Psychology Problems Advice Info

We have entered a phase in human evolution where it is increasingly difficult to obtain the attention and maintain the focus of our potential (and even existing) clientelle. The Darwinists amongst us link it to ‘survival of the fittest’, but it is so much more than that now. The new evolution is sociocultural and basically within our minds, and it is memes rather than genes that are now evolving … simplified global ideas … generic social beliefs … emotional motivators.

Our minds are the real marketplace. In fact, the real estate of people’s minds is probably the most precious business comodity we can attain in this age. The price you will end up paying will depend on the quality of brand/advertising you purchase and the follow up—the point where your company culture meets the consumer. The responsibility is therefore equally on the brand devlopement professionals as well as every aspect and member of the company itself.

The functioning human brain is an incredible supercomputer, subconsciously filtering out the overdose of marketing or advertising messages, and only remembering the few that fit certain pre-programmed criteria. In fact, it is now generally accepted that the mind holds a limited number of ‘slots’ for information such as which company to use for which product (eg. Kelloggs for the breakfast cereal slot), and the brands that fill those slots will depend on which gives the strongest impression and connection to pleasure. It may sound strange and complicated, but simply put, all human activity can be reduced to the innate need to avoid fear and gain pleasure. And it is these aforementioned memes, combined with the fear/pleasure key, which unlock the door of direct access to those slots and enable companies to secure the #1 position (and there is ONLY one real position).

Effective brands must connect with their target audience through positive emotion-based concepts. It is also a neccessary consideration to find ways to connect on some level with the influential peers of that target audience. Get the peers of your audience using your product in public, and you’ve created a powerful association (your audience wants to become their peers in every way).

The new brand is a performer—in both the business and theatrical sense—evoking a positive emotional connection (or neural bridge) to that brand, thus, creating a commitment and desire to buy in order to maintain the feeling. Our evolving marketplace wants products and brands that figuratively dance and sing in their mind. It is my opinion that marketing professionals need to spend more time studying Neural Science, and less time thinking up the most ‘creative’ ad of the century. Don’t get me wrong, I love and uphold uniquely creative concepts as one of the fundamentals of great advertising, but not if it interferes with the message that’s going to make the neural connection. To me, a simple meme-based tagline alongside your logo—with enough white space around it for the sake of clarity and impact—is going to do much more for your brand than some of the rediculously ‘creative’ concepts I’ve seen lately plastered across a series of massive (and massively expensive) billboards. For example, a certain fast-food company produced a high-exposure billboard ad that, to this day, I still have no complete understanding of. And although it caused me to remember the ad (brand awareness), it also associated a neural connection of “that’s stupid and confusing” with that brand. Their marketing department’s ‘smart’ idea, was not too smart in my mind. Confusion is not a pleasurable feeling as far as I’m concerned. The most interesting point about the ad (which I realised much later—after the negative neural connection was made) is that their tagline could have been an effective meme (thus, making a positive neural connection in the viewers) if they knew anything about the power of simplicity.

The Neural Science of Effective Marketing

Emotions are ordinarily conceived as irrational occurrences that cloud judgment and distort reasoning. This view is well entrenched, despite work in both philosophy and psychology that establishes a contrary positioning of emotion in brain-function. Recent research has yielded an explosion of literature that establishes a strong connection between emotional and cognitive processes. Most notably, Antonio Damasio draws an intimate connection between emotion and cognition in practical decision making. Damasio presents a “somatic marker” hypothesis which explains how emotions are biologically indispensable to decisions. These studies also show that, in the absence of emotional input, the mind’s decision making process is overwhelmed by trivial information. Thus, if all the product options in one category remained equally unemotional in the mind of consumers, they will invariably choose the cheapest and most convenient option presented to them. And we all know that price wars shed the blood of profit—which gives new importance and meaning to the saying “make love, not war”.

This topic, thanks to the abundance of available social media observations, expert blog articles and general research, is ever expanding. So, my advice is to forget the idea of quickly attaining ‘perfection’ in the art of marketing. I say this because perfection is non-movement, which—in neural terms—is the same thing as death. If you want to move forward and strengthen your brand in this new sociocultural evolution, forget ‘big fish’ vs ‘little fish’—but rather, remember: old fish stink. Think in terms of ceaseless development. Change is the only constant, so we need to not only accept it, but find endless enjoyment in the challenge of change. I would go so far as to say that stagnancy is one of the greatest turn-offs in today’s market.

Whatever you do, keep moving forward.