Review — Old Brain Vs New Brain a marketer’s perspective.
There is so much to write here but this word “Brain” is what scientific marketing should actually focus on. With growth of data science, it’s becoming more and more evident that understanding brain and human psychology is going to very very very important for new gen marketers.
I could give you examples from Airbnb using the emotional button, Hyundai knowing what a customer sees first in a car and etc. Why? Because companies have been using these techniques for long enough to keep you interested in their product.
So, what is the Old brain and what does it have to do with marketing? its not an OLD brain but it’s the old brain.
It’s actually
Well, the old brain or the reptilian brain makes the irrational decisions. Since rational decisions are so difficult to make, your reptilian brain is very important. What makes us so advanced is our well developed pre frontal cortex while it allows you to do everything you as a human are able to do today, most of your decisions are still made by the brain that doesn’t make you human. What is means that you could be a great marketer and keep appealing about how good your product is, how unique your product is but till your message appeals to old brain it will not convert your user to customer.
There are five core factors that drive the reptilian brain: pain, fear, emotion, ego, and contrast. If you can find ways to use these factors, you’ll be able to appeal to system one. I have described them below but you could visit CXL’s blog: How to market to the Old Brain to read about them in detail.
Pain
Have you seen start-ups solving one problem and going full blown famous.? Amazon with online shopping, Airbnb with online booking, PayPal pay money without paying money. What did they do? They solved a critical pain point of a larger group of people. No one had seen the use of technology like PayPal before that. Amazon with a touch of a button, you could buy things that would usually make you wait till weekend now that’s a critical pain point. Mostly the old brain is concerned with avoiding pain or factors which might cause them. Now it’s mostly convenience that’s replacing the pain factor.
Fear
Remember the quote “When the chips are down these, uh, civilized people? They’ll eat each other.”? Not exactly that but yes, this old brain is all about own survival. In marketing this is better known as Fear of Missing out. When a sense of urgency is created the users feels like they are missing out on something that everyone is having and they will miss out once it’s gone. Usually, you will see this when you have a website with a counter on an offer.
Emotion
Think of this you have got all: the numbers, the best copy writer, top notch quality software and best services but no conversions that is because you are using logic to convince the user. Why? The old brain operates on the emotion and not on logic, ahha now you know why your logical ads make no sense to the user.
Ego
Self-centred old brain gives power to your ego. Everything you see, there is this one questions you always ask yourself. What’s in it for me? Our old brain makes us think about just one thing, what do you get out of whatever you are looking at. Your USP should mainly attack this part of the old brain. If you are marketing a accounting software, you should try making it look like how could it increase the productivity of the team by replacing it with spreadsheet. This will reflect on the CXO’s mind better.
Contrast
Our old brain is more attracted with things which show how something causes some good changes but its more attracted to things where there are comparisons. Something like before and after image. Apple does this the best, compare their features from previous versions. You can look at the complete explanations of these factors at CXL’s blog
How to Market to the old brain.
1. Find your customer’s pain points. In today’s society, pain probably doesn’t involve carnivorous predators, but those pain points still exist. A buyer may emphasize price, for example, but it could be that the true pain point is running out of product and shutting down production.
2. Use contrast. Don’t just describe the benefits of your product, describe the contrast between using it and using an inferior product or none at all. If possible, do this visually to increase the impact.
3. Use emotion. The more raw emotion you can pack into your marketing, the better. Logical arguments don’t persuade the reptilian brain, but simple emotional appeals will work. If possible, as suggested in the previous item, use visuals that the brain can process easily.”
When you are marketing keep these things in mind
“There are two systems in the brain. The first one is system two. It’s you, which makes it very interesting because system two is aware of itself. It is consciousness, self-awareness. If I think about myself and you think about yourself, that’s system two at work. We’re consciously reflecting.
The other system is not conscious. The totally optimized one is not aware of itself, we’re not aware of [it]. We think that we, system two, are the ones who are controlling our behavior, our emotions, our decisions and we forget the other part. I want you to start optimizing for both of these parts. And if I have to choose, choose the other one.
So, system one
· Has a large capacity
· Requires no effort
· Is intuitive and associative
· Is always on
· Is quite fast
And system two
· Is rational and logical
· Is easily depleted
· Requires full focus
· Is extremely slow
· Is very lazy
If your product is not the rationally best choice, you must appeal to the reptilian brain. If you appeal to system two, it will analyze the facts and determine that you’re not the best choice.