Buy•ology Part 4 of 5: Sensory Branding
February 12, 2009 by dr. lam · 9 Comments
Many companies place a premium on the visual connection that a brand offers the consumer. The most recognizable element then of a brand is thought obviously to be the logo. Millions of dollars are inputed into the design and redesign of a potent logo. However, in Lindstrom’s book, Buy•ology, he argues against the power of the visual to the power of our other senses when connecting with a brand. Too bad, because logo design is something I have loved to do for my business and the businesses of the tenants in my building.
First and foremost, he places a premium on our olfactory sense. He argues that since ancient times we chose our mate, tasted our food, and discerned our enemies by our sense of smell. Animals still use their sense of smell to detect food, danger, a mate, etc. more than with any other sense. Perhaps Marcel Proust, to whom I have referred many times throughout these blogs, was not all that wrong when he talked about the petite madeleine as a powerful olfactory somatic marker to trigger our memories. (Thanks Lisa for the gift of petite madeleines and the wonderful book on Proust!)
In a study, Lindstrom found that when images and smell were paired the overall memory of a brand was significantly heightened. For example, when a filet of fish was paired with a scent of lemon in the air, the two worked synergistically to trigger one’s attention and memory. However, when the image and the smell were incongruent like a picture of Dove soap and the smell of scorched canola oil, the individual had a much worse time remembering a brand.
Besides smell, our auditory system can help (or hurt us) significantly. The most famous example is the Nokia ringtone, featured in the movie Love Actually, that should bring about favorable connotations and remembrances, right? Well, in an fMRI study, Dr. Calvert found that subjects actually bristled (well, their brains reacted negatively) to the sound of the Nokia ringtone but why? After careful study, it was determined that the ringtone symbolized an intrusion into a peaceful life by the harsh auditory chime. So interestingly, the most famous ringtone in the world has now elicited a negative somatic marker that may turn off prospective buyers from favorably viewing the brand.
I love smell and featured blogs on the handcrafted, artisanal fragrances by Frederic Malle and on the rich complexity of the scent diffusers, Antica Pharmacista, my favorite. I think I am going to try some nice smells in my lobby and reception area. That would be great to walk into every day!
Buy•ology Part 3 of 5: Somatic Markers
February 11, 2009 by dr. lam · 5 Comments
When we see a bottle of Jif peanut butter, why do we choose it over the generic brand? Is it truly better? Is there something more reliable about it than another brand. Well, with the recent salmonella outbreak, perhaps there is some veracity to all of this. However, we choose a brand of peanut butter not because of any logic (no matter how much we would like to believe in our logical selves) but due to an emotion, an unconscious thought process that makes us instantaneously pick up the bottle and put it in the shopping cart. Or for those out there who are loyal to Peter Pan, the same instantaneous response occurs. This type of shortcut that influences our buying decisions is termed a somatic marker.
A somatic marker originates in many cases from our childhood filled with memories and with an instinctual system of reward and punishment. If we smelled a wonderful roast as a child and opened the oven and reached in to touch the piping hot Le Creuset pot and instantly recoil in pain, do we not have that experience linger with us for quite some time? These visceral subnotes that underscore how we behave today have a lingering legacy. Why do we think German cars are better? Why do we think a camera from Japan must be better than one purchased from another country? These somatic markers lead to a certain irrational way that we create shortcut stereotypes that influence our buying decisions. Interestingly, as a baby, my mother used to slather a whopping dollop of facial cream on me all the time. I still am not comfortable with facials, especially when a lot of heavy cream is used. I shutter when I think of thick facial cream. Fortunately, I have mitigated my irrational feeling and can use moisturizer every day!
These somatic markers that influence our buying decisions are more powerful than we as thoughful consumers would own up to. In England, the tissue brand Andrex outsells Kleenex brand by almost 2 to 1. The rationale for why this might be the case stems from the use of a small labrador puppy that slides down snowy hills on long trails of toilet paper in the commercials. The puppy has been casually associated with new families and toilet training and there might be something indelibly linked at a conceptual and emotional level that Kleenex does not offer the UK buyer. For all of these emotive connections, we as consumers should be more explicitly thoughtful in our buying decisions to overcome these subversive tendencies.
Buy•ology Part 1 of 5: Mirror Neurons
February 9, 2009 by dr. lam · 2 Comments
I was fascinated by Martin Lindstrom’s book Buy•ology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy, which focuses on how consumers make their buying choices based on a field known as neuromarketing. Neuromarketing employs a variety of techniques to explore how and why consumers make their purchases based on sophisticated brain scans and other methods to detect how our fallible human brains function. I enjoyed another book on behavioral economics better, Predictably Irrational, which I discussed in a series of blogs several weeks ago. I would like to thank Gary, my hair transplant patient, who recommended both books to me and who also confessed was an avid reader of these blogs, so thanks Gary for encouraging me to read Lindstrom’s book. I actually read another of his books many years ago called Brand Sense, which was equally as insightful. I would welcome comment/feedback and ideas for future blogs from any of my readership.
The field of behavioral economics/neuromarketing is fascinating to me. I think by laying out the way that we think we can see our own irrational behavior so that when we make purchasing decisions we can do so perhaps more rationally and avoid the pitfalls of being all too human. Today’s discussion will be on mirror neurons.
In 1992 an Italian researcher Giacomo Rizzolatti was studying the gestural behaviors of a species of monkey known as the macaque. He was specifically exploring a part of the brain known as the premotor area and how the monkeys behaved when performing certain gestures. What he found was that the monkeys would have their premotor area light up not only when they carried out the assigned task but when they watched another monkey doing the same. Interestingly, one day when a grad student returned from lunch break and was about to lick an ice cream cone, the same center of the brain lit up longingly. Only certain targeted gestures would elicit this neural response, whereas most observed activities would not. Rizzolatti termed these specific regions of the brain that were involved as “mirror neurons”, which are located in the inferior frontal cortex and superior parietal lobe.
When we watch a baseball game and we observe our team lose, we cringe. When we read the words “fingernails crossing a chalkboard”, we can hear and feel it. When we see someone smile, we tend to do the same. In a study in 2008 using functional MRI (fMRI) by Takashi Tsukuira and Roberto Cabeza, they found that when subjects looked at a smiling face, they would more readily remember that individual’s name. Being sensitive to positive social signals, we tend to remember those individuals better. We have a tendency to mirror those around us that we like or that we see on a frequent basis. In fact, a certain chemical signal comes alive when we engage our mirror neurons, specifically dopamine. Our pleasure center lights up when we mirror someone.
Particularly when we see products that we think are “cool”, our dopamine levels soar. We tend to want the iPod not only because it is cool but perhaps because we see all these shiny white ear buds surrounding us wherever we are. I certainly have a wonderful visceral response when I think of Apple products, as all of you know. It is also interesting how the book points out that what we thought was absolutely ugly and would never buy becomes something that we must have once we see it worn on every third person we encounter. I think it is fascinating to understand this example in light of how as social creatures we want to bond with those around us. I personally enjoy how my readership aims to mirror some of the thoughts and behaviors that I outline in these blogs, and I in turn enjoy responding to the positive energy that my readership imparts to me. I think mirror neurons can be a good thing so long as we are aware of the power that they possess in how we behave and think. I am certain to smile big next time I meet someone in the hope that they would remember my name better!