Saturday, June 27, 2009
WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?
This may be a question you have asked yourself from time to time when trying to understand consumers…your “customers”. (We put customers in quotes because you may not be selling a product or service, but trying to influence some behavioral change. i.e. don’t smoke, or don’t litter, or don’t waste water.)
The question remains cogent. And the answer is simple: They probably don’t know. Over ninety percent of thinking takes place in the unconscious. We are not aware of it and we cannot articulate it.
People in general are not rational, ordered or for that matter predictable in their thought process. Which is why so much market research fails to solve marketing problems, or even shed light on salient marketing issues?
The fact is emotions play every bit as important a role in decision making as rational thought. And if you don’t understand the emotions involved in your product, service or cause, you will have a very difficult time developing effective messaging. So along with “What are they thinking?” you must ask the equally devilish question:
WHAT ARE THEY FEELING?
We have all experienced the way a smell or sound can bring back powerful memories, good or bad. These emotional connections are completely unconscious and we have little or no control over them. Yet they can play a significant role in our decision making process: So much for rational thinking.
Another interesting phenomenon is known as “arbitrary coherence”. On a busy sidewalk one person stops and looks up. This might make you look up. But if three or four people are stopped and all looking up, there is a very good chance you will too.
These are but two examples of the emotional side of decision making and they are not limited to consumer product advertising. They play an equally important role in business-to-business and cause messaging.
It is vitally important to consider the implication of the emotional side of people when constructing messaging for your market.
