In the story Cigars of the Pharaoh, Tintin is rescued by a ship's captain while floating in the sea in a coffin (after being thrown in by the bad guys). On board the ship, Tintin and Snowy meet Senhor Oliveira de Figueira, a Portuguese salesman who travels across West Asia selling to local Arabs.
He persuades Tintin to buy a top hat, ski equipment, a watering can, a bow tie, an alarm clock, suspenders, a parrot in a cage, a water tin, golf club, a doghouse on wheels, and a lead for Snowy. As the overloaded reporter - with Snowy at his heels - walks away, he is heard saying: "Just as well I didn't fall for his patter; you can end up with all sorts of useless stuff if you're not careful."
Apart from the fact that such a customer is a dream for any seller, what was Tintin thinking when he bought into the salesman's talk? It could have been, in purely hypothetical terms, a fascinating case study for Phil Barden, who uses neuroscience, psychology, behavioural economics and real-world examples to decode why consumers buy what they buy.
What sets the book apart is the treasure trove of case studies. Mr Barden plumps for scientific evidence and eschews traditionally accepted, or used, assumptions. He draws on Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman's theory that purchase decisions are predominantly determined by intuitive, implicit processes.
Marketing has hardly been an empirical science. The platform on which conventional marketing is built supposes that the consumer will react in a certain way in a certain circumstance - from the viewpoint of the marketer or the agency. Mr Barden breaks that rule and the spin-offs that emanate from it.
Decoded takes the reader through steps, starting from Decision Science (no, you don't need to be a scientist, Mr Barden assures us), decoding purchase decisions, perception-based marketing activities, decision interface that optimises the path to purchase, the driving forces of purchase decisions and the value factor that crystallises a buy.
There are two systems that determine our purchase decisions and behaviour. According to Mr Kahneman's theory, System 1 consists of perception and intuition. It involves highly skilled mental activities. System 2 is slower and enables us to make reflective, deliberate decisions. System 1 is also known as autopilot and is implicit. System 2 is referred to as the pilot and is explicit. The autopilot mode never sleeps, "is fast, processes all information in parallel, and is effortless, associative and slow-learning".
Think back to your first driving lesson, and then think of now when you drive to work. The early days were spent with furrowed brows, figuring out where first gear and fourth gear were without dropping your eyes and searching for the gear shift. There was a sense of panic. Now, driving to work - whether there is traffic or not - is a cruise. Consumers, too, go through such phases since they have gained a lot of experience by watching advertisements and using products that they have bought.
The hallmark of a strong brand, according to Mr Barden, is to activate System 1 and circumvent System 2 processing. Weak brands, on the other hand, activate System 2, which means customers have to "think" about the purchase decision.
That lays the scientific foundation for studying purchase decisions. A new understanding of the implicit level of decision making has emerged, thanks to scientific methods such as imaging techniques from neuroscience such as fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) or priming paradigms from psychology.
Dive a bit deeper into the area after you have crossed the pilot and autopilot stages. How does a customer react when he is standing in front of a supermarket shelf with so many options before him? Would he react like Tintin did without the help of a salesman to tilt the scales?
At the moment of truth, it is the value proposition that does the trick. The neurologic of a buy is based on a simple equation: net value = reward - pain. The price is not the factor in this arithmetic. "The implicit level of cost allows us to maximise net value without actually reducing price," the author writes.
Whether the communication signal has hit the mark or not depends on how it has been perceived by the consumer. What we think we see and what we actually see have to be decoded by the marketer before the product moves off the shelf. Split-second decisions are made through the blur in which the consumer views the shelf. If you as a marketer can cut through that clutter and reach the consumer's cart, you have it made.
Garnished liberally with examples of advertising and communication from brands such as Tropicana, Apple, Budweiser, Axe, Coca-Cola, Frubes, Godiva, Cadbury and Starbucks, Decoded does not pretend to be the word on deconstructing buying philosophies. But it certainly is worth going through with a fine-tooth comb. You never know what you might pick up.
