbs before. In fact, your mind probably finished them before your eyes got to reading till the end. What makes these proverbs so easy to remember? Is your company tagline this easy to remember?

Granted, they’re simple. But a lot of things are simple. Why are proverbs so memorable and why do they get spread so easily? Why do people speak them out loud at just the right times?

The answer is that they are simple… AND profound.

Powerful marketing ideas are simple and profound. To come up with something simple and profound, you must first let go of every supporting point that comes to mind and instead, express only your main point. Not as easy you’d think.

Too much detail is counterproductive. Details get forgotten, along with important messages.

As a side note, don’t make the mistake of dumbing down your idea – that’s not what we’re trying to do here. There’s a difference between profoundly ‘simple’ and profoundly stupid.

Profound simplicity is accomplished by capturing the core idea in a way that anyone can understand, without compromising the meaning. It requires some creativity.

Take Hollywood movies for example. In Hollywood, movies are pitched with the ‘simplicity’ concept in mind; Speed is Die Hard on a bus, Alien is Jaws on a spaceship. It’s a skill to think in profoundly simple ways. And just like any other skill, it strengthens with practice.

This skill is especially useful when creating headlines – which is why journalists have pretty much mastered it. They have the impressive ability to not only grab their audience’s attention, but also express the meaning of an entire article in just one simple, catchy line.

The purpose of your marketing message is to capture attention, spark intrigue, and eventually, trigger action. You write headlines so people are compelled to read the rest of the article. If no one is reading the rest of your copy after the headline, make it simpler and use concrete language.

“Finding the core and expressing it in the form of a compact idea can be enduringly powerful.”– Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Are Your Marketing Ideas UNEXPECTED?

Our mind is one efficient system. It’s so efficient that it has the capability of running on autopilot majority of the time – usually without even your conscious awareness! It does this to save us energy.

When things become routine for us, when things have become familiar through repetition, our conscious mind stops paying attention to them. They end up becoming ‘background noise’. We tune out. The easiest way to get someone’s attention is to tune them back in! Break that familiar pattern! When things change, we become aware.

Your goal when communicating your marketing message shouldn’t be to regurgitate facts but convey the main point in an unexpected and simple way. The trick is to stay away from common sense. The key to delivering an unexpected message successfully, is by avoiding common sense. Common sense and sticky messages don’t work together. This example will show you why…

“A journalism class teacher gave her class their first assignment: They were to write the lead of a newspaper story. The teacher reeled off the facts: ‘Kenneth L. Peters, the principal of Beverley Hills High School, announced today that the entire high school faculty will travel to Sacramento next Thursday for a colloquium in new teaching methods. Among the speakers will be anthropologist Margaret Mead, college president Dr. Robert Maynard Hutchins, and California governor Edmund ‘Pat’ Brown.’ The budding journalists sat at their typewriters and pecked way at the first lead of their careers. Most of the students produced leads that reordered the facts and condensed them into a single sentence. The teacher collected the leads and scanned them rapidly. Then he laid them aside for a moment. Finally, he said, ‘The lead to this story is ‘There will be no school next Thursday’. In that moment, students realized that journalism was not just about regurgitating the facts but about figuring out the point. That idea should be in the Sticky Hall of Fame. The teacher knew students had a defective schema of journalism, took their mental models, gave them a swift kick, and made them work better.” – Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Those journalism students remembered that lesson for years to come, because it was simple and unexpected.

Here’s how to break patterns and capture your audience’s attention when delivering your marketing message – ask yourself the following questions:

What is the main message that I need to communicate?
What’s counterintuitive or unexpected about my message?
Knowing those two things, how can I communicate my message in a way that jolts my audience out of their comfort zone?
What questions do I want my audience to ask?

Surprise your audience. You want to create that ‘huh’ and then the ‘AHA!’ moment. Create the mystery, and then solve it. Though surprise is just half the equation. The other half is to create interest and curiosity.

Trigger your audience’s curiosity. Give them tiny bit of information and encourage them to fill in the gaps in their knowledge themselves. The gaps must be interesting, not overwhelming or unbeatable.

People are curious. We have a natural need to get answers to our questions and close open patterns. The most successful marketers leverage curiosity constantly – usually through storytelling. When emailing your prospective customers for example, does every email have an unexpected turning point? Is your reader curious and wondering what happens next and how the story will turn out? Are they excited to read your next email?

A great marketer will never let the answer arrive until the climax of the last email – which probably calls on the reader to take some action. The answer in fact will, require some call to action. Maybe to purchase. By that time, they’re long invested in the story, and they’ll do what needs to be done to get it.

Even if your story isn’t that encapsulating – people’s curiosity takes over. Haven’t you ever stayed until the end of a shitty movie just to see how it ends? Most people have. Obviously however, try to make your story as interesting as you can.

If your prospects are unresponsive to your emails or your ads or have become unresponsive, you can capture their attention by violating their expectations and being counter-intuitive. When you cause people to think differently, they act differently.

Speaking of unexpected, here’s a commercial that ‘breaks pattern’:

Are Your Marketing Ideas CONCRETE?

We’re not all born teachers. In fact, most school teachers aren’t born teachers either. Yet, in all our marketing initiatives, on some level we’re educating others all the time. We’re educating them about our products/services and their benefits/features. We’re even educating them about their own problems that they have yet to see completely.

Throughout the teachings of Brand Marketing Psychology, you’ll come to realize that great marketers are also great teachers. Yet, psychologically we’re not wired to be good teachers.

The number one problem we face is that we’re not able to put ourselves in the mind of our students (our customers) completely. Understanding your prospect and their psychology will free the great marketer inside you. For example, one our biggest barriers is that the more knowledge we have on something, the more we’re psychologically inclined to speak in abstract terms.

As a marketer or brand owner, you’re extremely knowledgeable about your product. We’ve been around our product so much that when it comes time to educating others on it, we naturally forget that they’re not on the same page at all. We need to avoid speaking in abstract concepts, and instead we need to get back to the roots and be more concrete in our communication.

“Of the six traits of stickiness, concreteness is perhaps the easiest to embrace. It may also be the most effective of the traits. To be simple – to find our core message – is quite difficult. (It’s certainly worth the effort, but let’s not kid ourselves that it’s easy). Crafting our ideas in an unexpected way takes a fair amount of effort and applied creativity. But being concrete isn’t hard, and it doesn’t require a lot of effort. The barrier is simple forgetfulness – we forget that we’re lapsing back into abstract speak. We forget that other people don’t know what we know.” – Chip Heath and Dan Heath

What good is it for your long-term strategy if a marketing campaign or a marketing message causes some traction initially, but people forget it really quickly? Only by using concrete, tangible, and understandable language, can we be certain that our marketing message will be understood, and remembered for a long time.

The best part for us as marketers? People buy tangible, understandable ideas. For example, statistics will strengthen your message, but only examples will do the selling. People can connect to examples and understand them with their senses.

Who’s going to donate to a random abstract charitable cause like ‘Humanitarian International’, as opposed to giving a donation to a real person like the ‘Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’?

Your marketing message will be powerful and sticky if:

It is lacking in unnecessary jargon and limiting buzzwords
Your audience knows exactly what to do, without any confusion or hesitation
New prospects who know nothing about you can understand your message easily
Your audience can easily visualize and remember your message
Nothing is left open to interpretation for your audience
Your message or idea can be interpreted by and appeal to the five senses

Are Your Marketing Ideas CREDIBLE?

How believable is your marketing copy or your brand story? Ideas will only spread if they are believable. We want proof.

PROOF: that’s the magic word. Once you have sufficiently proved your product to your customer, you’ve pretty much won them over.

Most people draw conclusions about whether or not something is credible from:

Recommendations from people we look up to (could be celebrities, professional athletes, older siblings)
Paying attention to authority figures who we know and trust (doctors, lawyers, etc.)
Hearing from others who have personal experience with whatever you’re trying to gauge (i.e. looking at amazon reviews for different products, reading blog articles of people reviewing products, etc.)

These are sources of ‘external credibility’.

The harsh truth for most companies is that it’s usually quite difficult to get external credibility, especially if your company, product, or campaign is new and in its beginning stages. It takes a lot of time and creative action to get an endorsement from a celebrity for example, or to get influencers to review and feature your product to their audiences.

The best way to go about making sure your marketing initiatives ‘stick’ and spread is to give them ‘internal credibility’. Internally credible ideas inherently just make sense and aren’t self-contradictory.

There are four things you can do to improve the internal credibility of whatever your marketing initiative may be.

First, include statistics. Simple number citing won’t do however – make it genuine, relatable. You can give someone a statistic of X number of smokers who are dying every day and ask them to stop smoking. Yet if you present a smoker with that same statistic with an image of a dying smoker, now you have given the viewer visual proof that smoking is bad for them. Not only will it be proven more substantially, but your message will be remembered more vividly. It will also hit them emotionally and that will amp up its convincing power.

Second, use your current credibility sources to assist your credibility with other initiatives. For example, it means nothing to me if a delivery company says that their services are “fast and reliable”. It means a lot to me if they tell me that they handled the delivery of the Twilight or Harry Potter books. That’s all the information and proof I need.

Thirdly, let people try something before they buy it. That way they prove to themselves that what they’re getting is worth it.

Lastly, and most importantly in my opinion, be your message. If you’re a makeup artist and your makeup is horrible, no matter what you say or do, your prospects won’t believe you. Would you go to a personal trainer who is out of shape?

“How do we get people to believe our ideas? We’ve got to find a source of credibility to draw on. It’s not always obvious which wellspring of credibility we should draw from. A few vivid details might be more persuasive than a barrage of statistics. A single story might overcome a mountain of skepticism. A case study might work better than an authority.” – Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Are Your Marketing Ideas EMOTIONAL?

Chip Heath conducted a study on how people are motivated.

A company offered employees $1000 bonus if they met certain performance objectives. There were three different ways of presenting this incentive to employees:

Think of what that $1,000 means: a down-payment on a new car or that new home improvement you’ve wanted to make.
Think of the increased security of having that $1,000 in your bank account for a rainy day.
Think of what the $1,000 means: the company recognizes how important you are to their overall performance. They don’t spend money for nothing.

What would your answer be?

Most people chose answer #3. Why? A raise in self-esteem means a lot. The interesting thing is that when each employee was asked which of the three motivators OTHER employees would find most motivating, most people put #1 first, #2 second and #3 third.

When you think about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs here, you realize that most of us think we have higher needs like ‘self-esteem’ whereas most others are more concerned with superficial things like getting a new toy. This bias is normal, and inherent in most people.

However, this bias is destructive for any marketer and their marketing initiatives to motivate others to take action. You’ll read this time and time again on Brand Marketing Psychology; emotions trigger action.

If you don’t know what your prospects really care about, if you don’t know what really motivates them, how can you stroke their emotions in favor of your marketing initiative? What do most people care about really care about? Themselves.

Focus your marketing initiative on your prospects self-interest. You can do this by creating an association with your marketing initiative and something your prospect really cares about.

The key is to remember it’s not just about what they want, but who they want to be!

John Caples’, one of the most respected copywriters of our time, said ‘First and foremost, try to get self-interest into every headline you write’. His words still stand. Be careful to get past basic benefits and basic emotional drivers like sex, greed, and fear.

“The most frequent reason for unsuccessful advertising is advertisers who are so full of their own accomplishments (the world’s best seed!) that they forget to tell us why we should buy (the world’s best lawn!). First and foremost, try to get self-interest into every headline you write. Make your headline suggest to readers that here is something they want. This rule is so fundamental that it would seem obvious. Yet the rule is violated every day by scores of writers.” – John Caples, mail order advertising guru

Do Your Marketing Initiatives Tell a STORY?

Stories are powerful. You already knew that. Why? We’ve all heard stories before. And you can remember the best ones easily if you tried.

Having a story in your marketing initiative is important because:

Stories are memorable
Stories can hit the right emotions in the reader/listener
Stories are effective teaching tools (the most memorable ones are rich with wisdom)
Stories can contain context for letting the reader/listener know how to take action
Stories can inspire
Stories contain not only provide stimulation (knowledge on how to act) but also inspiration (motivation to take action)

Stories are like flight simulators; you get inside all the action and experience the journey in figuring out how you’d react in the same situation. A lot of companies make the mistake of getting rid of the story in their marketing. Their ‘about us’ page is often empty, tasteless and barely a reflection of what the company really stands for and how it got there.

The fast food chain Subway leveraged story perfectly when they loudly released the story of Jared Fogle; an overly overweight man who was able to lose over 100 pounds with a diet of two Subway sandwiches per day.

There are three simple plot lines that engaging stories usually have. They are:

The Challenge Plot – this is where the underdog overcomes all the odds against him or her. This is the rags to riches story, the David vs. Goliath story, the Rocky story, etc. Stories like this inspire people to take action by following the underdog’s example.
The Connection Plot – this is where two people connect against all odds and remind us to focus on the beauty of our relationships with other. It reminds us to be more tolerant and open to our differences. This can be the romantic story like Romeo and Juliet or it can be one where someone helps another as a ‘Good Samaritan.’
The Creativity Plot – this is where someone has a huge mental breakthrough, solving a mystery, a puzzle, and achieving success in an innovative manner. This can be the MacGyver story inspiring people to use their mind to achieve their goals. The story about an apple falling on Newton’s head also fits into this plot, as it encourages us to think outside the box and see the world through a different lens.

One of the best marketing campaigns in 2015 was a campaign on LinkedIn called “How to Rock the Perfect LinkedIn Profile.”

LinkedIn presented the world with a digital storybook on SlideShare, which LinkedIn owns by the way. The story was a slide deck of a musician named Matt Henshaw. I don’t want to give the story away but in it, Matt rediscovers his passion for music and has a ‘comeback’ – all because of the connections he’s made on LinkedIn, obviously.

LinkedIn is a brand that has the reputation of being boring and all… you know, “professional”. What a great strategy to expand its appeal and let people know that it’s not just an online resume space, but it’s also an avenue for “anyone with ambition,” according to Matt.

The call to action at the last slide is also very on point.

If you have a moment, check out the story here:

[slideshare id=35310578&doc=matthensahwcareercomeback-140530121919-phpapp02]

Now that is how you use STORY in your marketing initiatives – it’s memorable, powerful, and inspiring.

“Stories have the amazing dual power to stimulate and inspire. Stories are almost always concrete. Most of them have emotional and unexpected components. The hardest part of using stories effectively is making sure they’re simple – that they reflect your core message. It’s not enough to tell a great story: the story has to reflect your agenda. And most of the time we don’t even have to use much creativity to harness these powers – we just need to be ready to spot the good ones that life generates every day.” – Chip Heath and Dan Heath

That concludes the book review of Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. I highly recommend reading this book if you want a far more in-depth understanding of what is written here.

Click here to check it out.

This Was My First Book Summary – Kind of a ‘Trial’ Post

I read for a passion and as you can imagine, regularly go through books related to marketing psychology. I also read a lot of different types of business, psychology, and self-development books.

