Previous chapters discussed several facts about the operation of the brain’s hemispheres that bear on a marketing message’s chances of escaping the recycling bins of information triage:
- The right brain works in sensual imagery, not in words.
- Right brain images are analogs (direct reflections) of reality as gauged by the senses, not abstract symbols of reality, such as the words on this page.
- The right brain plays the lead role in determining the relevance of incoming information.
- The right brain, which looks for patterns or relationships, forms more complete or holistic images than the left brain, which focuses more on details.
- The right brain is inclusionary and detects relationships; the left brain is exclusionary and detects categories.
The right brain, in a sense, is the gatekeeper to the left brain. If the right brain fails to sense a relationship between the interests of the person it works for and the contents of a product message, the product message has little chance of surviving information triage with enough strength to engage the person’s sustained attention. Despite all the attention devoted to novelty of presentation, more often it is information relevance that catalyzes intentional attention to the contents of a product message. This is more so among second-half customers who are less intrigued by fantastical, whimsical, outlandish, eye-popping, mind-exploding novelty than younger minds.
Consider the reaction of my wife to a Saturn commercial that ran during the 2002 Olympics. It showed a Saturn weaving over hill and vale in a desert landscape filled with German shepherd-sized ants fanning out across the barren stretch. Technically impressive, the commercial was substantively empty. Even silly. My wife turned to me after the commercial ended and said, "What was that about?"
The commercial was probably tested in focus groups, but focus groups are often as far removed from reality as the computer-drawn ants. It was a clean disconnect from Saturn’s original right brain-rooted, customer-oriented brand persona which portrayed warm, empathetic relationships through its stories, first about its workers, then about its customers. The humanistic aura projected by the brand inspired Saturn owners to swarm to Spring Hill, the Tennessee town where Saturns were built, for hot dogs, hamburgers, and potato salad, and to meet and share with each other Saturn stories and other tales, much as Harley-Davidson owners do. The tagline, "A different kind of company. A different kind of car." symbolized the original humanistic bent of the Saturn brand, which included its policy of no price haggling.
Saturn’s first ads, which appeared before it arrived in showrooms, pictured workers in their family and community lives, not in their jobs on factory floors putting pieces of cars together. After Saturn was on the road, following its "tradition" of promoting Saturn through the stories of people instead of pushing automotive technology, ads told stories of Saturn owners. Hal Riney Partners, Saturn’s original agency, convincingly showed in its ads that people—workers and customers alike—were the driving influence on management. This gave Saturn a right brain, first-impression edge because competing brands were all defined around product features, functional benefits, and deals of the week. The emotional right brain cares more about relationships than it does about horsepower and 2.2-liter, DOHC, 16-valve, 4-cylinder engines which is grist for the quantitatively minded left brain. The left brain will get into analyzing a product message’s contents once the right brain has determined that message contents are relevant to its owner’s interests.
The folks at Hal Riney might not have known the brain science wisdom behind their strategy, but they were spot on. However, things have changed quite a lot since General Motors brought Saturn into its centralized management and marketing operations. Saturn’s original customer-centric, right brain bias is no longer prominent. Marketing messages have a product-centric, left brain tilt. Marketing is now mostly about the product. Features, benefits, and deal of the week have replaced the human relationships and the brand as the primary marketing focus. This has cost Saturn its former first-impression edge. Now, Saturn ads must work harder to break through ad clutter. Also, there’s less inspiration now for folks to get on the road to Spring Hill for Cokes, hot dogs, potato salad, and sharing stories about their Saturn experiences.
Connecting with customers is about doing the right things to get their attention and generate positive first impressions. First impressions are mainly a product of right brain mental processes. This makes getting the most favorable first impressions a bit more crucial in second-half markets because middle-aged and older people’s first impressions can be harder to reverse than those of first-half customers, especially when first impressions are negative. It’s often one strike and you’re out!
Asking focus group panelists to talk aloud about first impressions is not productive because of group dynamics influence. Instead, ask panelists to write down their first impressions.
Product messages work best when first impressions are pleasing. Despite this, "fear ads" are often used under the misbegotten belief that scaring the hell out of customers is a good strategy. It works with some people, but it can damage a brand’s image in the eyes of the larger market. A few years ago a Prudential Securities ad ran with the headline "Will you outlive your assets?" Below the headline was a man diving into an empty swimming pool. The ad had a short run. The right brain-generated image of a man crushing his skull on a dry pool floor to symbolize "out of money, out of luck" was a ghastly picture that turned people off. Ads that disturb people are generally not good ads for second-half markets. Older customers would rather be pleased than shocked.