Browsing Tag

unconscious mind

How Brand Managers Should Use Humor

Humor is a surprisingly complex phenomenon. At first glance, it seems straightforward: something is funny, we laugh. But upon examination it turns out that humor and laughter play several roles in our lives, influencing the way we communicate with each other and how we see the world.

“First and foremost, humor is a disruptive force. The experience of laughter, especially unexpected laughter, jolts people out of their routine and creates heightened awareness. You’re reminded that the world isn’t exactly what you expect it to be,” says Karyn Buxman, neurohumorist and former president of the American Association for Therapeutic Humor, “so you pay more attention to what’s going on.”

Humor is particularly effective at capturing attention when it is appeals to the unconscious mind. In Carver & Scheier’s seminal work, Perspectives on Personality, we find that “Humor often rests on threatening desires or impulses that are transformed in amusing ways.” The longing to use ‘dirty’ or ‘naughty’ language manifests very early in our development — ask any first grade teacher, and they’ll tell you the most popular punchline ever is “Poop!” — and it stays with us for our entire lives. The Kmart commercials very deftly give people a way to enjoy the naughty impulse without any social consequences. That’s the comedy bulls-eye!

Finally, it’s important to understand that humor can be used to both capture and direct customer attention. Both commercials have, at their core, messaging about Kmart’s online sales and gas savings — areas where the brand has reasonable hopes of being a viable competitor. If enough shoppers associate the pleasurable experience of laughing at Kmart’s messaging with interacting with the brand, the chances they’ll give the online store a try themselves go up. After all, doesn’t everyone want to ship their pants?

Be A Better Brand Manager: The Essentials

Humor is not one-size fits all. What makes one person laugh may alienate another. The more robust and complete your understanding of your customer is, the easier it will be to create messaging that tickles your customers’ funny bone.

Be strategic. While humor is generally always welcome, it’s best used when it helps reinforce a specific marketing message.

Pay attention to your metrics when assessing what types of humor work best with your customer base. Humorous content tends to be among the most highly-shared content on social media in general, so make sure you’re making apples-to-apples comparisons (examining how one type of funny material works compared to another type of funny material rather than funny material compared to more serious content) when judging effectiveness.

August 17, 2013 by

Retail’s Mysteries Revealed: Can You Tell Today What Your Customers Will Want Tomorrow?

The brand-breaking challenges JC Penney has had are in no way inevitable, Forbes magazine says, in this discussion of predictive analytics. By harnessing the power of mathematics, we’re told, retailers can significantly reduce the risk of going catastrophically off-brand, alienating your best customers, and losing market share. Does Forbes have it right?

Yes and no.

Yes, because statistical analysis of previous customer behavior provides retailers with tremendously valuable information. Objectively examining what has happened in your stores over the course of time can be a very revealing exercise. Retailers who engage in this type of analysis often discover things about their operations that they never otherwise suspected.

In the Forbes article, for example, we see how retailer Perry Ellis discovered that when their associates actively engaged with customers, such as assisting them in the fitting room, those customers would spend 50% more on Perry Ellis merchandise than customers who were left alone to shop.

This type of insight is valuable. But it is not sufficient.

Going Deeper: The Secret to Retail Growth

It’s really good to know what your customers have done. It’s even better to know why they’ve done it. Understanding the mathematics of customer behavior is a great first step, but to achieve sustainable, meaningful growth, retailers need to understand their customers’ motivations.

This is where things get complicated. 90% of customer behavior is unconscious. This means that customers don’t fully know — and they certainly can’t articulate — what leads them to embrace one retailer and eschew another. All of the stuff that determines these decisions takes place ‘off radar’, in the customer’s unconscious mind.

The unconscious mind is a complex and nuanced territory. We all have an unconscious mind. It’s where we store the millions upon millions of messages we’re given by our culture, education, and environment about the type of person we’re ‘supposed’ to be. Every image we see, every story we hear, every experience we go through leaves its mark on our unconscious mind. Together, these forces combine to form our self image.

Customers make purchasing decisions that reinforce their self image. Have you ever had a customer walk into the store and say “This place just feels right?” When they’re expressing that sentiment, it’s because the experience you’re providing is in alignment with their self image.

Now, obviously, every customer has their own unique self-image. No two people on this planet view themselves the same way. However, it’s possible to discover what traits and characteristics are integral parts of the majority of your best customers’ self image. This is done through the process of Brand Modeling, a proprietary process we’ve developed to help retailers attract and build strong relationships with highly profitable customers.

Identifying the primary unconscious drivers of customer behavior makes it infinitely easier for a retailer to stay on brand, better please their customers, and build market share. In other words, there’s a reason Kohl’s is successful, and JCPenney isn’t.

The ability to predict, with a high degree of certainty, what your customers are going to want tomorrow, begins with statistical analysis of previous purchasing behaviors. But it doesn’t stop there. When you’re willing to go further, and delve a little deeper into what makes your customers tick, that’s when true sustainable retail growth happens.

May 6, 2013 by