Whenever I recommend a great book to a friend, I usually know, at the back of my mind, that they’re not going to read it. It’s not that they don’t want to – they just can’t prioritize it enough to make time for it.

Truth is that most authors cram the book with arguments before they get to the real insights. Maybe that’s necessary – but more often than not, I don’t care about the arguments because I trust the author. All I want are the insights! It can be easy to feel as though your time is being wasted going through the arguments.

So most of the time when reading, I find myself digging through all the clutter to get to the real applicable insights.

I had an idea to start sharing those insights with readers of Brand Marketing Psychology. This could save you time from doing all the digging yourself. It can also let you know if this is a book you want to invest in and look further into.

So let me know if this article is something you found valuable, and hopefully this will be the first of many, many more marketing book summaries to come.

Did you enjoy that review? Would you like to see more? Let me know in the comment section below.

Tags made to stick

Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Positioning Brand Promise Brand Strategy Brand Strategy for Start-Ups Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Marketing Psychology

The Psychology of Obstacles in Brand Marketing

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date April 29, 2014
No Comments on The Psychology of Obstacles in Brand Marketing

The previous post, Branding Psychology Insights: How Consumer’s REALLY View Your Brand, discussed three important ideas:

Your consumers are concerned ONLY about their end result
Your product/service is your consumer’s bridge/obstacle to the end result they desire
Your brand, the face & name of your product/service, must be synonymous with that end result

We all face obstacles. Obstacles are a part of life. Obstacles contribute to our growth, more than most of us are aware of. And just for clarification – an obstacle, is anything that hinders the progress to a desired goal.

The thing with obstacles, is that they don’t just show up as one big dragon we have to slay. Sometimes there are several dragons we need to get past. Sometimes there are obstacles within obstacles. That’s when we’re truly tested on how MUCH we want our end result. Your consumer goes through these same obstacles on their journey to their end result.

When they choose your brand, your product/service, they are relying on you to get them there in the best way possible (whether ‘best’ means fastest, cheapest, easiest, safest, etc.). That’s when they shift from being a prospect, to being a customer.

Keep in mind: the ‘obstacles along the journey’ concept really only comes into play when the consumer doesn’t have the ability to get their desired end result ‘instantly’. Where ‘time & effort’ are factors. Of course, some products/services provide their consumer with instant satisfaction – food items are an example. If someone’s thirsty, they buy a water bottle and drink it. Simple. However, if you’re selling a course where there’s a learning process, or if you’re providing a service where in the long-term your customer will be able to improve their financial health, their physical health, or their relationships, these things take time and effort.

These are also the things that are part of the most fundamental human needs. In some way or another, we’re all looking to have these 3 needs met, and constantly improved. These end results will most likely require some degree of time and effort. In other words, they hinder progress.

Question for thought:

After choosing your brand, after becoming your customer, what are ALL the possible obstacles your customer will face on the way to their desired end result?

And how are you helping them get past all those barriers to their goal?

There are two kinds of obstacles on that journey:

1) Expected Obstacles

2) New Obstacles

Expected Obstacles

These are the obstacles that are within the consumer’s awareness.

These are the obstacles that the consumer KNOWS about – the ones that they will CREATE for THEMSELVES. These are personal obstacles. Expected obstacles can be: resisting temptation, sacrificing something, not procrastinating, paying an annual or monthly subscription fee, etc.

If your goal is to get to the top of the staircase, if that’s your desired end result, you know your obstacles are the stair steps. They are within your sight. You know even before beginning that journey that you’re going to have to keep climbing, one step after another.

The interesting thing about obstacles is that they sometimes increase our sense of commitment to a particular goal. The more dragons we slay, the more invested we become in rescuing the princess, or getting to that gold, or whatever the end result we want is.

Every step on the staircase gets easier to conquer… and as you climb higher you become more invested in getting to the top. Once you’ve climbed halfway or above halfway on the staircase, it’s unlikely you’re going to turn back. The negative emotional impact of turning around and quitting keeps increasing. Eventually, we much rather suffer our way to the end result, than suffer the sense of defeat after quitting.

Once we get past the halfway mark, it’s almost intrinsically ‘automatic’ to keep going… meaning that our motivation automatically sprouts from within. If you’re on a diet and you see a piece of chocolate cake and you resist it, conquering that obstacle automatically strengthens your determination for your end result. Before even beginning the diet, resisting these temptations were obvious obstacles that you were already mentally prepared for.

If you’re a student studying for a particular exam and you tell your friends that you’ll meet them later, a huge obstacle for any student, your determination to succeed on the exam will automatically rise. The best part is, the next time these obstacles show up, it’s EASIER to get past them again because you’ve already done it once.

Key Insight: You need to get your customer past that halfway mark at the VERY LEAST, so you diminish the majority of chances of losing your customer in the process.

If you want to be exceptional however, a market leader, you won’t just get your customer to the halfway mark and move on to something else…. you’ll take your consumer to the top. Your consumer already has obstacles that they EXPECT to have to push through, before starting the journey.

Do you know what those expected obstacles are for your consumer? Can you identify them?

New Obstacles

These are obstacles that your consumer doesn’t know about. These are the obstacles your consumer is hoping they won’t have to face by trusting your brand, your product, and your service. News obstacles are usually the limitations in your product or service. These are company flaws that businesses usually DON’T advertise.

Most people climb with their eyes on the end result (the top of the staircase). They don’t look down. All of a sudden, there may be new obstacles to get past – the toys on the stairs, the spill that hasn’t been cleaned up, etc. The new obstacles are scary. They’re unexpected. The unknown is always a fear for humans.

If your customer has put their trust in your brand by agreeing to take your path to their desired end result, the last thing they want is that trust to be broken. All they can do is take your word and hope that there won’t be any new obstacles.

It’s not the expected obstacles that are usually the deal-breakers for people to get on the journey to getting what they want, it’s the new, unknown obstacles. Because when a new obstacle shows up… that’s when things get interesting…

An interesting paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology demonstrates how when we encounter a new obstacle, we react to it by thinking about the problem on a more global scale.

Our awareness expands.

Here’s an experiment to put this in perspective:

There was a difficult maze given to participants in a study mentioned in this paper. A computer tracked the eye movements of these participants. When some participants hit a ‘block’ in the maze where their path to the end goal was interrupted, they responded by becoming AWARE of the entire maze.

Their focus shifted from that one path… to other potential paths to their destination. They began looking for other options and alternatives. Those who didn’t experience any obstacle, happily kept going. It’s natural for us humans, when we hit a barrier, to think about problems more globally.

What does this tell us?

If your consumer is on a journey to their end destination, that journey is already an obstacle. And usually at the beginning of every maze, the consumer has several paths to choose from. If I want to search for something on the internet, I have the option of choosing to use Yahoo!, Google, Bing, etc. I’ll choose the brand I trust the most, that has always delivered, that I know will give me the least new obstacles in my search.

That decision process on which path to choose, is the definition of marketing.

Because that’s when your company comes along, and through your exceptional brand positioning skills and marketing strategies (that you learned at Brand Marketing Psychology), you convince your prospect to choose your path to their end result… and become your customer. You convince them to choose your brand, your product/service, to get them to their end result.

A question for every brand/business owner to ask themselves is:

How clear and FREE OF OBSTACLES is my consumer’s path to their destination… when they choose my brand?
What barriers will they hit?
What flaws does my product/service have that will make my consumer stop and question their progress?
Is there a point they will hit on our path, where their awareness will expand and they will begin considering other options?

If you promised them that they’ll get to their end result in 30 days and in 30 days they’re only halfway there, it’s only natural that their awareness will broaden. They will search out alternatives – your competitors.

How do you retain those consumers?

Sometimes it’s not your product/services flaw. Sometimes the customer might not have used your product/service in the most efficient way. So you might think it’s their issue if they didn’t use it properly… But who is the consumer going to blame? They will never blame themselves.

It’s ALWAYS the company’s responsibility to retain the customer. When they began the journey, they didn’t expect to face these barriers, otherwise they wouldn’t have started. These are new obstacles.

Your Brand Marketing Strategy:

Remember that there are always obstacles within obstacles. The obstacles that the consumer will face on their journey to their end destination, will either be the obstacles that are expected and/or the obstacles that are new. In both cases, it’s usually your company’s fault in the mind of the consumer.

And that’s a GOOD THING. Why? Because now you know how your consumer is going to react, how they think, you know their psychology… and now you can act strategically.

The most strategic way to deal with this is to tackle both potential obstacles. If it’s your fault, if your product/service has flaws, IMPROVE IT. Keep getting feedback and improving it. If your consumer returns your product, ask why. If the consumer is having to conquer their own personal obstacles, HELP THEM through it. Hold their hand and help them cross that bridge.

Are they procrastinating? Provide a schedule – charge them a small fee for it, or give it for free as a bonus. Whatever you do, establish that strategic relationship, where they feel you’re looking out for their best interest, but at the same time, you’re ensuring their focus remains with your brand, your company. You’re ensuring that they don’t even bother looking at other competitors because their awareness hasn’t grown in that global sense because you catch them at a point before it can get to that level.

Get them to their destination no matter what it takes. That’s when businesses thrive through recommendations and especially because consumers become loyal and are open to any other follow-up product/service you have to offer.

Tags brand development, brand management, brand relationship, brand trust, branding strategy, competitive strategy, obstacle

Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Promise Brand Strategy Brand Strategy for Start-Ups Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Emotional Branding Marketing Psychology

Branding Psychology Insights: How Consumers REALLY View Your Brand

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date April 19, 2014
1 Comment on Branding Psychology Insights: How Consumers REALLY View Your Brand

If you read Brand Strategy: How To Fuel Consumer Motivation, then you’re well aware of the fact that consumers don’t buy the product, the service, or even the brand… they are buying the end result. They are buying the benefits and solutions.

The end result, the solutions, and the benefits are essentially feelings that humans desire on the deepest level – joy, fullness, satisfaction, happiness, confidence, acceptance, etc. Anything we really do, anything we pursue, we do it to experience some form of these positive feelings.

If we were to boil down brand marketing to the core…

It’s how well you can associate your brand, in the mind of your consumer, as being the BRIDGE to the end result they want.

Your brand is the face of the product or service that’s going to get them to those feelings. Just like we have physical bodies, made up of our inner biology which is capable of accomplishing many things… Our physical appearance, the way we present ourselves, our name, our tone and communication style… all of these are elements of our personal brand.

How well people associate your name with how well you can do something for them, is the strength of your personal brand.

It’s not about amazing your service is. You could be the best lawyer in the world, but if you haven’t built your personal brand and no one can look at you and instantly become aware of their desired end result, then you’re depriving not only yourself of business, but also the world of your true capabilities.

The lawyer is the bridge to the settlement. It’s a painful bridge to cross for most people – one that costs money and time… and the experience to the end result is never really pleasant either. So in law firm marketing, the main focus is usually on the end result… never on the experience getting there – “We will win your case”.. etc.

So what does this REALLY mean for brand marketing?

In between your consumer and their desired end result, is a bridge. Your product or service is that bridge. Your brand is the promise of how quickly/effectively/inexpensively/pleasantly (depends on consumer needs)… will your consumer get to the end result. If they care about safety, your brand represents a safe passage to their end result.

If your consumer could have it their way, they would eliminate that bridge and get their desired end result INSTANTLY. Which makes sense. We all want instant gratification – for everything! We don’t like things out of our control – like spending time to get what we want and having to walk across those bridges. We view them as obstacles. Things that aren’t avoidable. Things that separate us from what we want.

Key Insight: Your product is your customer’s obstacle.

That might be difficult to digest. No matter how much you think your brand or your product is special because it does so much for your customer – it’s still the obstacle that the customer has to get around to get what they want. It’s a hassle.

Your consumer has to actually pay money for it. They have to give up their time as well, to cross that bridge. I’ve met a lot of brand and business owners who have grown to be so attached to their product or service that they associate their own sense of pride with it. It no longer becomes about finding the customer… it becomes about ‘the customer will find our product because it’s clearly amazing, and if they don’t want it, then that’s unfortunate for them’.

That’s probably the main reason why us brand consultants get clients. It’s because we don’t have any attachment to our clients’ business or their brand, so we see everything from a third person perspective, from the consumer’s perspective, and we strategize and advise accordingly.

If you could see the consumer’s perspective, marketing strategy would come naturally and logically. You wouldn’t need to hire consultants. Sharing that insight is probably not in my best interest… but regardless, why is this concept extremely important for you to realize?!

Well once you understand the idea that your product isn’t this amazing gift to your consumer, that it’s actually an obstacle, NOW you can be much more strategic when you try to market it and present it in a way that your consumer will find appealing… because now you’re seeing THEIR perspective.

Now you’re in their mind with them. You can build a connection. You now have the ability to be their friend, not a salesperson. If you read Marketing Persuasion Strategy: The Deep Psychology of Consumer Persuasion, then you know that consumer’s don’t want to be sold, they want to buy. Friends shop together, they encourage each other to buy things that are GOOD for them, that will make them happy. They even ask each other’s opinion. Imagine the strength of your relationship with your consumer, if they’re asking YOUR opinion on what to buy.

Well the first step to building a strong brand-consumer relationship is realizing how your audience views your product. The next step is positioning your brand to be completely synonymous with the end result. If you have a bridge in front of you and can’t even see your destination, how likely would you be to cross it?

And you need to remember that consumers do have one thing in their control… and that’s the ability to choose from different OPTIONS.

Enter brand competition.

We buy cars to take us places. Our goal isn’t the car… it’s the destinations the car will take us to. If we had the option of teleportation, we would happily choose it and never drive again. But since teleportation is not a current option, we need cars (the bridges to our goal).

The best thing we can do is hope that crossing the bridge will be a pleasant experience in itself. We look for what can be the best in-car experience. That experience itself, can be a selling factor. So different car brands sell different experiences while driving. They target different feelings. Volvo targets the feeling of safety. Mercedes targets the feeling of prestige.

Something to think about: Knowing that your product is the obstacle, the bridge, to your consumer’s end result… what would define the best ‘bridge-crossing’ experience? What would define the most desired products or services?

I think the ultimate definition, the ultimate strategy, is that if you can create an experience for your consumer that is so pleasing as they travel to their end result… that your consumer actually FORGETS about the end result because they’re lost in the experience… that’s when you can quickly and easily rise to market leadership.

Make them want the experience of crossing the bridge, MORE than they want the end result it gives them. Make the end result a BONUS. Who really cares about the destination when they’re driving a Lamborghini? Who really cares about the health benefits of getting relevant vitamins when they’re chewing on a tasty gummy multi-vitamin candy?

Two rules:

1) Make your brand synonymous with the end result

2) Make the experience of your product or service (crossing the bridge) more appealing that (or just as appealing as) the end result

You have a sure winner if you employ both rules – but that’s not always possible. It depends on a lot of factors. BUT you can always employ one of them. Most companies employ can only employ one.

Eating at McDonald’s is about the experience, not the end result. The end result usually leaves most people feeling guilty. Same with drinking Coke, it’s about the experience. Drinking Diet Coke however, is about the experience, but it’s also positioned in a way that ‘it’s not that bad… don’t feel guilty… because it’s diet Coke!’.

