Rockfish

There’s an old saying. “When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.”  Decisions on branding typically follow the age old statistical scientific confirmation route. The idea is that you conduct a dipstick study based on your expectations, see where it points at and run with it. This is fine, except that it conveniently forgets a couple of key factors. The human interface problem.

The Problems with Brand Research

Researchers are bound to run into several issues, and try as you may you cannot predict unpredictability. Human beings have an uncanny knack of quitting stereotypical actions just as the latest consumer study has mapped the generation’s current trends. What are you going to do? Consumers are after all, human. Reactivity is a familiar old problem any MBA student learns about on their first day of research collection. It’s just that they choose to forget about it when they enter a larger system. The famous Hawthorne effect, is a case in point.

So, why do marketer’s insist on using the same old research solution for every single problem? I think the answer lies in a story thought up by the brilliant Dr. William Newcomb – Newcomb’s Paradox. Take a moment to read the story, it’s short, sweet and confounding as hell. And I think it explains all that a marketer needs to know about human nature. We are undeniably objectively (perceiving?) creatures. We objectify everything, including space and time. What do you think a drunkard would say, if you asked if he was a drunk?

To think that I am not going to think
of you anymore, is still thinking of you.
Let me then try not to think
that I am not going to think of you

- Zen Saying / Anonymous

I’ve often considered that a better way to make certain decisions about branding is through known behaviour. Campaigns that don’t underestimate their audiences always seem to work better. Despite the fact that I’ve been told by clients in the past that ” Tone it down for audiences in Kanchanpur” it’s brand campaigns that break the rules that also break the sales records.

How People Function

The reason behind this is the way people function. New research about the way consciousness functions consistently shows that popular psychological terms such as memory, association and repression are not the  clear cut black and white terms we thought them to be. Conciusness seems to be a moment to moment phenomena. A metaphor of a miner’s helmet with a flashlight seems apt here. When a person becomes involved with the object of his attention, it’s like the spotlight holds the object in view and nothing else. When the shift in attention occurs, it is again completely absorbed in the object of it’s attention.

These bring up interesting points for discussion especially on what we assume about brand perception and brand recall. For instance viewed from this new viewpoint brand recall becomes much more dependant on a system of holding the viewers attention rather than just attracting it. These therefore requires brand artefacts that are well planned and integrated into the environment.

Here is a simple example.

Say a global pharma major wishes to organise an event aimed at pharma stores and is looking to create branding and environmental design for the event. Now if the venue is the ball room of a 5 star hotel, it is imperative that the company temporarily transform s the space into an environment condusive for the retention of brand messages.

This is impossible if the brand manager pulls out that tired out checklist of logo, brochure, poster and backdrop. Instead the manager should prototype or flowchart the event and look for points where the customer will make contact with the brand. Once these points are established the manager should speak wit the design team on the best way to transform te environment. This can be done through corridor hangings, signage, installations, posters, lightshows… in fact, every aspect of the event’s branding can be controlled. The end effect is that the customer experiences exactly the same brand experience at the venue as he may expect from a controlled space such as a showroom or an office.

This integrated system allows brand managers to look at people as people and not statistical data. As you may have read in an earlier article, the difference between knowing how and knowing that can make all the difference in the positive perception of your brand.