230. How To Create a Brainy Brand (Refreshed Episode)

Welcome to episode 230 of the Brainy Business Understanding the Psychology of why People Buy. Today's episode is all about using behavioral economics to create a brainy brand.

Ready? Let's get started.

You are listening to the Brainy Business Podcast where we dig into the psychology of why people buy and help you incorporate behavioral economics into your business, making it more brain friendly. Now, here's your host, Melina Palmer.

Hello.

Hello everyone.

My name is Melina Palmer and I want to welcome you to the Brainy Business Podcast. Today's episode is all about branding and specifically on my insights for how to incorporate brain science and behavioral economics insights so you can have a brainy brand that resonates better with your potential customers, clients, members, whatever you call it so you can be one of those coveted favorite brands in the mind of your consumer. In my first book, what yout Customer.

Wants and Can't Tell youl, I have.

A section in part one that talks about the difference between businesses and brands. When you think of your favorite brand, what comes to mind? Why is it your favorite?

When did it become your favorite?

Is it re earning that every day? Or is your answer more of a habit? At this point, when your brand is thinking about becoming a beloved favorite, it's important to think about the experience people have with you.

And becoming a favorite is a lot.

Like dating and marriage. On a first date, you're looking for all sorts of data to help categorize someone as a hero or a zero, and you want to be able to cut your losses before you invest too much. If they slurp their soup in a weird way, you might say, no way.

I don't want to live with that for the rest of my life and.

Write off someone who would have otherwise been a 10.

Now, if my husband were to slurp.

The soup in a similarly annoying way at dinner tomorrow, I I'm not filing for divorce.

That would be ridiculous.

It's the same with brands.

Once one is your favorite, it can.

Slurp the soup quite a few times before they would lose that status. So while it's important to not make mistakes, you especially want to be on your best behavior early on in the customer relationship to build up that favorite status. The tips in this episode will help you leverage behavioral economics to do just that. This refreshed episode originally aired in April of 2019. It was number 43 of the podcast. I've chosen this for our Tuesday episode today because I thought it would be a great lead in for the conversation I'm having with Matt Johnson. In Friday's episode about his new book Branding that Means Business, which actually comes out today.

And this time of year is also.

A really great time to be thinking about your brand and goals for the coming year. What changes can your brand make and where is it worth the investment in becoming a more brainy and beloved brand? Keep that in mind as you listen today. And don't forget to use your secret weapon the show notes for the episode with links to lots of books, past episodes and other great content to help you on your branding journey. Those are found within the app you're listening to and@thebrainybusiness.com 230.

All right, let's talk about brainy Branding first, we need to talk a little about what a brand is in the traditional sense. If you were to look it up in the dictionary, a brand is a type of product made by a particular company under a particular name. Or it's the way ranchers mark cattle to claim them as their own and so no one can steal them. On the surface, branding cattle may not seem related to branding a company, but when you think about it, in today's world, a brand still does a lot of those things. You put your stamp on something to show it is yours, and many people wear those same brands with pride to show their part of the herd. A brand can take a generic item like the paper used to wipe our noses and turn it into something more Kleenex. People pay more for brand name items and they even get more value out of them because of expectations and conditioning. Studies show the value of Coca Cola is more than the drink itself, but the expectation that you will be drinking Coke causes the brain to light up with joy before the bottle even touches your lips. And people say they get more pain relief from a pill they believe costs $2.50 over one that only costs 10 cents, even when they're both just a placebo. These are some of the insights that can make a brand brainy. Understanding what creates value in the brain of a consumer and how to build that into messaging, and knowing that conditioned responses can cause a product like Coca Cola to create a similar reaction in the BR of its consumer to that of Pavlov's dogs and their dinner bell. Before we get too deep into that, though, I want to talk about the difference between branding and marketing. Many people, especially those who have not worked in the field before, think these terms are synonymous. But marketing and branding are not the same thing. I tell my clients and staff that marketing is all the one off stuff you do to get your name out there. Radio ads, website work, flyers, brochures, sponsorships. And when all you do is marketing, you consider each of these as they come up in a vacuum. You get a request for an advertisement and start from scratch each time. Sure, you have some signature colors you go to, but much more than that. And it's a new day, new campaign, new message. Marketing is reactive. It's better than doing nothing for the most part. But it's not building towards something bigger. It's not creating something people want to wear on their arms and shout from the rooftops that they're part of the team. That is where branding comes in. When you create a brand, you have a strategic center. Everything can relate back to a touchstone for your company. Any opportunity or new request can be brought back to this foundation to see if it's in alignment. And if it is, then you do it. If not, you don't. Branding has gone through lots of fads over the years. Personas, archetypes, storyboards, you name it. While some of those fads have burned out, many are still used today, and they provide a good starting point for companies. But there are many myths out there about branding, and as Byron Sharpe said in How Brands Grow, it is in many ways a field in its infancy. He relates marketers to medieval doctors using bleeding as a technique to treat their patients for hundreds of years. A bit harsh, perhaps, but I get the point. Marketing research has long struggled to be considered true research in the same way the sciences are often this is because businesses place pressure on quick results, and teams rely on the way they've always done research instead of creating truly valid studies. A brainy brand knows what it's trying to achieve and builds quantitative and qualitative research projects to test, learn and grow. Traditionally, marketing might tie an uptick in sales to luck. When the department did not make changes, they can immediately tie back to the increase. Or maybe they would say something like, well, I guess our message is finally starting to sink in. And it's this cumulative effort has resulted in the win we're seeing right now. But often there is an outside factor that influences behavior just waiting to be uncovered. And behavioral economics is helping us to do that. Truly great marketers like those in the sciences are great questioners, always asking why? And digging deeper. For example, in 2012, Mars saw an uptick in their candy bar sales. They did not increase, spend, or do anything to change their brand messaging. So what happened? How could they replicate this and continue to see the benefits? What had they done that triggered all these sales of Mars bars. Turns out they didn't really do anything. In reality, the increase in sales was tied back to the landing of the Mars rover. Serendipitously, it was named Curiosity. Are our brains so simple in their connections that hearing the word Mars and relating to the planet Mars over and over would increase our cravings for Mars bars, which are named after their founder and not even tied to the planet at all? Why, yes, yes they are. This is one of many examples in Jonah Berger's amazing book why Things Catch on, which I've linked to in the show Notes. He also co authored a series of studies in the Journal of marketing back in 2008 which outlined more of these simple connections. For example, people who wrote with a green pen were more likely to choose Sprite than those who wrote with an orange pen, who were more likely to choose Orange Crush. People were more likely to think of Reese's and other candies with orange wrappers the day before Halloween when the color was prominent and than they were a week later. Those who were shown pictures of dogs were more likely to show a preference for Puma shoes. You may be thinking, but Pumas are cats. And that is true. They chose the dog images for the study because they're related but not the same and still activate the cat category in the brain. Here's what I mean. Have you ever played the game where someone says a word and you say the first word that comes to your mind? Well, when people heard the word dog, what do you think the most common response was? That's right. Three out of every four people said cat. And your brain makes these associations whether you ask it to or not. This is why it's also smart to put peanut butter, jelly and bread in the same aisle, or a little display of cereal near the milk. In the case of Puma products, people were shown a series of 20 pictures before being asked about their brand preferences.

