We choose career paths, we choose our music taste and the clothes we like. We choose what shade of beige the tiles of our bathroom should be and which TV shows to indulge in. Everything in your life is a choice that you make; Elements that you select consciously from your surrounding environment to formulate a harmonious symphony that you dwell in, which would obviously be the most beneficial choices for you. It’s so simple.
Well no-
In fact, it’s not that simple. There’s so much more than what meets the eye, when it comes to decision making. The mind’s complexity is an unfathomable phenomenon; a really beautiful one.
After having read the book Blink: The power of thinking without thinking - by Malcolm Gladwell and some other writings done on behavioural economics like The Behavioural Eonomic Guide 2014, the perception I had about the world around me altered significantly. Very often, you are not directly in control, so to speak. The way everyone lives their lives, is more controlled by preconceived notions, than by originally derived, rational opinions. The things people base decisions on without being aware thereof, is something that every business on this planet should be overly aware of.
When a client is selecting a brand of their desired product in a grocery store, or the website of the company that will hopefully render their service to its optimal potential, they’re expected to make the most appropriate, beneficial decision with a very limited amount of information. Naturally the brain will try accumulate facts subconsciously to support a decision. So then because of lack of knowledge, assumptions made in the back of one’s head will be based on pretty irrelevant observations. eg: The colour of a packet of sweets was mostly natural colours making it appear healthier than the one beside it. So, they select it even when logically they know it isn’t. It’s so easy to be lead astray for the wrong reasons when valid reasons aren’t given. (This statement can be used to your advantage in one of two opposing ways.)
Marketing’s success lies vulnerably snug in the hands of the consumers’ conscious and subconscious minds. In ways that could never be covered by only a few examples (It’s all relevant and according to the circumstances.) The only way you will reap the benefits of a marketing strategy, is if the “subconscious” part, is blessed with special attention, as it isn’t always that obvious, but it will always be a major contributor. Consider it being a bit of a problem child, figuratively speaking. Knowledge on the matter should make things a lot easier for the one selling the product, once the complicated part of knowing how it all works is dealt with. Not knowing the complications could lead to the opposite, a nightmare so to say. Let’s say, the product is amazing. The price is good and there’s a definite market. Though, something about the competitors packaging or home page of the website made the clientele feel more comfortable and willing to trust the product that is in actual fact, not as good as yours concerning quality. The colour makes it look cheaper, something fickle. You lose the race and it won’t make sense why. Just because time and time again, when one makes a decision, it will rarely be for the reason they think they’ve made it. This is often because they have nothing else differentiating one brand from the other to base their decisions on. No one’s going to admit that they chose the other brand because of something as “irrelevant” as a colour. That would make them seem pretty ignorant.
“[Research] suggests that what we think of as free will is largely an illusion: much of the time, we are simply operating on automatic pilot, and the way we think and act – and how well we think and act on the spur of the moment – are a lot more susceptible to outside influences than we realize.” – Malcolm Gladwell
The only way to get around the highly sensitive (often irrational) state of the subconscious mind is: First, acknowledge it. Secondly, know how people think. There are endless heaps of information scattered all over the web and in books about the human mind, how we think, how we react to things and how to use that to your own advantage as a marketer (or even just in day to day interactions and relationships.) The different aspects that go behind the subject will blow your mind.
This article was written to create an awareness of the fact that marketing is not at all one dimensional, neither is the human mind, and if your approach is one dimensional, you will fail.
Gladwell discusses a blind test that was done between the two massive competitors, Coke and Pepsi. In the blind test, Pepsi had beaten Coke quite immensely. But clearly, something about cokes as a whole, (meaning, not only the taste) was what made them undoubtedly dominate Pepsi in sales. Which doesn’t seem to make much sense, because it’s the taste that you’re experiencing right?
Gladwell says- “The entire principle of a blind taste test was ridiculous. They shouldn't have cared so much that they were losing blind taste tests with old Coke, and we shouldn't at all be surprised that Pepsi's dominance in blind taste tests never translated to much in the real world. Why not? Because in the real world, no one ever drinks Coca-Cola blind.”
Sound Idea Digital specialises in Learning Management Systems and eLearning developments | soundidealearningmanagement.co.za
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