Sometimes real-estate agents aren’t able to guarantee that their clients will get the house of their dreams, but if the clients know that the real-estate agent’s service is extremely pleasant and that he or she will try their best, etc…. if their clients know the experience dealing with the agent will be a comfortable process… that’s enough for the clients to give the agent their business. But what if the agent has a successful history and can promise the client what they want, PLUS promise a pleasant experience as they work together? How easy would it be for the agent to build his or her brand? Others would actually build it for them.

I started writing this post to explain the psychology behind how consumers view obstacles and what that means for your brand marketing strategy – but it took a little turn. In the next post you’ll learn 2 ways consumer’s react to obstacles and how by knowing this, you can be sure to INSTANTLY and significantly prevent a reduction in brand equity.

More importantly, you will learn how to leverage human psychology to build a brand that lives in your consumer’s mind… because that’s what Brand Marketing Psychology is all about.

Tags brand development, brand management, brand marketing, brand positioning, brand relationships, brand story, consumer psychology, obstacle, personal brand, the bridge

Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Strategy Brand Strategy for Start-Ups Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Marketing Psychology

How To Influence Consumer Reaction by Identifying Their Psychological Profile

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date April 2, 2014
No Comments on How To Influence Consumer Reaction by Identifying Their Psychological Profile

Background Psychology: Control, Limitations, and Abundance

We humans enjoy having control over the majority of experiences we have. We crave control. We usually want things in excess and don’t like limits of things because at the end of the day, we know we can have more of what we are in control of.

Food and money are examples of things we enjoy having control over and enjoy having an abundance of. Both can impact our physical experience significantly. But whenever anything is limited, we lose the control we had and are forced to react to the limitation instead.

Limitations bother us. Having a limit of food or having a limit of money, forces us to react in a way to deal with it accordingly. Some deal with a plan, others don’t even want to look at it. Having an abundance of anything, means we have control over it – which is why we always seek abundance because on a deep level, we want control.

Can you think of a brand that offers their audience an abundance or themselves? I can think of Google, Facebook, Twitter – these brands offer an abundance of online services because they’re really not limited themselves, based on their size and based on the abundant resource the internet is in itself.

The sad reality when it comes to business is that very rarely can a business offer its audience an ABUNDANCE of anything. Most products and services are limited to a certain amount by some resource on either the consumers end or businesses end. Therefore, consumers will generally always be reactors to a business and a brand.

Without abundance, consumer’s won’t feel a sense of control. They automatically see limit – and when there’s limit, that’s when decision-making comes into play. The most ridiculous decisions are made when there’s a perception of ‘no limit’ – just look at the world’s depleting fresh water supply. Humans don’t really see water as being a limited resource. Once they do however, decision for its use will be a lot different than it is now, a lot less care-free.

Summary

Abundance –> No limits –> Triggers sense of control (become the cause not the effect or the reactor) –> Freedom (deep human desire) –> Care-free decisions!

(Think of this concept and the super-rich of our society…)

When a brand is synonymous with ‘unlimited’ amounts of service or products that’s FREE ( because money limits)… they will attract everyone… those businesses thrive and can SCALE easily (Google, Facebook, YouTube, etc.)

Most businesses can’t offer abundance to their consumers.

No Abundance –> Feeling of being limited –> Loss of sense of control –> No longer in power (become the reactor instead of the cause) –> No freedom –> Decisions are now very well thought-out and restricted

Your Brand Marketing Strategy

So knowing that your audience will generally be a reactor to your brand, which influences the decision your customer makes in relationship to your brand, you must leverage the psychology of HOW your consumer reacts, so you can strategically position your brand marketing strategy.

Consider this – the things that usually limit us are those things that are FIXED. Taxes are fixed. We have no control over taxes. The amount of time we have in a day is fixed. We have to work around these things that are fixed. We don’t like having a limit of time and we generally aren’t fond of paying taxes. So what’s the core reason behind this?

The reason is because we are more inclined towards being the CAUSE, not the EFFECT. We like to impact, not be forced to react. When things are fixed we are no longer the controllers, we are reactors. For example, seeing how time is fixed and that we only have 24 hours in a day, time is out of our control – we can’t pause time or speed it up. Thus, we react to time by organizing our lives around it.

Your audience will primarily be either 1 of the following 2 Types of Reactors:

1) The Planner

Planners will look at the entire 24 hours as a whole and divide up the day in chunks of what they’re going to do – they plan it out step by step.

2) The Freethinker

The Freethinker will realize that there are 24 hours in a day, acknowledge that it’s limited, and will decide to experience every second as much as they can – and the only way they can do this is by trying not to think about it at all or by only thinking about what they will do an hour or two from now.

Besides time, another thing that is fixed in our lives is space – and just like with time, we react to the space we live in, as either the Planner or the Freethinker.

Ever heard of the idea that a person’s environment is a direct reflection of their mind’s environment? If someone likes to plan their time out and keep their experiences very structured, that’s probably how the space around them is going to be. Their desk will be organized. Their room will be neat and tidy.

Planners live there life according to a plan that they have strategically set out. They love schedules and timelines. They tend to set rules and regulations. You can guess what positions they probably hold in the corporate world. They will not be pleased with anyone who breaks rules.

Freethinkers are more spontaneous. They live more ‘in the present’. They adapt to changes as opposed to having changes adapt to them. This isn’t the same differentiation between the right-brain and left-brain theory you may have heard of. Although some similarities exist, this is specifically to do with the way people deal with the time and space around them.

Planners are all about:

Rules and regulations
Being on time
Making hard decisions; only changing them based on facts
Cleanliness and organization
List-making
Planning
Schedules

Freethinkers are all about:

Going with the flow
Don’t care about time
Impulsive decisions
Despise rules
Cluttered environment
Agendas and schedules are scary for them
Flexible in their decisions

Brand Marketing Insight

Understanding whether your consumer is primarily a PLANNER or FREETHINKER can give you a point of leverage that is extremely beneficial as you create your brand marketing strategy and build your brand. The way in which your consumer organizes time and space in his or her life, DIRECTLY influences the decisions that they make.

This can also give you significant insight on the types of people working in your business, representing your brand. This can give you significant insight if you’re a start-up brand and need to pitch your business to an investor. You can cater your brand’s message, positioning, and strategy for your audience; whether your audience is your customer, your manager, or an investor. You can draw out the decision you want them to take based on their psychological profile, based on whether or not they are a Planner or Freethinker. And here’s how you can do that:

Your Brand Marketing Psychology Strategy

Before you begin assuming whether your audience is a Planner or Freethinker, you need to do something called market research – you may have heard of it. As a brand consultant, I rarely see businesses approaching market research in the most effective way possible, let alone actually doing it enough or recognizing its immense value.

Anyway, if you have been interacting with your audience long enough, it is highly likely that you can make the assumption of whether or not they are Planners or Freethinkers. Regardless, testing and research should never end. I would suggest you still try to identify who your audience really is to confirm your assumption, or at the very least you will gain some insight that you may have overlooked.

So how can you identify your audience type?

One way is to observe their behavior.

“To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.” – Marilyn Vos Savant

If your audience are those working with you in your company for example:

Observe their desk, is it clean or messy?
Observe their timing, are they rushing to make it on time or arrive quite early?

Depending on your relationship, asking questions can be an option. This would work well for service oriented firms with clients that they have good relationships with. There are countless ways to literally just directly ask your customer about themselves. Whichever way you choose, try to find out if they live their life spontaneously or according to a set plan. Try and find out how often they change their mind once they’ve made their decisions.

Applying the Insight Gained After Identifying Your Audience

At the end of the day, you want to create a connection with your audience. You want to relate to them. You want to speak to their personality and show them that you get who they are. We give our attention to and are influenced strongly by those who are ‘like’ us.

If you realize the majority of your audience are PLANNERS – reach out to them in a planned and methodical style.

If you’re a marketing consulting firm servicing a personal injury law firm – let’s make the generalization that your audience (lawyers) will be primarily PLANNERS – therefore make sure you start and finish all meetings ON TIME. Make sure to be prepared to get a hard YES or a hard NO. You’re not going to get any wishy-washy answer. And if you get a NO, having identified your audience beforehand, NOW you can have a back-up plan. NOW you know that perhaps all you need to push them to that YES is some more relevant facts and data.

Also, be mindful of the way in which you present yourself; be organized, clean, and neat. If you’re a CEO and realize that there are individuals in your business who are Planners, provide instructions on a time-lined basis and in a very logical fashion. Provide deadlines.

If you realize the majority of your audience are FREETHINKERS– reach out to them spontaneously! Out of the blue encounters will be memorable and highly accepted.

Be creative in your message. Be FREE in your approach. Display an openness and ability to be completely flexible with outcomes and processes. Expect constantly changing decisions – the best you can do is lay out all your options. Remember to tailor these recommendations specifically for your brand, product, or service. These are just general applications of this branding psychology insight.

Advertising Brand Differentiation Brand Positioning Brand Strategy Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Emotional Branding Marketing Psychology

Marketing Persuasion Strategy: The Deep Psychology of Consumer Persuasion

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date March 21, 2014
No Comments on Marketing Persuasion Strategy: The Deep Psychology of Consumer Persuasion

Most people are convinced that marketing and selling is all about persuasion. It’s unfortunate however, the fact that ‘persuasion’ has such a negative stigma attached to it. We all want to avoid being persuaded. We run from sales people. Consumers run from advertisements. We change the channel when an ad comes on because those ads were created to ‘persuade’ us.

So why do we run from being persuaded? Because it gets our guard up…

If somehow we do end up being persuaded, we have this fear that something will be taken from us. Company’s take our money. Sales people take our money. We don’t say we gave them our money, but they ‘took’ it. No one thinks about what they receive in return for their money. They focus on what they lost. Human beings are twice as more affected by the loss of something than they are by gaining something.

In any situation where something is about to be taken or is being taken from us, our guard goes up. Our inner defense system is triggered. Do you really want to trigger your consumer’s defense system? Obviously not. Unfortunately, a lot of companies lack the knowledge of leveraging consumer persuasion principles in marketing their product or service. This results in detrimental impact on the brand image because once a prospective customer’s guard is up, that’s an entire new barrier to converting them into an actual paying customer.

People will always be happy to spend. How much fun do you have when you’re out shopping for yourself – buying something that will essentially, in some way, make you feel better? Is buying something you want fun or not fun?

When we buy, we’re getting. When we’re being sold or persuaded, something is being taken from us.

Key Insight: Consumers love to buy, but hate to be sold.

A lot of marketing professionals will recall that insight. They must have heard it somewhere – perhaps in business school. So most marketers after reading that, will think they “already knew that”. Perhaps you did, but now you know the psychology behind why it works – and you’re about to see how deep that psychology can get in truly persuading your consumer.

Everyone has knowledge of a tree’s existence and everyone understands all the benefits that trees provide – but only once you understand and get to the roots of how a tree gets planted, that’s when you can really make some change and have the most impact on the environment. Knowing that consumer’s love to buy but hate to be sold, here are 3 applications every strategic brand marketer would make in their marketing campaigns:

1) Strategic brand marketers strive to create a ‘positive-feeling’ experience for their consumer before, during, and after their purchase of the product/service.

What does ‘positive-feeling’ really mean? Ideally, if you can get them to feel the benefit of using the product/service at any point before, during, or after their purchase, then you’re on-point. The earlier the better.

When you watch a trailer for a movie, the strategic trailers will make you feel the thrill and excitement of what it could be like to actually watch the whole movie. In that instant, you become a customer.

2) Strategic brand marketers tip the scale to the ‘I’m getting’ side as opposed to the ‘I’m giving’ side, in the mind of the consumer.

They will position their product or service in a way that will convince the consumer that they are getting more value in return for the money that they’re spending.

Of course, that actually means to strive to make your product or service live up to that value, if you ever want them to trust you again.

3) Strategic brand marketers help consumers realize and truly feel like they are investing in themselves when they put their trust in a brand – enough trust to buy whatever that brand offers.

Side Note: The principles that Brand Marketing Psychology highlights can be used to unethically leverage the deep psychology of human behavior for the primary intention where you don’t have your consumer’s best interest in mind. It is my intention and hope that only those individuals who are committed to the greater development of their consumer’s life in some way, shape, or form, will benefit from this website… because at the end of the day, and you will realize this if you haven’t already, you can only truly win if your consumer wins.

Deeper Into the Psychology of Consumer Persuasion:

As much as we will hate to recognize this, persuasion happens on an unconscious level.

You can be persuaded without even being consciously aware of it… and so can your consumers.

Persuasion is the science of being influenced to take some action.

And to take action, you need to make the decision to do it. It all starts with making the decision to do something.

PERSUASION = DECISION –> ACTION

So wait, is persuasion just about influencing the decision to take action? Aren’t decisions made consciously?

I know I’m aware of ALL the decisions I make. I’m sure you are too. When was the last time you made a decision without knowing you’re making that decision? So if decisions must be conscious, how can persuasion be unconscious?

Something doesn’t add up here…

The reality is… decisions are also made unconsciously. We just have the illusion that we make every decision with our conscious mind.

In 2008, Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences conducted an experiment that revealed that decisions are made at least 7 seconds before we are consciously aware of it, by the unconscious brain.

“Your decisions are strongly prepared by brain activity. By the time consciousness kicks in, most of the work has already been done.” – co-author John Dylan Haynes, neuroscientist at Max Planck.

The paper that discusses the experiment is called “Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain”. You can read it here.

Our unconscious mind is more powerful than we think. It can control our decisions. It can control our consumer’s decisions.

“The impression that we are able to freely choose between different possible courses of action is fundamental to our mental life. However, it has been suggested that this subjective experience of freedom is no more than an illusion and that our actions are initiated by unconscious mental processes long before we become of our intention to act.”

The New Age gurus of the world have constantly been talking about how we’re all “asleep” and how we need to “wake up”. I believe this is what they are talking about – the idea that we lack awareness. Awareness of how we truly work as humans. That we make decisions without even knowing about it. That we’re basically robots…. and the thing with robots, is that they do everything mechanically.

Everything is routine. Everything in the life of the average individual, especially one living in the Western society, is routine. As humans, we are creatures of habit.

The unfortunate part is that we all think that we make decisions consciously. That we live our life with change and excitement. But even the excitement is routine!

We don’t look at the bigger picture. Going to the movies every Tuesday is not variety and doing something different, it’s routine. Going on a yearly vacation is routine.

We lack awareness, and that means our consumers lack awareness. Without awareness, our decisions are irrational.

This is where consumer irrationality comes from. People who study behavioural economics are realizing this more and more. New books about being ‘irrational’ and consumer irrationality are constantly being released.

You will notice from the majority of my posts that I constantly highlight irrational consumer choices and motivations.

Your Brand Marketing Psychology Strategy:

When it comes to the science of persuasion for us brand marketers, consumer irrationality is where all our power comes from.

The irrational mind is the leverage point for every marketer looking to persuade.

