Month: Apr 2020

This Will Leave a Mark

Burnt Hand

Do you remember the last time you burned your hand? Well, whether you realise it or not, you certainly do.

If you’ve ever burned your hand when placing it on a hot pan, the next time someone places a pan in front of you, you’re likely to think twice before even touching it. This is because your brain has created a marker which associates the pan with a burnt hand.

When terrible things happen, it’s most likely that they will leave a mark in our brains. Also, without even knowing it, they will guide our future behaviour.

This is an example of a somatic marker.

The term somatic marker originated from “soma” meaning “body” and “marker” since it marks an experience permanently in our brain.

The somatic marker hypothesis was discovered by Antonio Damasio, the head of Neurology at the University of Iowa, where he theorised about the involvement of our emotions in the decision making process.

A Somatic marker is evident when your behaviour is a result of a certain feeling or association you possess in your mind. It’s like an emotional bookmark you acquire upon witnessing surrounding events.

It happens when you link two disparate or incompatible images together.

For example, it’s like the Energizer bunny. The bunny keeps running and winning races which makes it easily remembered and associated with enduring battery power when browsing different battery brands.

Such factor plays a key role in making you pick the Energizer batteries instead of any other brand.

Energizer Bunny

Most of our somatic markers come from our past experiences. They can be based on our positive or negative experiences.

However, most businesses often resort to the negatives ones. They use fear, one of the most powerful somatic markers, to affect their consumers.

Many marketers and advertisers try to create somatic markers in the consumers’ brains to drive impulse buying or unconscious behaviour. They try to build products and ads and associate them with fear to trigger images and create desirable outcomes.

This helps them to drive automatic consumers’ behaviour which is often a byproduct of the somatic markers already present in their brains. It certainly helps them to alter the consumers’ decisions and make them choose their own brand over the others. 

There are too many products which we only purchase because of our fear. We might even purchase a product just for the sake of feeling safer and in more control of our life even when we’re not. 

What’s even more interesting is the fact that certain events might create somatic markers which later result in the creation of a specific behavioural pattern on the long run.

Think about the 2008 financial crisis or the 9/11 attacks. These certainly have resulted in significant changes in the consumer’s behaviour and affected many industries in the process.

Today, due to the nature of the COVID-19 and its ability to make people fearful all the time, it will create a powerful somatic marker which triggers certain behaviours.

Such somatic marker will affect the consumers’ perceptions and purchasing patterns in the long term.

It’s important for both of the consumers and businesses to realise that the purchasing decisions aren’t always conscious. The somatic markers are often the cause behind our behaviour which is based on our “gut feeling”.

Sometimes, our actions are seen in the form of a “fast response” when, in fact, they are only a result of the somatic markers which were made in our brain from our past experiences.

So, the next time you want to purchase something, keep in mind that you might easily fall a victim for somatic markers. After all, emotion is what most marketers thrive on.

Brand Rituals

Although most people mistake brands for merely a logo, it goes way beyond that. A brand resembles the collective and synergistic outcome of several elements including the brand’s logo, colour palette, and ritual.

Many brands tend to create rituals which entail certain habits or behaviours associated with their identity to increase their brand’s attractiveness and consumers’ loyalty.

A ritual becomes a common ground where all consumers connect and interact with the brand. It also helps to build brand familiarity which translates into trust later on.

Although it takes a lot of time to build a ritual, its effects will last for generations. Think about Oreo, for example, it’s not really a special cookie, but it has managed to create a ritual and communicate it repeatedly for its consumers. 

Wherever you go, in any part of the world, you’ll definitely meet people who know how to eat an Oreo correctly.

Oreo Cookies

Brand rituals are a very powerful tool. It helps create nostalgia, and it makes consumers engage with the brands’ offerings. This, in turn, shows that consumers care enough to take part in the ritual and thus, it certainly adds a lot of value to the brand’s offering.

Building a brand ritual could be through repetition, but the key is that it has to speak into the brand’s core elements and identity.

The reason why most brand rituals are effective lies in the fact that humans always seek belonging, whether to a brand or a tribe of some sort.

Having a ritual creates a sense of connectivity with brands and other consumers.

As it seems, humans always have a tendency to belong to a community which caters to their needs and to their self-image.  When creating a brand ritual, it invites consumers to become a member of the brand’s “tribe” or community.

To add up, upon building a community of brand enthusiasts, consumers are more likely to interact with one another which increases the brand’s perceived value. It also shifts the brand’s perception and creates more affective consumers’ responses. 

A brand-specific ritual helps to create a culture where it blends different sets of values with emotional connection and extends them with the brand’s symbols, stories, logo, and different artefacts.

This allows the brand to create a special bond and to develop meaningful engagements with their consumers.

Another importance for a brand ritual lies in encouraging consumers’ repeated purchases which transforms into a habit later on. This helps the brands to predict their consumers’ behaviour.

For example, the Oreo ritual encourages dunking the cookie in milk which generates a lot of opportunities for the brand. Oreo could offer promotions or extend their cross-selling opportunities while increasing their brand’s value in the process.

Oreo free promotion

  It’s very essential to build a brand ritual which is consistent with the brand’s identity and communicated thoroughly.

 By doing so, the brand will stand out from their competitors and become able to communicate with their consumers on a deeper level. It will certainly make a brand unique and add up to its perceived value. 

Has any brand ritual come to your mind while reading this? Share your thoughts in the comments below.