By Mostafa Sayyadi, Michael J. Provitera, and Joanna Seraphim
Does your company’s marketing target the most relevant part of its customers’ brains? Read on to discover why perhaps you should be creating advertisements that skip over the mind’s limbic system, the emotionally reactive part of our brain. Why? Because that really elicits the required response.
Domestic organizations used to compete locally, but now they are faced with global markets, in which everyone competes with everyone else’s business everywhere. For example, consider China. After decades of buying unbranded food products produced by Chinese state-owned enterprises, Chinese consumers can now choose from a large and growing selection of brand-name products every time they go shopping. In America, there are now thousands of brand names of Chinese food products to choose from in the countr’s marketplace.
Psychologists who have studied consumer behavior realize that consumers buy on impulse.1,2,3 People feel isolated and need to protect themselves from excessive stimulation by unnecessary and vapid advertisements. They get bored easily and mute the television or change the radio station due to commercials that do not matter to people who do not care. Look at the story of Chevrolet. This company, which was once a producer of a valuable family car, tried to enter the field of producing expensive cars, sports cars, small cars, and trucks. Gradually, the distinguishing features of that company’s product did not compete well in the marketplace and, as a result, the company’s business weakened.
To avoid becoming obsolete, organizations have to take into consideration the changing customer environment.
To avoid becoming obsolete, organizations have to take into consideration the changing customer environment. Distinctive features, such as hybrid and electric cars, are the way of the automobile market’s future. Westinghouse, a very successful company in its heyday, could not remain competitive in the ever-changing competitive environment in which it competed. Another example is the Godrej company, an organization that was constantly imitating its bigger competitor while all the innovations were underdeveloped and laggard compared to its competitors. They continuously trigger the limbic system of the customer’s brain, the emotionally reactive part of the brain, which is rarely the customer’s best response. By embracing the prefrontal cortex of the customer’s brain, the rational strategic part of the brain where good decisions are made, they would have been able to attract the minds of customers compared to their bigger and better competitors who established that strategy before them.
Four Steps Towards a Real Differentiation
After 20 years of consulting with organizations on “differentiation” in Australia, France, and the United States, we found that organizations need not just innovation and creativity, but also a strong imagination. The neuroplasticity of the brain deals with logic and this practice leads to consumer behavior that enables correct thinking when it comes to loyal customer brand purchasing. The dictionary defines a “logical” argument as a part that is reasoned, convincing, persuasive, valid, and clear.4,5 This definition shows the skill in thinking and reasoning which comes from the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Tapping into the logic of the customer will relate to a loyal customer who becomes an advocate of the company. Thus, we provide a four-step process:
Step One: Be meaningful
Product advertising is not abstract and naturally occurs in relation to events that matter in people’s lives. The company message must be logical and tap into the prefrontal cortex of the customer’s brain. The starting point of attracting customers takes place in two steps, one being the first time the customer hears about the product or service, and the second when they first buy or use the company’s service.
Step Two: Differentiate
Being different means not being like others, and being exceptional means being unique. Therefore, companies should look for something that differentiates them from their competitors. With Chevrolet, it has always been their Corvette. Differentiating your company or products takes place in many ways. For Chevrolet, it is an expensive two-seater high-performance car. The trick is to find the point of difference and use it to benefit your customers.
Step Three: Credibility
Organizations must have credibility to support their differentiating idea. In this case, the company establishes a logical discussion about their differences and in this way makes the idea appear realistic and acceptable in the prefrontal cortex of the brain.6,7,8 This gives street credit, an often-overlooked product attribute. For example, if your product is a faucet that does not leak, then you should be able to directly compare it to faucets that may leak. Claiming to be different without providing a reason will make the claim seem hollow in the minds of the consumer. Companies must be able to prove their argument for product features and support it.
Step four: Express differences
Differences cannot be kept hidden. When a company makes a distinctive product, it must be advertised clearly and often. Superior products do not necessarily win, but it is these superior perceptions coming from the prefrontal cortex of the brain that win. Every advertisement, brochure, and website must show consistency. A differentiating idea is lodged in the prefrontal cortex because people see their attitude toward the product or service as long-lasting and durable. Real customer motivation starts with the “differentiating idea,” and ends with long-lasting cognitive satisfaction.
Effective Leadership
Leadership is about strength-spotting. Each leader makes an effort to enhance their followers’ strengths. This trait may be the most powerful way to differentiate a brand name. The reason for this is that leadership is the most direct way to build credibility for a brand name, and credibility is what you use as collateral to guarantee the performance of your brand name.9,10,11,12 When you have the credibility of leadership, your customers are more likely to accept whatever you claim about your brand because you spot strengths in your customers and help them develop those attributes by buying your product or service.