So how can your brand persuade your consumers that they’re actually buying and not being sold, by appealing to their irrational mind? And then triggering the decision which motivates them to take action in favour of your brand?

There is one trigger of the decision to take action, that is stronger than anything else – and that is emotion.

We only act after we have felt. Emotions always come before action.

And if there is one thing we can be certain about, it’s that emotions rise from great irrationality. How? Let’s consider what triggers emotions – our thoughts and beliefs.

Sometimes it’s our logical thoughts and beliefs. However, usually it’s our imagination.

Imagination allows us to be in the sensory surrounding of what we want so we react as if it’s actually taking place. Combine this with the tendency of thinking of the worst case scenario… and you have extreme negative emotions that make no sense.

For example, often times when someone wants to try a new hobby, all they can imagine is themselves failing miserably at it or making a fool of themselves. They feel embarrassment, fear, anxiety, worry, and discouragement, even before they begin. What action does this trigger? The action to not even try the new hobby in the first place.

Before you drink that cold bottle of coke or eat that 1000-caloried heated up chocolate chip cookie, you can literally taste it in your mind through your imagination. The moment you’ve tasted it in your mind, there is no stopping you. We’ve all felt that. That craving to have it more than anything else. No rational explanation would be likely to stop you if you’ve imagined it enough.

This is a prime example of consumer irrationality. This is why everywhere you go, visuals of food are thrown at you from all directions – food companies have realized that if they do it repeatedly, it works, because sooner or later you’re going to be imagining having that angelically-evil chocolate chip cookie.

Make your consumer imagine with complete vividness, as best as you can, what embracing your brand will allow them to have. Nike does this beautifully. Same with Axe.

Imagination is the root of successful emotional branding. It is a major key in consumer persuasion. And now that you understand the major elements in the deep psychology of consumer persuasion, leverage these insights to create a powerful, dominant, and demand-shifting brand that lives in your consumer’s mind… because that’s our vision for your brand at Brand Marketing Psychology.com.

Tags brand marketing, brand relationship, brand story, brand strategy, branding strategy, consumer motivation, consumer psychology, emotional branding, persuasion, persuasion psychology

Advertising Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Promise Brand Strategy Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Marketing Psychology

Brand Strategy Insights: 2 Ways Consumers Evaluate Your Brand

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date March 15, 2014
No Comments on Brand Strategy Insights: 2 Ways Consumers Evaluate Your Brand

People are constantly judging and evaluating two things:

1) The world around them

2) Themselves

If you really think about it and consider the psychology of human evolution, one of the most fundamental human qualities that we have, is that we judge and evaluate. Why is it such an important quality? Because it influences the decisions we make.

The way in which we evaluate situations, people, experiences, things, and everything else, plays a huge role in the way we make decisions. The way in which your consumer’s judge and evaluate your brand, leads to their purchasing decisions and other loyalty decisions to be in your favor or not in your favor. When consumers are shopping, consecutively watching ads, and actively searching for solutions to their problems, they are evaluating the different brands they see.

If those brands were able to understand exactly how their consumer makes judgements and evaluates, they would be able to more effectively reach out to their consumers. They would connect better with their audience through tactical positioning of the marketing message, brand story, etc. They would influence their audience more strategically.

Brand Marketing Psychology Insight:

There are 2 types of consumer’s that evaluate and judge in two different ways. In other words, these two different consumer’s use 2 different screening methods to decide if what they are doing, thinking, and saying is what’s right for them or not right for them.

The two types of consumers are:

1) The Internal Measure Consumer

2) The External Measure Consumer

The Internal Measure Consumer

Those who have an internal measure, have actions and decisions that are rooted in what they understand to be right or appropriate. They are unaffected by the influence of other people’s opinions.

They have a hard time learning from others and taking guidance because they have placed barriers in front of any feedback that could come their way.

At the end of the day, they learn best from themselves. They may receive information from other channels, but always decide for themselves. If someone else were to decide for them, they would find that incredibly annoying.

The External Measure Consumer

Those who have an external measure, have actions and decisions that are rooted in what they think other people think to be right or appropriate. They rely on other people’s opinions to make decisions.

They need other people to motivate them to take action.

They need others to give them direction.

They are actively looking for mentors and teachers. They find it difficult to make their own decisions.

They are consistently seeking feedback from those around them on what they are doing.

These are the people who genuinely appreciate it when their boss tells them that they have done a good job.

Side Note:

Most people don’t just strictly use one type of measure. Most people have both internal and external. Where they differ, is what measure they use first. For example, some people are primarily Internal Measure people and secondarily External Measure people – these are the individuals we are referring to as the Internal Measure Consumer.

Question for thought:

What evaluation system do you use? Are you an Internal Measure Consumer or External Measure Consumer? It’s important to recognize which type you resonate with most because it will greatly help you in your brand marketing psychology strategy.

Brand Marketing Psychology Strategy:

So how well do you know your consumer? Do you know them well enough to know if they judge with an internal measure or an external one? And how can you leverage this information in your brand marketing psychology strategy?

Consumer research is extremely important for any brand to succeed. A big part of conducting consumer research is asking your consumer questions, surveying them by creating polls for instance. These lead to insights.

Recently, I ran an online marketing campaign for a client looking to sell their educational services online. After an online purchase, the consumer’s were asked to fill out a quick survey. One great question (which I will share with you) allowed me to identify that the majority of purchasers are External Measure Consumers.

What did that tell me? That they would probably respond positively to validation from others who have used the services before them. Testimonials may be a key player. We already had a few testimonials, but why not more? Why not more in every step of the purchase process?

With that one insight, it took me two days to acquire almost twice as many positive testimonials from previous buyers. I then embedded more relevant testimonials in different strategic sell points of the marketing campaign and purchasing process. The result of that one tweak which took me probably an hour each day for 3 days? Almost a 30% increase in sales.

The Power of Surveys & Consumer Research:

The best brand marketers will understand consumer psychology concepts like this and create questions that are formed strategically to understand exactly how to connect with the consumer. For example, to figure out how your consumers or the majority of your consumers, primarily evaluate the world around them, your research would be to ask them something like:

How are you so sure that you have made the best selection when you chose our brand/our product/our service over another?

(This question is very general. Your question would be more targeted and specific, but the foundational framework would be the same)

The Internal Measure Consumer might tell you that they are capable of making their own decisions from their own analysis of the different brands. They will tell you that they just know on an internal level, that they are right in choosing the brand or the product that conveyed the most value. Their reasoning to choose your product, service, or brand will have sprouted internally.

The External Measure Consumer might tell you that others have told them or recommended your brand to them. They might tell you that they see everyone using your product so they decided that it must be good or it was at least worth a try. Or they might tell you that it was simply because the sales person told them to buy it, so they listened. Their reasoning to choose your brand, product, or service will have come from an outer source.

The best brand marketers realize that they can use this deep insight about their consumer’s behaviour to position themselves in a way, that will lead to the most success – perhaps by segmenting the two groups when employing their marketing strategy, for example.

Applying This Consumer Behaviour Insight

Here are examples on how you can reach out to each consumer. These are off the top of my head – but I would advise you to spend the time to be creative in applying this strategy.

If you are reaching out to the Internal Measure Consumer:

You can highlight, suggest, and stress the fact that the consumer knows on a deeper level whether or not your brand is the best choice.
You would hold back on providing testimonials and referrals because they wouldn’t care about them anyway.
You give them a feeling that it is up to them at the end of the day.

If you are reaching out to the External Measure Consumer:

You focus on getting testimonials and recommendations and directing them to it at every opportunity.
You make sure you brand does things that makes people want to recommend your brand (give away free stuff, etc.)
Invest your resources in getting a social media celebrity to talk about how great your product or service is.
The External Measure Consumer is constantly seeking proof, evidence, and confirmation from external sources. That is your opportunity to mention statistics and provide any data that boosts your marketing message.

The Fast Food Consumer – My Observations

I haven’t looked to deeply into this, but in my opinion fast-food consumers are primarily Internal Measure Consumers.

The decision to eat fast food is usually impulse-based. In the moment when a consumer impulsively desires the need to chow down a hamburger for example, with the knowing in today’s world that there are always healthier alternatives, they are making this decision based on a very internal, primal desire of the reptilian brain.

In other words, they want it for themselves regardless of what someone else says to them. In that moment, they have made their decision. Swaying them from not going to eat at a fast food restaurant, would probably really bother them, even if they agree.

I think the top fast-food restaurants have figured out that their consumer is primarily making the decision to eat their food through an internal measure system. For example, over the last 58 years, McDonald’s has changed its slogan once or twice EVERY 10 years. They couldn’t seem to stick to and find the best one.

You can check out their slogan timeline here.

Interestingly you will notice that since the very beginning of that timeline, the slogans have been ‘external measure’ focused to some degree. However, over the last 14 years (since early 2000’s) – more than any other year – the current McDonald’s slogan has stayed generally the same.

If you look at the slogan transition from the late 90’s to the early 2000’s, you notice a very interesting change…

Late 90’s slogan: “Did Somebody Say McDonald’s?”

More focused on an “external” system of measure.

Early 2000’s slogan: “We Love to See You Smile”… (a little more focused on the consumer’s internal satisfaction)… and promptly after it changed to:

“I’m lovin’ it.” – completely focused on the consumer’s “internal” system of measure.

What’s even more interesting is McDonald’s biggest competitor’s slogan:

Burger King: “Have it your way.” (Internally focused)

Burger King in fact, tried different slogans throughout the 90’s as well, but in the early 2000’s, came back to this same one. Why? Probably because they realized something about it works… And it hasn’t changed since.

Take a look at this list of top famous fast food restaurant slogans. The majority of them, on some level, strike the internal knowing of their consumer to want their food.

Again, these are just my observations about the fast-food consumer. I would enjoy knowing your thoughts. Leave a comment below or connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIn!

Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Promise Brand Strategy Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Marketing Psychology Online Branding

Branding Psychology Secrets: Moulding Your Brand Perception

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date March 4, 2014
No Comments on Branding Psychology Secrets: Moulding Your Brand Perception

As humans, we have common biases that lead to our judgement and decisions, which are often irrational. Psychologists refer to these inherent biases that play a role in influencing our thinking as cognitive biases.

Hypothetical scenario:

Let’s say you and I are working on a project together. I’m writing the report and you’re doing the research. The report needs to be 12 pages long and we’re currently at page 6. Let’s also say that you don’t know what page we’re at since I’m the one writing. You ask me how much we still have left to do because you’re getting tired and are thinking of taking a break.

Scenario 1) I tell you not to worry because ‘we’re halfway done!’. You decide to take some rest.

Scenario 2) I tell you that ‘we’ve only done half and we still have the entire other half left to finish!’. You decide to rest later and we keep working hard.

In both cases, the amount that the report was completed was the same. However, the way I framed the situation, the way I reacted, the context and tone in which I phrased my response, altered your decision and influenced your behavior to take some rest.

This is an example of a specific cognitive bias – in which an individual reacts differently to a particular situation depending on whether it is conveyed in a positive or negative tone. In brand marketing, our brands have the ability to frame a situation and influence the judgement, reaction, and behavior of our consumers by leveraging this particular cognitive bias. This cognitive bias is known as The Framing Effect.

The Framing Effect

In a classic experiment conducted by Daniel Kahneman and his research partner Amos Tversky, participants in a study were given the choice between two different treatment solutions for 600 individuals affected by a made-up life-threatening disease.

Options:

Treatment 1) Saves 200 people’s life
Treatment 2) 1/3 chance of saving all 600 people and a 2/3 chance of saving no one

Result:

72% chose Treatment 1.

Another group of participants were then offered the same scenario, but this time the scenario was worded differently.

Options:

Treatment 1) 400 people die
Treatment 2) 1/3 chance no one will die and a 2/3 chance that all 600 will die

Result:

78% chose Treatment 2.

The Framing Effect and Your Brand Strategy

In the above experiment, the way the options were presented influenced the participant’s choices. The first option was wrapped in a positive frame (save lives) and the second offer was wrapped in a negative frame (lose lives).

Key Insight: Creating a positive frame of your brand elicits positive feelings and results in risk taking and proactive behavior. Creating a negative frame leads to negative feelings and results in risk-aversion and reactive behavior. And on a side note, both are amplified by TIME and PRESSURE.

Two different brand’s targeting the same health-conscious consumer, have both of their products sitting side-by-side on a shelf in a supermarket. Brand A has the label “Only 1% Fat” and Brand B has the label “99% Fat-Free”. One is focusing on the positive, the other is focusing on the negative. The human brain registers two concepts – ’99’ is greater than ‘1’, and ‘free’ is better than ‘only’. Which do you think the consumer will more likely react towards?

A competitive strategy that is fairly common, especially in brand advertising strategy, is when a company presents their own brand in a positive frame and their competitor’s brand in a negative frame – and as an added tactic, implements the pressure of a time-sensitive offer and probes for a quicker decision. Time-pressure prevents the individual from analyzing and leaning towards a rational thought-process even further, when in the midst of making a decision.

The type of framing you employ in your strategy depends on your brand’s goals and what you are looking to achieve. The way you frame the words on your website for example, will influence the way your customer will react with your brand online. It’s all about the context in which information is presented to your consumer. The context is what moulds the assumptions and perceptions about your brand.

Also keep in mind that the next time you hear an organization request you to spend a $1/day, you’ll know that they’re applying the framing effect. Breaking down numbers is another effective way in using this tactic. When you break down your cost, the frame that you set is more appealing to your consumer. Breaking down a cost for your product or service to the point of pennies and dollars, is more attractive than asking for larger chunks of money. $1/day sounds more feasible than $30/month. It can also work in the opposite way. Buying a printer for $300 sounds like a large investment. However, when it is compared to the total yearly cost of weekly printing at Staples at about $10/week ($500/year), buying that printer sounds like a good deal. Infomercials leverage this technique all the time. “3 easy payments of $29.95” where they cancel the 3rd payment for you because you’re special so it’s only “2 easy payments of $29.95”, is a lot more strategically attractive than them telling you to “buy this product for $60”.

Through the use of strategic wording in all of our marketing messages, strategic images in our advertising and packaging, and an overall effective understanding of our consumer’s psychology, we can influence how consumers think about our marketing message and our brand in general. Thus, effectively building a powerful, long-lasting, and leading brand. That is what Brand Marketing Psychology is all about.

Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Strategy Brand Strategy for Start-Ups Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Marketing Psychology

Marketing Psychology Secrets: Building Brand-Consumer Relationships

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date February 22, 2014
No Comments on Marketing Psychology Secrets: Building Brand-Consumer Relationships

One of the best known theories of motivation in psychology is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The hierarchy of needs is organized in a way where the most basic of needs are placed at the bottom and the more complex ones at the peak.

The Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid

What I find most interesting about this theory of motivation is that its evidence is clearly reflected in our current lives as humans and as a society.

If you look at the bottom 3 most basic needs, we have physiological needs which are rooted in survival, safety needs which are rooted in security, and love/belonging needs which are rooted in social connection.