DECODED: THE SCIENCE BEHIND WHY WE BUY
Phil Barden
John Wiley & Sons; 270 pages; $32.95
(Indian price not available)
He persuades Tintin to buy a top hat, ski equipment, a watering can, a bow tie, an alarm clock, suspenders, a parrot in a cage, a water tin, golf club, a doghouse on wheels, and a lead for Snowy. As the overloaded reporter - with Snowy at his heels - walks away, he is heard saying: "Just as well I didn't fall for his patter; you can end up with all sorts of useless stuff if you're not careful."
Apart from the fact that such a customer is a dream for any seller, what was Tintin thinking when he bought into the salesman's talk? It could have been, in purely hypothetical terms, a fascinating case study for Phil Barden, who uses neuroscience, psychology, behavioural economics and real-world examples to decode why consumers buy what they buy.
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To quote the American humorist and wildly popular 1970s columnist Erma Bombeck, "the odds of going to the store for a loaf of bread and coming out with only a loaf of bread are three billion to one". Going by that observation, marketers should be on their toes trying to spot what the consumer could be persuaded to buy beyond that loaf. For brands, agencies, media, retail, market research or any other business, Decoded could well be the eye-opener.
What sets the book apart is the treasure trove of case studies. Mr Barden plumps for scientific evidence and eschews traditionally accepted, or used, assumptions. He draws on Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman's theory that purchase decisions are predominantly determined by intuitive, implicit processes.
Marketing has hardly been an empirical science. The platform on which conventional marketing is built supposes that the consumer will react in a certain way in a certain circumstance - from the viewpoint of the marketer or the agency. Mr Barden breaks that rule and the spin-offs that emanate from it.
Decoded takes the reader through steps, starting from Decision Science (no, you don't need to be a scientist, Mr Barden assures us), decoding purchase decisions, perception-based marketing activities, decision interface that optimises the path to purchase, the driving forces of purchase decisions and the value factor that crystallises a buy.
There are two systems that determine our purchase decisions and behaviour. According to Mr Kahneman's theory, System 1 consists of perception and intuition. It involves highly skilled mental activities. System 2 is slower and enables us to make reflective, deliberate decisions. System 1 is also known as autopilot and is implicit. System 2 is referred to as the pilot and is explicit. The autopilot mode never sleeps, "is fast, processes all information in parallel, and is effortless, associative and slow-learning".
Think back to your first driving lesson, and then think of now when you drive to work. The early days were spent with furrowed brows, figuring out where first gear and fourth gear were without dropping your eyes and searching for the gear shift. There was a sense of panic. Now, driving to work - whether there is traffic or not - is a cruise. Consumers, too, go through such phases since they have gained a lot of experience by watching advertisements and using products that they have bought.
The hallmark of a strong brand, according to Mr Barden, is to activate System 1 and circumvent System 2 processing. Weak brands, on the other hand, activate System 2, which means customers have to "think" about the purchase decision.
That lays the scientific foundation for studying purchase decisions. A new understanding of the implicit level of decision making has emerged, thanks to scientific methods such as imaging techniques from neuroscience such as fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) or priming paradigms from psychology.
Dive a bit deeper into the area after you have crossed the pilot and autopilot stages. How does a customer react when he is standing in front of a supermarket shelf with so many options before him? Would he react like Tintin did without the help of a salesman to tilt the scales?
At the moment of truth, it is the value proposition that does the trick. The neurologic of a buy is based on a simple equation: net value = reward - pain. The price is not the factor in this arithmetic. "The implicit level of cost allows us to maximise net value without actually reducing price," the author writes.
Whether the communication signal has hit the mark or not depends on how it has been perceived by the consumer. What we think we see and what we actually see have to be decoded by the marketer before the product moves off the shelf. Split-second decisions are made through the blur in which the consumer views the shelf. If you as a marketer can cut through that clutter and reach the consumer's cart, you have it made.
Garnished liberally with examples of advertising and communication from brands such as Tropicana, Apple, Budweiser, Axe, Coca-Cola, Frubes, Godiva, Cadbury and Starbucks, Decoded does not pretend to be the word on deconstructing buying philosophies. But it certainly is worth going through with a fine-tooth comb. You never know what you might pick up.
DECODED: THE SCIENCE BEHIND WHY WE BUY
Phil Barden
John Wiley & Sons; 270 pages; $32.95
(Indian price not available)