Be confident but not narcissistic
Despite the previous points about the feeling of power and leadership, we often come across leaders who do not like to talk about being leaders themselves. They simply work only for themselves and are seller-oriented. To be market-oriented and an authentic leader, a leader exudes confidence but not narcissistic behavior. “We don’t like to show off.” However, showing off is what advertising is all about. You want to show you have the best product or service and that has to be told to customers upfront through advertising and product usage.
The many facets of leadership
- Leadership in sales: A strategy that market leaders often use is to announce how well they sell. This method is successful because people like to buy what others buy. They change the perception of customers to think about strengths.
- Leadership in technology: Some companies that have a long history of technological advancements can use this type of leadership as a differentiator from their competitors. This type of leadership is effective because people are influenced by companies that create new technologies, new technologies that can enhance the customer experience.
- Leadership in performance: Some companies have products that do not sell well, but their performance is excellent.13,14 This issue can also be used to distinguish a company from competitors whose products have a weaker performance. This is an approach that will cause the competition to react and counter the advertisements.
Shakespeare said that the world is a stage and all the people are actors
Leadership is an amazing stage where you can tell others the story of your becoming the best. Create win-win scenarios where you help customers bring out their best. A powerful attribute of positive psychology colliding with creativity and innovation.
Leadership power
What makes a company strong is not its product or service, but the position it occupies in the customer’s brain. Leaders should think inside out instead of outside in. Power will get products sold with an outside approach but that will only tap into the limbic system of the brain and will shortly defuse. When you reach the position of leadership, announce your position to others using the prefrontal cortex of the brain where all decisions lie and people have the capacity to be an advocate for not only your product or service but also your company. A large number of companies are different from their leadership in the market and do not take advantage of tapping into the prefrontal cortex of the brain. This action is to open the door to competitors.
Beyond Differentiation
Companies’ eagerness for continuous growth often leads them to fall into the trap of “everything for everyone,” and this issue, in turn, will destroy their distinguishing features. But there are important guidelines for maintaining your distinctive features.
Remember where you came from
The story of the sale of Manhattan in history books today is told from the Dutch perspective: the Lenape Indians living on the island of what they called Manhattan, meaning “place for gathering wood to make bows,” sold their land to the arriving Dutch settlers in the 1600s for the equivalent value of $24. Managers need to remember how the business began. At the beginning of their creation and formation, trade names usually have a lot of concern about the differentiating features of their products and services. Changes will take place, but the evidence must still precede the changes as the cornerstone of how the business began in the first place.
Be coherent
Perseverance, consistency, and building a strong culture affect not only the customers but also the employees. To be coherent, leaders must become strength-spotters. They not only spot their own strengths and build upon them, but they also spot the strengths of their followers and customers, to help them become their “best self.” Begin with a positive message. Companies often choose a simple and effective differentiating message that we see reflected in their advertisements. The CEO of the company is the only one who can direct the activities of the organization’s working groups in line with the company’s goals. Although this is rigid, mechanistic, and autocratic, it is still the norm today in corporations. This will persevere if the CEO’s message is for all the employees to focus on a single message to the customer and stay united. Sometimes you have to change your position. Electrolux used a slogan that worked in the UK and Scandinavia but failed in the US and Canada. Leaders learned quickly that one message does not fit all. “Electrolux sucks better than its competitors.” Too broad, unappealing, and a vapid slogan.
Transformation begins at the cusp of failure
There is a big difference between developing and transforming a brand name and going after it. The evolution and transformation of a brand name are usually done in response to a competitive move or a serious change in market conditions, usually coupled with a failing brand and having the resilience to recover. When we transform, we recover, we bounce back, and we learn from our loss, whether it be financial, emotional, or behavioral.
In Conclusion
In order to win the hearts and minds of customers, leaders need to become positive psychologists and follow the Ross School of Business model of Positive Organizations founded at the University of Michigan. At first, followers, employees, and even customers may oppose this suitable idea presented by agents outside the organization, because they do not conform well, and employees do not want agents outside the organization to act as vendors because they feel capable of training in-house. However, it takes an outside consultant to make the necessary changes in organizations to create breakthrough ideas. At first, vendors or consultants are considered outsiders to the organization. This perception may cause a lack of respect and closeness in the organization. This situation will create very difficult conditions at first but, as soon as the training and development takes hold, transformation takes place, and the entire situation becomes positive. As senior management consultants, we noticed that instead of rejecting the idea of factors outside the organization, an awareness of external views brought out their best selves and tapped into their creativity and innovation. The result is that the new strategy will be a revised strategy that will not be the same as the proposed strategy previously implemented by the CEO. We offer the idea of factors outside the organization, by which we present to the higher levels of management the probability of encountering our idea of positive psychology, coupled with organizational pride and the foregoing of ill will. Having an outsider offer novel solutions to old problems decreased and organizations prospered.