In business market terminology, these needs are:

The ‘Health/Well-Being’ Market (physiological)
The ‘Career/Wealth/Business’ Market (safety, security)
The ‘Dating/Relationships’ Market (love/belonging/connection)

It’s no surprise that these 3 categories are responsible for over 80% of sales that take place online. When people are lacking in ANY one of these three basic needs, the mind is unable to really focus on anything else. The pain, urgency, and irrational passion to find a solution to the lacking need is the driving force behind many consumer decisions. It takes priority over anything else.

The order makes a lot of sense – Health & Wellness is the first most essential need because without food, an able body, a working mind, we are incapable of doing anything else or even considering any other need. That needs to be taken care of first. Career & Wealth is second because once we have our health, we need to maintain and ensure our continuous survival through having the security of a home, consistent food and water, etc. In today’s world, security means a source of income which enables us to maintain continuous growth in our life. Third is Relationship because once we have those basic needs covered, we automatically look to connecting with others, looking past ourselves, realizing the joy and growth that being part of a society, having friends, and family can bring to us.

I believe that we’re progressing on this hierarchy not as individuals, but as a species. We’re constantly evolving in every way. There was a time when our focus was on only our survival – we were hunters and focused on trying to figure out where our next meal would come from. Once we had a firm grasp on that, we moved up with a focus on maintaining our security through our best known method – through an income – and this gave birth to time periods like the industrial revolution. As we continued to evolve, I believe we’re now focused on relationships and social connection – hence the uproar of all the social networks that dominate the internet and people’s time and attention. Whereas once upon a time, the human species time and attention was mainly focused on making money and creating an income which ensures safety – this is why the older generation’s viewpoints conflict with the younger generation. This is why parent’s still want their children to become doctors, lawyers, accountants, whereas children want to pursue whatever they are passionate about. The focus has shifted from Safety to Belonging & Connection. (Again, I’m talking about the human species as a whole and referring mainly to the developed countries.) I would argue that this shift in focus initially started with the rise of the internet, which enabled ‘connection’ on a massive, global level. That connection has been improving in speed, ease, and convenience DRASTICALLY ever since. Today, we have access to global social connection 24/7… in our pockets.

What does this mean for marketers and business owners?

Well firstly, GET ON SOCIAL MEDIA if you haven’t already. But secondly, think about this:

If you can understand what the world currently values and better yet, what the world will value in the next 10 – 20 years, and if you can manufacture your marketing and brand strategy accordingly, what could that mean for the long-term success of your business?

For marketers and brand builders, it’s important to know about the basic needs that fuel our motivations, because we can leverage our consumer’s desire to fulfill these basic needs when creating our marketing strategy.

The 3rd Basic and Currently Most Important Need for Businesses to Leverage – Relationships/Connection

Establishing a relationship between your brand and your consumer is the first step to increasing brand equity and creating brand loyalty. The urge to be a part of something, to feel a sense of belonging and connection, is very deep-rooted in human nature. More importantly, the factors that create a sense of belonging and connection that lead to establishing relationships, are also deeply rooted in human nature. Therefore, if we’re going to be strategic, these are the factors we must leverage to enable our consumer’s to feel a sense of belonging and connection with our brand.

One Crucial Factor To Use In Your Strategy

Robert Cialdini identified an important concept that relates to relationship-building when he created his 6 key principles of influence:

The Concept of RECIPROCITY.

Professor Regan at Cornell University displayed the power of this concept when he conducted an experiment where different subjects were rating paintings with a ‘perceived’ partner (the research assistant). Throughout the experiment, the assistant would give some subjects a drink and wouldn’t give anything to other subjects. At the end of the interaction, the assistant would ask if the subjects were willing to buy raffle tickets from him, and of course, those subjects who received the gift of a drink were more willing to purchase tickets – even though the tickets were a lot more expensive than the drink itself!

Humans are naturally inclined to give back when they have been given FIRST. Rarely does anyone take the first step – but the one who does, creates a momentum. The act of giving and serving others inspires that behavior naturally. Which is why when people see others doing something good, they automatically feel the need to good as well. Giving creates a positive emotional momentum.

Leverage the Concept of Reciprocity

Leveraging this natural human tendency in your marketing strategy accomplishes two things for your business:

1. If you provide your customer with some form of value, they will be a lot more likely to provide you with their business – even if the value of their business is more than the value you provided to them! But also be strategic and keep in mind the ‘value’ of your ‘value’ that you provide. What does that mean? Let’s say you offer a free promotion of some kind and your company is the first to do so. You will do very well. That is until your competitors start doing the same thing. When everyone is doing it, the value of the ‘value’ you are providing, no longer fuels the principle of reciprocity.
2. Creates a strong relationship between your brand and consumer. Relationships are strengthened through the act of service and the act of giving. (Enter free prizes and giveaways – Tim Horton’s Roll up the Rim contest, WestJet giving free stuff to passengers on Christmas, etc.)

Keep in Mind & Key Takeaway

Keep in mind that as humans, we are not only compelled to return the favor when we receive value, but we’re also inclined to not have to feel obligated and in-debt towards others. Therefore, as a business you should make it a point to always be the last to give something of value to your customer, so it’s on them to always take action in your favor. If your customer has already bought your product or service, give more value by sending an appreciation email, or by sending a follow-up bonus, or by having exceptional after-sales customer service. At the very least, a thank you in some shape or form is a no-brainer, because even ‘thank-you’ is reciprocated in the form of a ‘you’re welcome’. Even if the customer can no longer buy anything you, they WILL give back value through recommendations, referrals, likes on your Facebook page, etc., which is how your brand and your business grows. Understand your consumer, their psychology, their motivation and provide them with value to evoke their willingness to take action towards your brand – that is what brand marketing psychology is all about.

Tags brand development, brand management, brand marketing, brand relationship, brand strategy, branding strategy, consumer psychology, motivation, reciprocity

Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Promise Brand Strategy Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Emotional Branding Marketing Psychology

5 Underrated Channels to Build Brand Loyalty and Increase Consumer Engagement

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date February 12, 2014
1 Comment on 5 Underrated Channels to Build Brand Loyalty and Increase Consumer Engagement

Brand loyalty is about connecting with your consumer. It’s about having a brand story that communicates the personality and values of your brand. It’s about delivering on your brand promise. It’s about the impression your brand leaves on your consumer. It’s about the emotional engagement which drives repeat purchase decisions. At the very core of it all, it’s the experience your consumer has with your brand that will motivate them to become a repeat consumer and eventually, a loyal consumer.

Knowing this, have you ever thought about how on a physical level, your consumer experiences your brand? Logically, if we understood all the different channels through which consumers experience our brand, our product, or our service, we would make sure we cover EVERY channel to make sure we have the MOST impact on our consumer’s experience with us. But do most businesses and marketers really do that?

There are five physical channels through which we humans experience the world in which we live – and you know already know this very well: it’s the five human senses. We experience things, places, people, and the world around us, through sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. The five senses are also how your consumers experience your brand. Yet, the majority of marketing strategies and plans that are created are mainly focused on engaging only two of our senses – sight and sound. We forget that ALL of our senses are our pathways to our emotions. Perhaps sight and sound are the easiest to leverage to trigger emotion, which is why most businesses only focus on them.

As I completed writing my previous post about Kellogg Special K’s brand revitalization strategy, I remembered another significant investment Kellogg has made – an investment in the sound of their cereal. Kellogg believes that the crunching sound their cereal makes when it is chewed, is one of the reasons for the success of the brand. This is the reason that the sound of the cereal is strongly emphasized in many of the Cornflakes ads.

Sound is definitely important. If it wasn’t, the easily identifiable and unique crunch sound Kellogg created for its cornflakes wouldn’t have led the brand to become even more successful. Kellogg wouldn’t have hired a sound lab to create the Kellogg’s crunch, and they wouldn’t have made the investment to go as far as getting a patent for the “crunch”. In 2011, it was noted that 74% of modern consumers associate the word “crunch” with the Kellogg’s Company.

There are many ways to use auditory stimulus as a strategy to engage with the consumer – think of jingles and background music in commercials. It’s common. I particularly like the Kellogg example because it’s unique and I think it’s innovative. I wouldn’t be surprised if Doritos and Pringles probably use a similar strategy.

Tangible Advertising

In a Millward Brown Case Study, researchers investigated how the brain processes physical marketing materials. The findings demonstrated that tangible advertising produces deeper engagement with the audience as it engages more senses. They noticed that brain activity was associated with the integration of senses that triggered stronger emotional responses by creating a deeper integration with personal thoughts and feelings.

Tangible advertising is appealing to the sense of sight and touch. As humans, we are wired to interpret the touch of everything around us. We communicate with each other through touch, whether we realize it or not. We feel more connected to someone if they touch us. In 2009, DePauw University psychologist Matthew Hertenstein demonstrated that we have an innate ability to decode emotions via touch. In a research experiment conducted in the late 70’s, clerks at a library returned library cards to students either with or without briefly touching the borrower’s hand – borrowers interviewed said that those who had been touched evaluated the clerk and the library a lot more favorably. The effect was true even when they hadn’t even noticed the touch. Further recent studies have found that slight touches to customers enable waitresses to receive bigger tips and because of a simple touch as a customer service gesture, people also tend to shop and buy more in stores.

What could this mean for your brand, in being able to connect with your consumer?

Touch is extremely important – think of Apple stores and how they happily allow customers to interact and ‘touch’ their products – and we all know how loyal most Apple consumers are. I can go on about the importance of touch forever and write a whole post on it – which I probably will – but you get the point.

Touch has the powerful ability to improve the desire to own a brand.

Then we have smell which is unique in its own way because smell sprouts memories and evokes feelings without first being filtered by the brain.

All of our other senses are processed by the brain first. We’re all emotionally sensitive to the smell of a new car, or the smell of rain, or freshly baked cookies. I can’t help but feel a craving for fresh-baked bread every time I walk by a bakery. I don’t know if that is the bakery’s strategy or not, it’s probably an accidental strategy, but it definitely works. In order to identify a smell, you must be able to recall when you smelled it before. That is when you connect it to a visual image that occurred at that same time. A familiar childhood perfume brings back memories from those days, and the feelings associated with that time. Some research shows that absorbing information in the presence of a scent increases the vividness and intensity of that information when you smell that scent again.

If your product or service can incorporate a smell as your consumer is absorbing your brand’s experience, how likely do you think your customer is to recall with complete vividness, the emotions they felt in your brand’s presence? If the emotions were pleasant, how much would they crave that experience with your brand again?

Building brands through leveraging all five senses is important and extremely beneficial. Not many companies have incorporated brand building strategies to appeal to all the senses. In some cases it calls for a lot of creativity and innovation. In other cases, it can be quite simple to do.

The brands that are succeeding today are taking into consideration how the consumer experiences their brand. At the end of the day it’s about consumer engagement. The more you can positively engage your consumer with your product and your brand through their different senses, the more easily your consumer will recall the feelings they felt with your brand when those senses are triggered again.

Tags brand development, brand loyalty, brand management, brand marketing, brand relationship, brand strategy, brand trust, consumer psychology, emotional branding

Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Promise Brand Strategy Brand Strategy for Start-Ups Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Marketing Psychology

Brand Revitalization: Leveraging Psychology To Shift Consumer Demand (CASE STUDY: Kellogg’s Special K)

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date February 4, 2014
4 Comments on Brand Revitalization: Leveraging Psychology To Shift Consumer Demand (CASE STUDY: Kellogg’s Special K)

The value of your brand is based on how much your customer wants you. Brand equity relies on customer demand. If your brand won’t care about your consumer, your consumer won’t care about your brand. If your consumer doesn’t care about your brand, if your product lacks appeal to the consumer, your brand will fail in shifting demand.

Apple captures more than 3 times the market share of the number two company in the MP3 player category – and this is if the price and other features are completely equal. Even if Apple doubled their price, they would still have market share equal to its competitor brands! That is the power of building brand equity. That is the power of understanding your consumers to such a degree, that your brand is like a magnet that pulls consumer demand towards you.

Long-established or “mature” brands often find themselves asking brand oriented questions when sales are lagging and competitors are thriving. They ask questions like:

“Should we re-brand?”
“Are our brand’s lagging because of ineffective marketing tactics?”
“Are we not advertising enough?”

In reality, these are questions that revolve around creating customer awareness. Customer awareness is already there. Customers already know of your brand’s existence if your brand is a long-established brand.

Instead, brand managers need to have a demand oriented perspective on the purpose of a brand. The focus needs to be on the end goal – the consumer. It’s the message that your brand is sending out that doesn’t speak to your customer’s priorities. It could also be that your product or service is flawed and is not creating recurring customers. Either way, your resources are much better spent on understanding what the customer wants, not on more advertising and on more marketing tactics.

When creating the strategy to build brand equity and shift consumer demand, you are essentially focusing on building your brand’s competitive advantage. Logically, if you’re shifting consumer demand to your brand, you’re also shifting consumer demand away from your competitor’s brand.

The Key: Develop Competitive Advantage (through demand-oriented perspective) –> Shift Consumer Demand –> Build Brand Equity

The Question: So how can you specifically develop a strong competitive advantage?

Here is how Kellogg’s Special K did it…

CASE STUDY: Kellogg’s Special K

Special K is a cereal that was introduced to the US in the 1950’s. If you’re familiar with Special K now, you’re well aware of its strong association with weight loss. You might have seen the multi-level marketing campaigns Kellogg’s has launched with this brand, especially through social media. Special K was connected with the weight loss idea from the 80’s, straight through to all of the 90’s. Back then, it was just the one flavor of cereal described as being ‘bland’. The taste was bland. The brand was bland. There was no innovation. Competitors wouldn’t look twice in fear at Special K. This is because all throughout the 80’s and 90’s, no one at Special K had a DEMAND-ORIENTED perspective. They didn’t look to understand their consumer as much as they should have.

Towards the end of the 90’s, a brilliant mind at Special K began understanding consumer priorities. They began constantly acquiring feedback to gage if consumers are getting the right experiences with the product. It was only when Special K began focusing on the consumer and asking questions like:

Do our consumer believe what we say about weight loss?
How should we deliver our promise to our consumers?
What makes consumer’s think about our brand?
What benefit are our consumer’s seeking?

This consumer-oriented perspective led to the initial process of creating a competitive advantage. This led to the process of Special K beginning to connect more powerfully with their specific target market (women aged 25-45).

Successful brands share a similar focus when it comes to developing strong competitive advantages – that focus is on TWO extremely important elements:

Vision and Innovation

Everything begins with a compelling vision. Your vision is your heritage. It’s your purpose, your identity, your central idea. New brands must develop their vision before anything else. Long-established brands have their vision in place. For long-established, mature brands however, it often becomes difficult to adapt and change with the market because the brand is so rooted in what has been ‘working’, that sticking to tradition is perceived to be the best way to go. Long-established brands feel that they need to choose between ‘change’ and ‘tradition’. The answer however, is to have a BALANCE of the two; a balance of tradition and change, in other words, of vision and innovation. In around 2000, when Special K disrupted the cereal market, I believe they shifted their focus and began fostering this balance.

