Humans are not (always) in control

The first revealing factor is that we are not as in control of our buying behaviour as we think. And, as we are presented with more and more choices, our buying behaviour is hindered. We suffer from ‘choice paralysis’. Professor Sheena Iyengar, of Columbia Business School, and author of The Art of Choosing supports this. She says we have both rational and emotional thought processes and when given too many choices, it can overwhelm us, leading to unpleasant experiences, from FOMO over unwatched TV programmes to confusion about insurance cover.

In the clutter of today’s marketing, our brains create what is termed Heuristics, simply put, it’s when we are in a decision-making rut, and filter out everything that is not of interest and go into a ‘default mode’ where we choose what we have always liked without considering our options. This is exactly why brands like Pepsi have found it so difficult to re-enter the South African market after years of absence where Coca-Cola has dominated and has become the ‘preferred norm’ for many South Africans with zero to little consideration for other colas.

This means that savvy marketers today really need to dig deep into their approach to entrenching their brands with consumers.

Think of it as a journey
You’ve heard of the consumer path to purchase. But the first real step is grounded in research and strategy. Find an insight that connects your brand with your target market, and that has the ability to drive behaviours in the direction you want.

What is an insight?
Insight is not an observation or a statistic. It’s an un-met need, an answer to a question that drives a consumer to do something.

Ask yourself what compulsion drives your target markets’ behaviour, and what instincts dominate their actions. Ask why? rather than what? and when you think you have found it, it should amaze you, it shouldn’t have your nodding in agreement. Case in point is the new positioning work Boomtown did for Eveready and its batteries.

We tapped into the insight that consumer purchase behaviour for batteries is not based on power, but the longevity of the product. We were then single minded in our approach to weave this into our creative approach for the brand. The result: a 25% increase in market share.

Cultural relevance
There is an additional dynamic to insight driven creativity that impacts buying behaviour, cultural relevance. There is nothing more powerful than connecting to your audience, than a culturally relevant insight. Cultural relevance is engrained into the very fibre of a target market and will solicit far more engaging brand resonance and loyalty.

A fantastic example of this is The life Saving Dot by Talwar Bindi in India. Not only did it have incredible cultural relevance, but was also a health benefit to the rural Indian communities.

When looking at insights to connect to your target market consider three things:

  • Do the research to get the insight right, it will have a significant impact on the connection with your consumer;
  • Aim to build the insight to an emotive connection, it will have far more resonance; and
  • Dig deep to find a culturally relevant insight.

As a filter, ask yourself the following:

  • Is your brand communication based on a specific, clear insight?
  • When last did you conduct target market research to determine the relevance of the insight?
  • Does your insight connect on a strong emotional level?
  • How culturally relevant is your insight?

For more information, visit boomtown.agency. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook or on Twitter.