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Unconscious Reasoning

By Peter Breen

It seems that shoppers, like certain content directors, don't want to think any more than is necessary.

At last week's "Shopper Insights in Action" conference in Chicago, Unilever's Mike Twitty presented some intriguing ideas about shopper psychology. The packaged goods maker's director of shopper insights (and one of the marketing research community's most prominent members) discussed the difference between the "Conscious/Executive" and "Unconscious/Habitual" components of the brain.

At the risk of oversimplifying things, let's say that the Executive side of the brain does the "thinking," and then hands matters off to the Habitual side for the "doing" in a division of duties not unlike corporate America. (It also, incidentally, sounds a lot like my marriage. Coming, dear.) According to Twitty, the majority of human behavior is controlled by the Habitual side, to keep the Executive side from becoming overburdened.

This scientific reality explains why shoppers often claim to have not noticed the displays from which they selected products (or why, two years after buying my first automatic-transmission car, I was still reaching for the stick shift). In the store environment, Twitty noted, the brain does a very good job of letting the Habitual side take control and ignoring any stimuli that aren't relevant to that particular trip mission.

Unfortunately, Twitty didn't discuss the potential ramifications of this phenomenon on shopper marketing (although you can bet that Unilever is looking into it). Instead, he ended his presentation by simply -- almost ominously -- noting, "Most marketing is aimed at the [Executive] mind."

Therefore, I was forced to reach several of my own conclusions -- which, I assure you, were in no way implied by Twitty's comments. (Nor, as you'll soon see, where they formulated by anything that approaches rational thought.) But, based on the dominance of the Habitual mind on the shipping trip, I propose the following changes to common practice:

  1. Not only should more secondary displays be deployed, they should be placed in the middle of aisles in serpentine fashion, creating a maze of impulse-purchase opportunities that might get shoppers to thoughtlessly grab and go. (Who would have guessed that the old Albertsons had the right idea for all those years?) Yes, this tactic might annoy a large number of shoppers at first, but they'll get used to it, right?
  2. Ad copy is a complete waste of time. (The Habitual brain does not like to read. Anyone forced to slog through Beowulf in school can attest to this.) So eliminate it from your signage. Replace it with large glamour shots of your packaging and photos of the happiest consumers you can find, along with -- whenever your conscience and/or legal limitations will allow it -- the only word that doesn't require much processing: "Free*." (The fine-print disclaimer "*via rebate, after global warming completes its gradual devastation of the planet" won't be read anyway, so keep it small. And maybe put it on the base wrap.)
  3. Do not ever, ever reset your shelves, let alone rearrange the store. (Stew Leonard, Jr. is a madman who must be stopped, for the good of humanity.) Doing so only forces shoppers to switch back to the Executive brain to decipher the new planogram and, later, intelligibly scream at the cashier.
  4. Stock all new products in a distinct section -- labeled solely as "New Products" -- until it can be proven that their existence has become habitually embedded in shopper minds. (I would imagine that focus groups, where the Executive brain is allowed to roam free, would be ideal for this.) This will keep cut-ins from disrupting the shelf set. (See No. 3.) Alternately, new products with strong sales potential should be included in the Maze of Shippers. (See No. 1.)
  5. If shoppers are truly paying attention on an "as needed" basis, cashiers made obsolete via self-checkout could be reassigned to "sneak" one additional item into each shopping cart. Children have been doing this for years, so it can't be that morally objectionable. To work effectively, every effort should be taken to ensure that the item is relevant either to the shopper's unique purchase history or her current basket composition. (Who are we kidding: Consult your buyer about how to secure space in the "Surprise of the Week" program.)

I admit that these concepts are a bit unconventional. So maybe we should give them some more conscious thought before we put them into practice.

Peter Breen
Managing Director, Content
In-Store Marketing Institute



Published: July 2010

Source: In-Store Marketing Institute

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