They zoomed in on their vision: “to empower women to take control and maintain a healthy weight”, and leveraged it to create a measurable, specific, and direct PROMISE that resonated with the consumer.

The promise: Eat Special K two times a day for two weeks, and lose up to six pounds.

They understood that the consumer was looking for a simple, easy, solution to their dieting needs. They understood that the consumer also wanted to feel like they overcame a challenge on their journey to success. Thus, they framed their brand story as a ‘2-week challenge’.

Finally, after years of remaining stagnant in the cereal market, Special K began aligning its vision with the consumer, and the Special K flight had taken off and was at an altitude higher than its competitors. Now it was all about maintaining that altitude and rising higher. Now it was all about INNOVATION.

Innovation is what keeps brands and businesses alive and thriving in a highly competitive environment. If your brand is defined as an innovator, it is pretty much understood that you brand has been around long enough to develop strong core values that define it, values that stood the test of time, values that have roots in a solid VISION.

Special K’s innovation started with Berry Special K – which allowed Special K to dive into the ‘good-tasting’ cereal market. Since then, we have seen Special K protein bars, shakes, water mixes, cereal bars, crackers, chips, fruit crisps, etc.

Special K recently:

Aug 2013 – According to market research firm Euromonitor, cold cereal sales in the US have increased only 6 percent. However, Special K has been a standout for Kellogg, with the brand’s market share increasing to 5 percent, up from approximately 3 percent a decade ago.

Aligning your vision with your consumer shifts your consumer’s demand because your brand becomes highly valued and relevant to your consumer. Aligning your innovation with your consumer shifts your consumer’s demand because your brand remains highly valued and relevant to your consumer.

The marketing team at Special K realized this and today, Special K continues to be a leader in its market.

Tags brand development, brand management, branding strategy, competition, competitive strategy, consumer choice, consumer psychology

Advertising Brand Differentiation Brand Positioning Brand Strategy Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Emotional Branding Marketing Psychology

Luxury Branding: Psychology of the Luxury Driven Consumer (Case Study: Coach)

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date January 29, 2014
7 Comments on Luxury Branding: Psychology of the Luxury Driven Consumer (Case Study: Coach)

A friend of mine just received this in the mail after she went shopping and bought a handbag from a Coach store:

If you’re unable to read it – here’s what it says:

“Thank you for shopping with me at Coach today. It was my great pleasure to help you select that beautiful bag. As a little something extra, I’ve included a $50.00 Appreciation card for you, which you can use toward any item in the store. The card expires on March 1st 2014.”

Did the employee actually send this to my friend from the goodness of his heart? Or is there something else going on here?

After some research, I found out that Coach is in the process of “redefining” its brand in North America. Coach was the leader in the North American handbag market. However, recently before the recession, brands like Michael Kors, Tory Burch, and Ralph Lauren Corp moved in and grasped margins exceeding 50 percent.

Coach then, came out with the new ‘Lifestyle Strategy’. But more on that later.

First, what is it that makes a luxury brand desirable?

In the world of luxury brand marketing, the main factor we tend to look at of our consumers is their income and their assets. While this tells us their ability to purchase the luxury product or service, we know nothing about their thought process and their motivations to spend their wealth on luxury products.

Luxury brand marketing is considerably different from traditional marketing where you would just consider the 4 P’s. Most marketers believe they understand the elements that make up the desirability of a luxury brand.

Common perceptions are:

High quality
High price
Exclusivity
Scarcity
Etc…

Although necessary, these are features that marketers and businesses would rely upon in the past. While these are all common elements of luxury brands, there is a deeper side to luxury branding.

The consumer’s of today are smarter spenders, more selective, more opinionated, and judge based on other elements as well. If you understand the psychology of the consumer, you can cater your resources to focus on bringing the consumer towards you, as opposed to spending your resources on sharpening the quality, price, exclusivity, scarcity, etc.. and HOPING your consumer moves towards you on their own. There is a difference between waiting for your consumer and inviting the consumer. When it comes to the luxury driven consumer, effective strategy entails inviting them and calling them to your brand.

Engage Your Consumer with Invitation

The wealthy are used to being invited. It’s attesting to their status.

We know the importance of a brand story. For the luxury conscious consumer, the story plays a huge role in engaging the consumer. Through engaging them, you INVITE them to join your brand’s journey. Luxury brands have a rich history, a uniqueness, a legendary story which contributes to the brand’s personality. Joining that brand’s community is enticing. Joining Coco Chanel when she started her business in 1913 to becoming a revolutionary couturier, is enticing. Joining Tom Ford in his journey from being a common man, from struggling for achievement, to triumphing in his masculine destiny, is enticing. Both Chanel and Tom Ford consistently leverage its brand personality and uniqueness in their marketing strategies. Usually with the help of celebrities.

The Fourth P

One of the few rational arguments that would prevent consumers from making a purchase would be the price – sometimes for some consumers, price can precede everything, no matter how much you position your brand strategically. However, although price communicates perceived value of the product, luxury brands cater to a consumer that can buy almost any material thing that he or she wants. The product or service itself, then becomes secondary.Therefore, the main rational argument that could be a barrier in your consumer purchasing from you, is gone. What’s important now is how you position your product to appeal to the emotional brain of your consumer. Focus your resources on your emotional strategy, especially when marketing luxury brands. Burberry consumers want to feel ‘authenticity’ and ‘timelessness’. Tom Ford consumers want to feel ‘triumphant’. Tiffany consumers want to feel ‘love’.

Struggle Is Part of A Brand’s Journey

So back to Coach and their new ‘Lifestyle Strategy’.

Do you think Coach is on the right path to regaining its market share?

Here is an excerpt from an article that speaks to their new strategy:

“Coach’s new direction is rooted in the desire to speak to the consumer from an “emotional way” rather than a “functional one,” according to Reed Krakoff, the brand’s president and executive creative director, who informs the design of the collection and store layout.”

“Instead of designing accessories to fill a need, we’re thinking more about the woman, who she is, where she goes, what is her life like and how does it feel, to move Coach from…where you think of a Coach bag, to now when you think of Coach, you will think of a woman or a man and you think of their lifestyle,” Krakoff said. “You think of their lifestyle and you think of all aspects of that sense of style and that sense of how they live their life.”

Frankfort added: “By doing this, and impacting our windows, our store environments, Internet, marketing, all consumer-facing elements, it’s going to have a profound impact on consumers’ perceptions of Coach because it’s unexpected.”

Click here for the full article.

A marketing strategy as simple as mailing the consumer with a $50.00 gift card and a personal note is extremely effective because:

My friend is now guaranteed and motivated to visit the Coach store again and spend more of her own money because $50 probably doesn’t even make up 25% the cost of majority of products in the store
The note ENGAGES my friend on a very personal level; the note is hand-written, it mentions the salesperson and her experience together, it has a ‘gift’ which is a HUGE sign of caring. This entire gesture is oozing with the message that COACH cares about YOU.
The card has an expiry date which creates a sense of urgency
It’s packaging speaks to the brand’s personality
The gesture hits the consumer on an emotional level – gives them a feeling of “special-ness” and exclusivity

And lastly…

What else comes in the mail directly to someone in an envelope, in a card-like format? How about an invitation?

By implementing this simple, sophisticated marketing strategy, it’s pretty evident that Coach understands their luxury-conscious consumer.

Struggle is a part of every brand’s journey. It’s how you adapt and differentiate yourself that makes the difference. More importantly, and especially when it comes to luxury branding, it’s when you think of your consumer, their thoughts, their values, their psychology, that you can create the most effective strategies to rise to market leadership.

Tags brand marketing, coach brand strategy, competitive strategy, consumer behavior, consumer motivation, emotional branding, high-quality strategy, luxury branding

Brand Strategy Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Marketing Psychology

Marketing Psychology Secrets: Creating Value in Your Consumer’s Mind

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date January 21, 2014
No Comments on Marketing Psychology Secrets: Creating Value in Your Consumer’s Mind

How is it that an old jar (pics below) sold for over $55,000 on eBay? How is it that a rubber duck sold for over $100 and a corn flake sold for $1,350? Would you pay such amounts for these things? Would it make a difference to you if I said that the jar has a ghost in it, the rubber duck is haunted, and the corn flake is shaped like the state of Illinois? For the people who bought the items at these ridiculous prices, those stories did make a difference.

If there is one crucial thing marketers should understand about consumer psychology, it’s how consumers place value on things. The first step to realize is that humans are rarely rational in this subject.

In the cases with the majority of ridiculous things sold on eBay, when objects that are worth extremely little are given a story and are endowed with some form of ‘meaning’, their value substantially increases. Whether we realize it or not, this is something we see all the time when it comes to marketing and business. It all stems from the idea of the endowment effect.

The endowment effect is a cognitive bias that once we own something, it’s value increases in our eyes. It begins to mean more to us. We overvalue things just because we own them and we become illogically connected to those things. We equip our identity with them. For example, real estate prices are often subject to the endowment effect – the seller’s asking price quite often exceeds the consumers’ willingness to pay. When we have lived in a house for so long, it becomes our home and the value of our home, is much higher for us than the value of the house. Just take a look around your room and think of what value you would place on the items you own and ask yourself how reasonable that is.

There was a study done involving two groups of people and coffee cups. One group was given the coffee cups to keep and after some time, were asked to assess the value of the cups. The other group was just asked to estimate the values of the cups. The result: the individuals who were given the cups to keep and who felt the ownership of them, constantly valued them higher than the other group. In several cases, the individuals who owned the coffee cups said that they would much rather keep the cups rather than sell them!

Businesses have realized the power of the endowment effect. Especially when they realized that the feeling of ownership in consumers INCREASES how much consumers are willing to pay for a product. Why do you think car salesmen are more than happy to take you on a test drive before you make your decision to purchase? Why do you think you’re almost always able to download ‘free trials’ before having to pay for the full version?

Now that you know this, you will start noticing strategic and effective use of the endowment effect in businesses everywhere. The next time you walk into a clothing store, you’ll realize the strategy behind fitting rooms. The next time you walk into an Apple store, you’ll realize why they allow you to spend hours using their products. The next time you’re offered a sample of anything, you’ll understand what’s happening on a very fundamental level.

So how can we as marketers, harness the endowment effect in our business and marketing strategy? What are some creative ways to stimulate a feeling of ownership in the customer?

One way I can think of is to try to get your products into the hands of key influencers in your industry (bloggers, social media celebrities, etc.). Once they own your product or service, once they equip it with meaning for themselves, they will be sure to advocate it. Another way is to always try to get your customer to take your product home and use it. The best way to do this is to always offer 100% full-refund if the customer is not satisfied – and emphasize that. Stress the fact that there is no harm in just “trying” the product, and if they’re not satisfied, they can get a full refund – no questions asked.

Tags consumer behavior, consumer psychology, endowment effect, marketing, strategy

Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Promise Brand Strategy Brand Strategy for Start-Ups Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Marketing Psychology

How to Evoke Consumer Motivation Through Strategic Delivery of the Brand Story and Promise

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date January 17, 2014
6 Comments on How to Evoke Consumer Motivation Through Strategic Delivery of the Brand Story and Promise

White clock with words Time to Buy on its face

“Marketers sell the drill. Consumers buy the hole.”

No matter how great a product is, it will never sell itself. People never buy the product itself – nor do they buy the brand. People buy the benefits and solutions that the product or brand will provide. Their motivation to buy comes primarily from the expected benefits and solutions.

Throughout my marketing consulting experience, there have been too many incidences where I have seen companies with well-established, iconic brands, forget that today’s consumers are generally well-informed and won’t give in to buying a common product with a recognizable name attached to it. Most business owners still think that they’re just selling a product or service. When business owners attempt to sell just products or services, they focus on portraying facts and informing.

Facts and information rarely motivate us. People aren’t prospects when they’re not motivated. Especially with the social media boom, where there is constant communication between brands and their consumers, people are looking for brands that embody human traits and are more receptive to their emotions.

What do I mean when I say that people don’t want to buy products, services, and brands? When businesses and marketers try to sell products, services, and brands, they focus on selling the features and the results, not the benefits and the solution.

When you tell me your new ab workout product will help me get six-pack abs, that’s a fantastic result… just what I want – except that’s what every other ab workout product is telling me. What differentiates you? The new instructional online video feature that comes with your product? That’s great, I’ll think about it. The result you provided, nor the feature you told me, hit me on an emotional level. I don’t feel an internal motivation to buy your product. If my logical mind convinces me, I MIGHT buy it. Now how would a strategic brand marketer sell an ab workout product? By emphasizing the SOLUTION and the BENEFITS. The solution that I will FEEL the enjoyment and confidence from being more attractive as a result of having the six packs abs. The solution that I will be relieved from feeling unattractive. The solution that I will feel healthier and more energetic. The benefit that by having six-pack abs, I will attract more girls, impress my friends, and feel worthy in my own eyes.

As a consumer, when I hear the benefits and solutions, when you make me feel the solution of buying your brand or product, you’re not longer selling me something, you’re making a promise to me. Now I’m emotionally connected to your brand and product, now I can hold you accountable, and holding you accountable gives me a sense of security in buying from you.

So how can brand marketers strategically and successfully portray the benefits and solutions of their brands to motivate their consumers? As consumers, our motivation comes from the brand promise, which conveys the satisfaction and the avoidance of our pain that we’ll feel when buying a particular brand or product. And one of the major ways that brand promise is communicated, is through the brand story.

The Brand Story

Essentially, what people pay for when they buy your brand, is the story. Brands that are successful in today’s world, are those that are embodying human characteristics. Just as how every human has a story behind them, a story that makes them who they are and who they are going to be, a brand is no different.

When we first meet someone who we’re genuinely interested in connecting with, what is the main thing that we’re trying to learn about them? When we ask each other ‘what do you do’ or ‘where are you from’ or ‘what got you into…’ or ‘tell me about…’, what are we trying to find out? We’re trying to figure out their story– because that helps us evaluate whether we can connect with them. And on a more superficial level, or even when company’s interview and hire, understanding people’s story tells us if that individual can be of value to us now or in the future.

Understanding people’s story can tell us, on a deeper level, how connecting with them will move us towards a solution or benefit that we want. In the same way, understanding your brand’s story gives consumers a sense of who your brand is, what you value, what they can expect from your brand in the future, and how your brand will help them reach the solutions and benefits they desire. If done right, you create a connection with the consumer, which is what successful brand strategy is all about.

The Life of the Party

We’ve all noticed that those individuals who seem to be the most interesting, most entertaining, most engaging, are usually those that are great storytellers. Your brand should be no different. The successful brand engages, entertains, intrigues, and connects with its consumer through storytelling. The successful brand is the “life of the party”.

If you think of your product’s category as a never-ending party, all brands in that category are essentially competing for attention. They’re competing to be the life of the party. The life of the party is the vortex that draws everything towards it. The life of the party connects with everyone – and the more it connects, the more it stands out to others. Make your brand the life of the party!

When the brand story rings true for the consumer, it contributes to how they feel. This gives your brand authenticity, and it ignites engagement and strong emotion. This is where the motivation to purchase rises from. Ultimately, you shift your consumer’s demand… and your brand equity rises.

