Surprising Research to Shorten the Customer Journey

Three Drivers Behind Response and Brand Preference

Science and technology research continue to add greater knowledge and understanding to human behavior. Among the insights into what make us tick are 3 drivers for how we think and respond: emotion, repetition and familiarity.

Apply them with confidence to improve your analytic results, data mining…and most importantly sales.

Today neuroscience has determined through brain activity the key influences in how decisions are made. Proven, but not intuitive, these findings give marketers knowledge and greater control over the response and the success of their campaigns. Here are the three drivers, and how you can take advantage of them to power your advertising and marketing: 

1. Emotion…Buying Decisions are Made Emotionally. 

“The most startling truth is we don’t even think our way to logical solutions. We feel our way to reason.” Douglas Van Praet Unconscious Branding: How Neuroscience Can Empower (and Inspire) Marketing

Neuroscience by measuring brain activity discovered that over 90% of decisions are made at the subconscious level. This is important information for those who may have felt that emotions or humor or an unexpected, creative twist in communications would undermine their credibility. Not so! 

Astute marketers have known the power of emotions in purchasing decisions for a long time. 

“You can never bore someone into buying your product”David Ogilvy

Only talking about attributes will do little to attract and motivate. Relevant emotion is the efficient path to engage and build interest. Invest with confidence in creativity and content!

2. Repetition…Builds and Maintains Awareness

Advertising memories are short. Don’t let them forget about you 

Why is this important? Because now that you have their attention – it’s less expensive to maintain it than to build it up again from scratch. You’re competing for your prospect’s attention. Today the average adult spends over 12 hours a day with online and offline media. Because prospects are exposed to countless ads and messages, paced repetition will shore-up memory curves. The availability of ²⁴⁄₇ media disrupts and distracts attention. Most ads go unnoticed or are quickly forgotten. At best only 14 – 20% of an engaged audience has next day recall with one exposure. That will drop quickly in a week and to near zero in a month. Research continues to support the long ago findings of Ebbinghaus. The only way to shore-up memory curves…is with paced repetition to keep you top of mind with prospects as they journey through their buying process!

3. Familiarity…Humans are wired to seek the familiar

People are drawn to the familiar and find comfort in it. Familiar patterns produce dopamine. Familiarity credentials and suggests quality. For every organization, product and service there is a threshold of awareness that has to be crossed and maintained for it to become familiar and be sought. 

Nearing and finding that threshold is most often observed through website activity. Increased web visits and conversions mean higher awareness and interest. Less or declining means loss of awareness and interest. Much like a barometer where high pressure indicates fair weather and low pressure says stormy weather. Consistently delivering engaging, meaningful messages increases familiarity, strengthens reputation, accelerates response and reinforces sales efforts throughout the purchase cycle…fair weather is ahead!

Once a strong position is defined, stick with it. Your market will not tire of your position. Make sure it’s reflected throughout your communications and brand touch-points to reinforce, build and sustain top-of-mind awareness. Familiarity will be a deciding factor when a prospect takes action! 

“Consumer preferences are not initially well defined but rather constructed in the process of making a choice”The Effect of Preference Fluency on Consumer Decision Making; Nathan Novemsky and Ravi Dhar (Yale University), Norbert Schwarz (University of Michigan), Itamar Simonson (Stanford University)

In summary…Emotion, Repetition, Familiarity

These are the necessary ingredients to create your roadmap to marketing success. 

Davis Harrison Dion’s fully integrated advertising and marketing agency specializes in creative brand strategies and lead generation…incorporating emotion, repetition and familiarity for B2B and B2C marketers. If you’d like to see how we do it, give us a call.