“But I don’t know any brands. I don’t pay any attention to advertising.”
A familiar phrase to anyone who works in brand, communications or marketing.
This time it was uttered by my mother in protest to a Christmas Day round of The Logo Game. A woman who, in my lifetime, has only grocery shopped at Waitrose, driven Volkswagen Golfs and worn Barbour wax jackets. A woman who insists on a particular brand of tonic with her gin and shudders at the thought of own brand …..
Her protest was overruled. And she did pretty well – other than failing to guess the fast food chain with the clue ‘royal’. She even knew many brands I did not.
What got me thinking however, was the recurring theme amongst all players. The feeling that “I know what you mean. I can picture it. But I just can’t think what it is.”
This was uttered in response to:
- “What colour are Walkers Roast Chicken crisps?” despite the questioned buying them not infrequently
- “What colour are the letters in the PG tips logo?” despite the questioned actively avoiding them
- And, “What colour is the triangle in Quality Streets?” despite the questioned having eaten hundreds in their life, and many in the past month.
Acting in accordance with brand preference and perception, without explicit awareness or intent, is not uncommon.
Whether people care to admit it or not, very few are immune to the implicit influence of brands. They buy, or avoid, brands with certainty, but lack the supporting rational. By definition, people consume intuitively. Decisions are on the basis of hunches and feelings, not reasoning and explicit awareness. And this draws into question one of marketing departments favoured KPIs – consumer awareness, specifically un-prompted.
There are undoubtedly benefits of consumers being able to think or talk about a brand or product without being prompted to – not least, recommending and advocating to others. But, the tendency to focus on this as a metric is misleading and can result in the misattribution of resources.
Some consumers will buy Cadbury’s new Peanut Caramel Crisp upon entering a store, being driven down the confectionary isle by ‘a feeling there was something they wanted to try’ and then recognising the pack at shelf. But, if asked, they would not be able to recall the name of the product or the colour of the pack. This would fail to deliver the required un-prompted awareness KPI – but it would still deliver against the more important sales targets.
Marketing is not the only field late to appreciate the power of implicit knowledge. Economics, driven by the work of Daniel Kahneman, is slowly waking up to an appreciation of the brain’s automatic and unconscious System 1, having focused for years on the effortful conscious System 2. Neuroscience itself, is only just starting to understand knowledge in isolation of the hippocampus – the area previously attributed responsible, but reliant on explicit awareness of, learning and memory.
The new field of thought proposes that new learning and memory can take place in the brain’s cerebellum. Cells here respond to stimuli instantly, before the conscious mind becomes aware of either the stimulus or the response. Thus, consumers are able to recognise, and place in their baskets, products without realising their exact rational. Furthermore, they are unable to recall the name or colour of, even their favoured products, during festive board games.
Marketers need to appreciate sales, whether motivated explicitly or implicitly.
Individuals need to appreciate they do know brands, implicitly if not explicitly.
Both should settle any doubts over a round of The Logo Game.