Lastly, remember that as a storyteller you’re also being held accountable for your promise. Sure great story tellers get hired. Sure great story tellers make a lot of connections. It’s clear that they have communicated their ‘promise’ successfully to a company where they got the job, or on a social psychological level, to their friends and connections. However, you will find that sometimes even the greatest of story tellers only deliver stories, nothing more. They don’t deliver on their promise. And at the end of it all, they fall faster than they escalated.

If your brand tells a story, makes a promise, connects emotionally with your consumer, but doesn’t deliver… your story becomes compromised and your brand plummets. Without delivery and evidence, your story is nothing but a fairy-tale.

Tags brand, brand management, brand story, branding strategy, competitive strategy, consumer motivation, consumer psychology, life of the party

Advertising Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Strategy Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Online Branding

Marketing Psychology Magic: How to Capture Consumer Attention and Influence Perception

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date January 7, 2014
2 Comments on Marketing Psychology Magic: How to Capture Consumer Attention and Influence Perception

Before psychologists and brain scientists began diving deep into the workings of the human mind, there existed a set of individuals who were well-established experts in behavioral economics.

These individuals still exist today. They are able to manipulate our expectations, overwhelm us with sensory stimulation, provide us with false confidence, and essentially influence the reality we perceive.

They have the ability to astonish us and connect with us by making us feel as though they are reading our mind.

They are the magicians of our world.

I have always been fascinated by magic. During my elementary years I would love to perform magical feats for my friends and family. As I began paving my career in marketing, I began understanding where this fascination with magic stemmed from.

As a magician or as a marketer, I’m naturally curious about the mechanisms of thought and perception.

Magicians and marketers share one thing in common – the drive to manage expectations and influence perceptions. Both involve understanding the psychology of the prospect.

The difference is that brand marketers don’t do it to perform and impress, but to strengthen brands. Anything that allows brand marketers to manage expectations and influence perceptions can be extremely powerful in creating effective brand marketing strategy.

For example, an interesting phenomenon of human behaviour that is very well-known in the world of magic and psychology is:

INATTENTIONAL BLINDNESS, also known as ‘Selective Attention’.

Every magician is aware of the effects of inattentional blindness and its influence on their audience.

Inattentional blindness is a phenomenon discovered by psychologists Arien Mack and the late Irvin Rock.

Inattentional blindness is the inability of the human mind to process anything that is not the specific and direct focus of attention at that moment.

Mack and Rock conducted experiments which proved that people who had their attention focused on one thing often failed to notice an unexpected object, even when it appeared right in the middle of their field of vision!

Test out how susceptible you are to inattentional blindness by taking the selective attention test below. This video had gone viral some time ago so you may have already seen it. Regardless, it will give you a better understanding of this phenomenon:

After conducting these selective test experiments, Mack was noted for stating “there is no conscious perception without attention.”

As marketers, we want to ensure our audience doesn’t fall victim to inattentional blindness when we are trying to get our marketing message across.

Our brains are on autopilot 85% of the time – yet marketers are writing ads and marketing messages to their consumer as if they’re paying attention all the time. This is resulting in companies spending money and resources to not only create ineffective ads, but even placing them in the wrong places.

By now, we’re all immune to banner ads on the homepages that we’re trying to surf. They can no longer command our focus and attention. In fact, I would argue that the majority of people don’t even realize banner ads are even present anymore – this is all due to inattentional blindness.

It’s no surprise that ad click-through rates have dropped drastically in recent years. The same goes for ads everywhere – billboards, bus stops, etc. Ads, especially banner ads, have literally become non-existent to the vast majority of people.

Your consumer is making choices about what to read, what website to go on, what to buy and what not to buy, mainly with his or her unconscious brain – which is completely out of his or her awareness. The unconscious mind is an amazing tool for us because it lets us instantly make decisions on what’s good or bad, what we should avoid, or what we should further investigate.

The more we think, the more energy we use up. Therefore, the unconscious mind wants to limit our thinking as much as possible – thus, we go on autopilot.

In his book, The Buying Brain, A.K. Pradeep mentions that the brain is frustrated by clutter and messages that distract or don’t apply. It will ignore anything and everything it can, that is irrelevant.

Selective attention is the main reason why customers often begin ignoring a company’s latest news, offers, and ads. Especially when it comes to online marketing.

Our goal as marketers, should be to maintain and capture our consumer’s attention to our marketing message.

So how can we combat this phenomenon in our online and offline marketing initiatives?

Here are 4 suggestions:

1. Attract your audience’s attention when they are not doing anything important

When people are surfing online and are zoned into finding something specific, they become blind to everything else. They are more focused than ever at this point. Therefore, invest in advertising where you know your audience is more likely to see your message. This is why TV ads will always be an effective form of advertising. Same with the YouTube ads that run before playing the video. People are always more likely to pay attention when they’re not doing something important.

2. Use your ad to help your customer – make your ad RELEVANT

When your customer is focused in on finding something online, he or she won’t be blind to something that could be of value to their mission. Be creative in your online advertising.

There are too many times when I see banner ads that aren’t at all relevant to the website they’re placed on.

A simple example is if an ad is focused on selling guitar lessons, the placement of that ad would work best on guitar websites or forums. That’s a logical, but often forgotten example.

Combine logic with creativity however, and you’re sure to have a winning online marketing strategy.

3. Use contrast

Bright colors, loud patterns, and things that are in motion, are all eye-catching features. Use these elements in your ads to make your ads stand out from the redundant, plain, and steady context and vibe of the webpage.

Don’t make it over the top and annoying – just enough to grab attention.

4. Leverage multichannel marketing

Don’t just aim to reach your audience through one approach. Having one message or one ad on the top or in the middle of your homepage is not enough to ensure that people will see it. Use all different means to reach your potential customers – email marketing, social media, mobile marketing, etc.

Magic, like marketing, has the ability to bring its audience enjoyment, marvel, and surprise because of its deep roots in understanding how the human mind works and the ways in which our experiences are shaped through our expectations and perceptions.

We’re not only marketers, we’re also the magicians of the business world.

Connect with me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and subscribe to the Brand Marketing Psychology email list so I can keep you up to date and informed on the latest psychology-enveloped marketing magic-tricks and spells…

Tags brand marketing, inattentional blindness, marketing, online marketing, selective attention, strategy

Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Strategy Brand Strategy for Start-Ups Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology

How to Leverage Pricing Psychology to Influence Consumer Buying Decisions

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date December 30, 2013
3 Comments on How to Leverage Pricing Psychology to Influence Consumer Buying Decisions

Understanding your consumer to build a strong marketing strategy is fundamentally about:

Understanding the psychology behind how your consumers make use of their time and money
Understanding the psychology of where your consumers focus their attention

The amount of aspects which influence someone’s choices are endless. The more we understand them, the more we as marketers are capable of influencing their purchasing decisions. It doesn’t help that consumers are horrible at explaining their choices. So asking them is rather pointless. They often find it rather difficult to explain why they choose one option over another.

Traditionally, marketers use discrete choice modelling, conjoint analysis, or concept test to deduce decision drivers. However, if we can understand key psychology principles on how the human mind works, we can employ creative strategies to build brand equity by influencing the consumer’s decision in favor of your brand.

If we know anything about consumer psychology, it’s that consumers generally make irrational decisions. The human mind is fascinatingly irrational. Humans rarely make choices in unconditional terms. Understanding this idea can hold great benefits for marketers in employing strategies in each of the four P’s of marketing – especially when it comes to PRICING strategy. Why particularly pricing? Because as consumers, we don’t have an internal value measure that tells us how much things are worth. Instead we focus on the comparative advantage of one thing over another and assess value accordingly.

We see this pricing strategy in effect on a regular basis when we constantly observe the fuel price. There was a point in Canada when $1.20/L was considered expensive. But for the past two weeks, when the price jumped to $1.30/L, the amount of drivers completely filling up their tanks decreased, and the amount of people draining their gas meter to its limit increased. Two weeks later, after the PERCEIVED over-priced gas ‘fell’ from $1.30 to $1.25/L, gas stations were swarming with cars. I was one of them. I filled up a full tank of gas and I actually felt good about it! I felt like I was actually saving money. Why does this happen? We don’t know how much the actual price of gas ‘should’ be, but we know that RELATIVE to what it was before, it’s cheaper now, therefore I’m getting more value and I’m saving money.

The same thing happens when people are out looking to buy a car and end up spending more than they intend to, simply because the more expensive car has a greater overall discount. You can save 25% by buying the more expensive car, or save 10% when you buy the cheaper one. The one people generally choose costs more, but consumer’s are prone to not look the other way when they see more value for their money. It’s very true that as consumers, we don’t always make choices that are in our best interest.

Consumers are increasingly developing a need to attain the feeling that they are intelligent shoppers, that they know how to get the most for their money, that they know value when they see it. This is the reason why over the past few years, companies such as Groupon, Livingsocial, and TeamBuy are becoming more popular. Getting a deal makes the consumer feel good. Marketers are using these services by offering deep discounts, primarily to encourage people to go ahead and try their spas, restaurants, etc. They’re hoping for repeat customers. There is no doubt that this strategy is effective, especially in a time of economic downturn where price-sensitivity is rising and people are craving new experiences for a reasonable price. However, brand equity can be seriously hurt in the long-term, if companies continually rely on employing price-promotion strategies and continuous discounts.

There are much better strategies to enhance the perceived value of your brand, without having to offer deep discounts. My favourite is by using a COMPARATIVE strategy.

Take a look at the following diagram:

The middle circle in this picture doesn’t appear to be staying the same size; when the middle circle is placed in between smaller circles, it grows bigger. When it’s placed in between bigger circles, it seems smaller. In both positions, the middle circle is the same size. Our mind creates the illusion of its altering size because we look at it in comparison to what’s around it.

Humans are always comparing. We compare our friends, jobs, relationships, and especially our POSSESSIONS (our cars, homes, wines, cell phones, etc.) Most of these possessions are branded. And for most brand-conscious consumers, the brand they choose is a reflection of who they are; their status, their personality, etc. Thus after making comparisons, consumers always want to feel good about their possessions by knowing that they have the thing with the higher value because that reflects high value in their sense of self. So how can we as marketers, leverage the comparative nature of humans to reinforce higher value in the mind of our consumer?

An easy way is by creating the expectancy of a higher future price. Like in the example with the gas prices. I figured that gas prices will go back up in a few days, therefore most people and I were more than happy to fill up gas as soon as possible.

Another way is by creating STRATEGIC ALTERNATIVES. These alternatives are placed beside the intended sell to serve as a subtle influence. There are two essential methods to employing the strategic alternatives strategy. The first is by presenting an extremely unattractive alternative and the second is by presenting an incredibly high priced alternative.

Remember when Apple came out with the iPod Touch? This was their pricing strategy:

16GB for $229, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for $399
The extra features are only available in the upgraded options (32GB & 64GB)

Which option would you choose? The majority of consumers would conclude that they attain the best value from the 32GB option. Some would buy the 16GB. Few would buy the 64GB.

The extra features on the upgrades makes the 16GB incredibly unattractive, especially when the next upgrade only has a $70 difference with double the storage capacity! The 64GB has no added features, but doubles the storage for $100 difference.

So the 16GB is unattractive and the 64GB is not ‘worth’ the value. This is the STRATEGIC ALTERNATIVE strategy in action. Which Ipod Touch do you think Apple was aiming to be its main sell?

Knowing these strategies can not only make you more strategic as a marketer, but more aware as a consumer.

Marketers should realize that coupons and discounts aren’t always the answer to establishing a certain value to influence consumer purchasing decisions. A lot of innovation and creativity goes into promotional, placement, and product strategy. Innovation in pricing strategy isn’t something that should be overlooked.Your brand can appeal to the mind of your consumer by understanding how their mind leads to the purchase decisions they make.

Understand your consumer’s psychology to build powerful, demand-shifting, and creative brand marketing strategies – that’s what Brand Marketing Psychology is all about.

Tags brand marketing, branding strategy, comparative strategy, competitive strategy, consumer choice, consumer psychology, pricing strategy

Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Promise Brand Strategy Branding Psychology Emotional Branding

Emotional Branding Psychology: Creating Brand Trust in the Mind of Your Consumer

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date December 20, 2013
No Comments on Emotional Branding Psychology: Creating Brand Trust in the Mind of Your Consumer

Emotion is the most powerful motivational force known to humans. Emotions stem from the subconscious mind and they are the real reason why brands exist, and will continue to do so.

The previous post emphasized the importance of drawing emotion from your consumers for your brand. When trying to connect with your consumer, it’s essential to build a relationship between your brand and your consumer that fosters high love and high respect – i.e. it’s essential to make your brand a ‘LoveMark‘.

Every relationship comes with obligations which require both parties to take some form of effort-based action. Maintaining your friendships, family relations, and spousal relations, require effort on both parts. Maintaining the relationship between the brand and the consumer, requires effort on both parts. The moment the emotions disappear, the desire to fulfill obligations and to take action also disappears. And that’s when the relationship starts to deteriorate.

Brand’s live in the mind, but they cause ACTION from the heart.

As brand owners, you want your consumers to make the effort to take action towards your brand. You want them to buy your product or service. You want them to speak of your brand. You want them seek out your brand wherever they go. In the same way, your consumer expects your brand to fulfill its own obligations as well. Why? Because the relationship can’t be one-sided. Because at the end of the day, your consumers will only take action towards your product or service if they’re driven by emotion.

So what are the obligations that are expected of your brand, by your consumer?

A quick psychology lesson:

In evolutionary psychology, one of the fundamental human needs that we have developed is the need for a sense of control. This need is perhaps the deepest need people have. It’s related to survival and is sustained by the need to predict and have a sense of certainty. From an evolutionary standpoint, if we are in control of our environment, then we have a better chance of survival. One of the ways we acquire a sense of control, is by giving it to others who we TRUST. Trust and control support one another. Not only does trust give control, but the need for a sense of control drives us to seek trust. If you trust a close friend with your car keys, your need for a sense of control is satisfied because you can comfortably predict and know that your car is safe and will be returned to you.

Now what does this mean for your consumer’s relationship with your brand? Through our close relationships, we are able to satisfy this need of a sense of control because we tend to highly trust those individuals whom we LOVE and RESPECT, the LoveMark’s of our lives. Thus, the way to create love and respect for your brand, the way to create a LoveMark brand, is through maintaining and creating TRUST for your brand in your consumer’s mind.

Consumers want to be able to know with great conviction, what will be the outcome for them if they take the action that you are requesting. “What will happen after I buy your product?” “How can I believe you?” “Why should I believe you?”

Brands need to communicate these things to their consumers. Your brand needs to communicate what consumers can expect if they choose your brand. Answering these questions is the opportunity for a brand to build trust with its consumers, because trust enables prediction.

So how can a brand build long-lasting trust with its consumers? As a brand owner, how can you ensure that the fulfillment of your consumer’s deepest evolutionary need is associated with your brand? The answer is through the BRAND PROMISE.

A company’s brand is a promise. Successful brands consistently deliver on their promises which is how they create brand value and brand trust. Just like with any relationship, trust is stable as long as promises aren’t broken. If you break a promise, you are cutting into the ‘evolutionary’ needs of an individual, which will naturally lead to STRONG negative emotional reactions.

Examples of successful promises kept:

FedEx – Your package will get there overnight. Guaranteed.

Apple – You can own the coolest, easiest-to-use cutting-edge computers and electronics.

Coors Light – “The World’s Most Refreshing Beer”

Geico – “15 Minutes of Less can save you 15% or More on Car Insurance”

Examples of false promises: Just checkout this blog called Alphaila, where brands have made numerous false promises to their consumers. Although these promises are visual-based advertisements, I don’t get how fast food companies don’t realize that creating such fantasy based ads is more detrimental than beneficial. Promises matter to consumers.

It’s amazing when once in a while, a brand like Volkswagen releases an honest, genuine, and sometimes even self-deprecating ad. Is it really surprising that those are the ads that effectively gain our trust? Is it really surprising that when we actually try their product or service, we realize it’s actually pretty good? Authentic ads demonstrate the brand’s self-confidence. Consumer’s recognize this on a deeper level – there must be a reason for someone to be so confident.

How do you deliver on your brand promise?

In the next few posts I will write on creating effective brand promises and brand promise strategy.

For now, it’s important to realize that brands need to build trust through minor promises. This is one strategy that is sure to work. Trust is built through reliability – this is extremely true for consumers. The more reliable a brand is, the more confidence consumer’s will have in it, and the more trust will be built in the brand-consumer relationship. As promises are consistently and repeatedly kept, over time trust is guaranteed to increase.

Feel free to contact me with your thoughts, questions, and ideas.

Tags brand, brand management, brand marketing, brand relationship, brand trust, branding, consumer choice, emotional branding, emotional strategy, emotive branding

Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Strategy Branding Psychology Emotional Branding

Emotional Branding Psychology: Deep Decoding of the Brand-Consumer Relationship

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date December 11, 2013
1 Comment on Emotional Branding Psychology: Deep Decoding of the Brand-Consumer Relationship

Life would be a lot easier for us brand marketers if consumers made their purchases on a logical basis. The average business owner often assumes that because humans are rational people, consumers make their buying decisions by weighing the pros and cons of each product. We assume that the physical properties and functional benefits which consists of and define a brand, are the most important factors for consumers when they make their selections. We assume that consumers view brands as ‘things’. For consumers, whether they realize it or not, brands are a lot more than just objects – they care about what a brand represents to them on the highest emotional level. Human beings are driven by emotions, not by rational thought.

So how do we as brand builders, trigger the highest emotional point in our customers? How can you create the kind of emotions that fuel inspiration, laughter, and tears? By understanding that your brand and your consumer need to form a relationship, a bond. Think of your brand as your consumer’s mentor, motivator, friend, sibling, life-long partner, or even parent. These are all relationships that spark immense emotions in the average individual. By establishing a strong bond between your brand and your consumer, your brand can create that deep connection that all of these relationships entail. Almost all research on relationships produce the same two essential qualities that need to be present in a successful and strong relationship; LOVE and RESPECT. As brand builders, if we can establish love and respect for our brand in the mind of our consumer, we have then created a strong relationship. And with every strong relationship, emotions fly high. When the highest level of emotions are triggered, we create a long-lasting, loyal, and powerful bond between our consumers and our brand.

Juan Carlos Rodriguez, Creative Director at Badillo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, explained this idea exquisitely when he said:

“… Love is based on inspiration. We are inspired by brands for the same reason we’re inspired by the people we love, because they have principles and treat me like a human being who is intelligent and has feelings. They show empathy and bring joy to my life.”

There are those products and brands in our lives, that if they were to disappear, we would easily find an alternate. But the moment something we’ve formed a deep relationship with disappears, we object and do all that we can for its return. When a strong bond is formed between your brand and your customer, your brand becomes IRREPLACEABLE. Strive to make your brand irreplaceable.

Kevin Roberts, CEO of the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, came up with the marketing concept called Lovemarks. Through the Lovemarks concept, the Love/Respect Axis was born. It demonstrates the difference between those brands that are meaningless to consumers, and those that are irreplaceable, that are LOVEMARKS. The Love/Respect Axis:

A regular brand scores high in RESPECT – where you have trust but no emotional connection. A fad scores high in LOVE – where you have emotional connection but no trust. But a Lovemark scores high in both. Coca-Cola scores high in both. Apple scores high in both. And with the recent viral marketing campaign, WestJet is scoring high in both. It’s no surprise that the recent “WestJet Christmas Miracle” ad is going viral – 8 MILLION VIEWS IN 3 DAYS. If you haven’t seen it, watch it below and get ready to have all of your positive emotions triggered. The next time you fly, you’ll be sure to think of WestJet. Through this branding strategy, WestJet is well on its way to becoming a Lovemark, if it isn’t already one.

In this post I covered the ‘WHY’ and the ‘WHAT’, in terms of the importance of forming a relationship to fuel emotional responses. In the next post I will cover HOW we can successfully and strategically do this. Emotional branding is a huge topic in brand marketing psychology. There is a lot to cover, especially if we leverage the psychology of consumers to understand ideas that create that emotional bond. By completely understanding how emotions are triggered in your consumer, your brand strategy’s effectiveness is guaranteed to evolve.

“The essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions.” – Neurologist Donald Calne

Tags brand management, brand marketing, brand relationship, brand trust, branding, competitive strategy, consumer psychology, emotional branding, emotional strategy, emotive branding

Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Promise Brand Strategy Brand Strategy for Start-Ups Branding Psychology

How To Name Your Product Or Brand Using Psychology Tactics

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date December 8, 2013
No Comments on How To Name Your Product Or Brand Using Psychology Tactics

Being the creative marketers that we are, we love the idea of naming our brand. It feels like art to us. It’s one of the “fun” aspects of owning a brand or a company – coming up with the name, logo, tag-line, etc.

Well I’m here to tell you that although you should definitely indulge in the fun creative process, you should also remember that naming your brand, creating your logo, and coming up with the tagline, is just as much an art as it is a science.

One of the major mistakes most entrepreneurs and new brand owners make, is getting too excited with and diving into, the creative aspect of brand development. Before doing anything in terms of naming your brand, you need to first make sure you have completely developed your brand’s short and long term strategy. Why? Because the name of your brand has a strategic role to play – it needs to successfully communicate the positioning and personality of the brand.

If you haven’t developed the strategy behind your brand, if you haven’t completely understood your consumer, how can you create a name that will resonate with your audience for years to come? Your brand name needs to create an emotional bond with your customer. Thus, when considering a name, it is vital for us to understand our consumer’s thought patterns, to determine how we can create a name that is relevant, a name that has stretch, adaptability, and flexibility as your business and the market grows.

Establishing the strategic focus of your brand, before anything, is vital in the brand-naming process. At the end of the day, brand name generation mainly has to do with long-term strategy. This is because short-term strategy revolves around ‘survival’ – being unique, being first in a category, and ensuring that your brand possesses a specific WORD or CONCEPT in the consumer’s mind.

In long-term brand strategy however, all of those things vanish and what really matters is what your customers call your brand and what they call your competitor’s brand. Therefore, your decision on what you name your product, is probably one of the most important decisions you will make in the course of developing your brand. In the long term, the recognition of your brand comes primarily from its name.

Quite often founders and new brand owners have the urge to come up with descriptive names for their company. This isn’t always the best method. In today’s increasingly competitive environment, your brand needs to go beyond focusing on the physical attributes of the product or service itself.

What’s the difference between The Container Store and IKEA? Although they both sell storage boxes and baskets, who is more well-known amongst consumers? It’s easy to think that if your brand name describes what you do, then it will be easier for consumers to understand and choose your brand and therefore, you won’t need to invest too much in marketing. But descriptive names are limiting and don’t allow for you to have a strong competitive advantage.

What if Twitter was called ‘Status’ or if Ebay was called ‘Echo Bay Technology Group’? These are names that were almost chosen by both companies. Essentially what we must realize is:

Descriptive names are easier to REMEMBER, but creative names are harder to FORGET.

Research and test out your brand name with your audience before concretely establishing it. Figure out if it communicates desired attributes or specific benefits of your product or service. Ask people around you what they think. Your brand name represents your promise to your consumers. It differentiates the value your brand offers from competitor brands. Think of it as a recall and recognition device – over time and through continuous use, your brand name will become a valuable asset and intellectual property. Most importantly, be certain that your brand name is flexible enough to survive for decades to come.

Tags brand development, brand naming, brand strategy

Brand Building Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Strategy Branding Psychology

Brand Positioning Psychology: How to Maintain Brand Growth in a Changing Market

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date November 25, 2013
No Comments on Brand Positioning Psychology: How to Maintain Brand Growth in a Changing Market

Only when a brand stands for something, can it establish itself in your audience’s mind.

You’ve done a great job if your brand has taken up some form of mental real estate of your consumer. This is a commendable feat because it takes great effort and time (years usually) to build a brand and to concretely embed a characteristic of a brand, in your consumer’s mind. One thing you need to remember however, is that there is always the likelihood of the market changing. As a marketer, it is not wise to change your brands positioning with the changing market.

As tempting as it may be, you’ve worked way too hard to create the brand positioning that you already have! Too many times, companies have tried to follow a new trend and have damaged their brand…

Just take a look at this list of “10 of the Worst Product Flops Ever”. Notice how with every product failure, the idea pretty much stemmed from ‘trying to go with the trend’, and deviating from CORE characteristics for which the brands are known for.

One of my favorite examples of a company who has fallen victim to this idea, over and over again, is McDonalds. Ever since I can remember, McDonald’s has been known for being a family burger place that appeals mainly to children. Whereas their competitors, Wendy’s and Burger King, have always appealed to the adult market. So obviously, McDonald’s began questioning why they were limiting their products to just children.

They began thinking that they’re capable of changing with the adult burger trend and competing in other territories. This triggered the release of products like the McLobster, the Arch Deluxe, the McPizza, the McHotDog,…and the list continues. Do you remember of any of these? If you do, can you still go and get any of these from a McDonald’s?

They all failed because McDonald’s didn’t stay consistent in their brand’s image. They spent over a 100 million dollars on the Arch Deluxe’s advertising campaigns in attempts to display it as a burger ‘for adults’, but even a 100 million dollars later, their consumers were unwilling to allow a deviation in what the original McDonald’s brand had already implanted in their mind over years and years of branding – that it WAS and IS a kid-oriented brand.

How can you spend YEARS positioning yourself as one thing, and expect to change that with one product, almost instantly, by unleashing loads of advertising at your audience? Temptation and especially boredom, can often take over, and make you feel like you need your brand to change. But remember, when you choose that path, chances are you will fail, because you’re stepping away from standing for something simple and focused in your consumer’s MIND.

When McDonald’s released the McLobster and the Arch Deluxe, it stepped away from standing for something simple and focused in the consumer’s mind. When Volvo, the car known for ‘safety’, launched a line of sports cars, including a convertible, it stepped away from standing for something simple and focused in the consumer’s mind.

Narrowing the focus of your brand and being consistent with it for years to come, is an important factor in the art of building and embedding your brand in the mind of your consumer.

Tags brand, brand management, branding, consistent branding, consumer psychology

Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Strategy Brand Strategy for Start-Ups Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Marketing Psychology

Brand Competition Psychology: How Consumer Choices Effect Demand and Why You Should Appreciate Your Competitors

Post author By Sam Pardhan
Post date November 19, 2013
No Comments on Brand Competition Psychology: How Consumer Choices Effect Demand and Why You Should Appreciate Your Competitors

The goal of every brand marketer should be to build brand equity. What exactly is brand equity? It’s the ability of your brand to shift consumer demand. Consumers have a vast array of choices these days. Today, we walk into a supermarket and are actually confused by all the different choices we are bombarded with! Whereas not too long ago, we would be hoping for more products and as consumers, find ourselves disappointed with things that don’t really serve our needs. Today, brand strategy is not so much about creating demand than it is about shifting your consumer’s demand to YOUR brand.

Fact: Higher demand of your brand leads to higher market share.

Now logically, there are two ways to increase market share and become a market leader:

1) Eliminate competition

“Well if I don’t have competition and I’m the only choice for my consumer, then I can have all or most of the market share.”

2) Enhance brand equity

“I will make it so that my brand will shift consumer demand from my competitors to me.”

It’s surprising how the majority of companies today, choose Option 1.

Greed is not good, when your aim is to shift consumer demand.

The leading brand in a category habitually tries to stretch its appeal in order to seize every last bit of market share. What they fail to recognize is that when you stretch your brand, it deteriorates and weakens. The leading brand should endure competitors and also appreciate them.

The entrance of Pepsi-Cola, was probably one the best things to have happened for Coca-Cola. Why? The competition between Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola makes customers more aware of Cola. The Cola category has been growing ever since this rivalry erupted.

If you want to build market share, understand the consumer’s mind, where your brand lives, and leverage that beautiful asset to create a strong brand building strategy. How consumers respond to competition and choices is crucial for any brand marketer to understand.

Customers always have choices, even when no competition exists. They can make the decisions to choose beer, apple juice, or water to drink instead of cola. The reason is because increased competition grabs more attention of customers and has the habit of increasing sales in the category.

Choice fuels demand.

Choice is seen as a huge benefit. Without choice, customers begin questioning the category itself. For instance, customers begin questioning the price point, in wonder if they’re paying too much – “How can I judge the price if I don’t have anything to compare it with?”

The psychology of most brand marketers and companies is that they want to have an unfair advantage over their competitors. They can’t handle the idea of having an even playing field. So they come to the conclusion, that the only way to keep as much of the market share as possible, is to drive out the competition. That’s when they end up making horrible branding decisions and decide to expand, extend their line, etc., which only further weakens the brand.

Appreciate your competitors. Competition leads to increased choices.

There is however, a limit to how much choice there should be for a consumer in a particular category. Having too much choice can definitely be detrimental. Having too many brands can lead to having too much variety, which leads to greater confusion for the consumer.

What’s the right amount of competition? Two seems to be the best number – Coca Cola/Pepsi, Nintendo/PlayStation, Duracell/Energizer, etc. Too much choice leads to reduced consumption.

In the consumer’s mind, if there isn’t any competition they often think that companies could take advantage of them and rip them off. This is why we usually see competing businesses clustered in one area. We’ve all seen it – how similar businesses are usually grouped together in one neighborhood. This is especially evident in large cities. These business clusters attract more customers because now customers have more than one store to shop at, in one trip. Time is limited these days for the average individual. Moreover, customers can now easily make comparisons.

Healthy competition is good. No brand can ever be capable of dominating the entire market. Anything greater than 50% is extremely rare. If your aim is to gain market share greater than 50%, it’s more efficient to consider creating several independent brands (not line extensions).

Image Credit

Tags brand, brand management, brand marketing, competition, competitive strategy, consumer choice, consumer psychology