On shoes and things.

One group did not see anything that tied in animals. They saw only staplers and other random things. And in the other groups, five or ten of the images included dogs. No one had every image be of a dog, so it didn't feel so forced and obvious. Those who saw just five images of dogs in a completely unrelated task were more likely to show a brand preference for Puma than those who did not. This is the concept of priming, which was the focus of episode 18, and it's important to think about this in relation to your own branding and your messaging. What's the messaging that's coming directly before your advertisement Or. Or what's the show somebody's watching before your commercial comes on? What is the context of the article, where your advertisement is being placed, or YouTube video somebody's watching? That all matters and is really important to note as. And so it's important when you think about things like, you know, Facebook targeting or how you're promoting your ads, who you want to be showing it to, what context you want to be coming up in. All of that priming is really relevant. Relevant if you want to have a brainy brand to make sure that you are associating your brand properly with the right things. For my brand of the brainy business, I had to make a choice of how I wanted my logo to look, what I wanted in the name, and how I wanted people to perceive the brand. Overall, I obviously put a lot of thought into this, and it was something I talked a lot about with the designer of the logo and in creating all the work. And for me, I knew it was important to include a brain in the image and in the lot of the images on social media, I have the purple brain brain is in my images. And I've sort of made him into a character to help show that this is fun and that I'm taking an approach to the topic of behavioral economics, something that could feel very academic and weighty and making it interesting. So it's not boring, which is why the artwork is very fun and I use colors like purple instead of other harsher colors, which we are going to get to color theory soon. But thinking about the way that those images, the what does a brain signify? It signifies that it's going to be smart or thoughtful and all these associations that come up with brains. And in my case, I also have a rocket. And so showing that you're going to be lifting up, you're going to be upright, leveling, you're moving forward. The associations that our brains are making all the time with those Images, in those 11 million bits of information your subconscious is processing, those get associated with my brand. And so it was important to choose things that were fun but intelligent and that would have the message. This overall feel. I wanted for the brand to help draw people in. And then it's my responsibility to be adhering to that in all the messaging, all the episodes of the podcast, every video I do on Facebook, all the social media that I share, that it's informative, it's strategic, it's intelligent, but also friendly, approachable and fun. And that is my brand messaging. That's my brainy brand. And many Other brands do this as well. And you can do it too. It's just important to be strategic and thoughtful about what it is that you're doing for your company. And getting back to that concept of priming. Some smart food brands have realized the importance of this. What we were talking about with Puma, that you know, peanut butter and jelly and they've created new products that they or versions of the product they already have so that it can be in a place to take advantage of this sort of association in the brain. So the there was not always, if you can remember back to a time where there wasn't refrigerated pre made cookie dough in the case next to the milk at the grocery store. And depending on where you're listening to this from, perhaps you don't have that and that seems weird and gross, but that's something we have here in the States. They also other companies created different cheese sauces and salsas that do not need to be refrigerated. Perhaps they had to come up with some really innovative packaging or processes but it was important to do that so they could be in the aisle near the tortilla chips. Because those simple associations often win the day. And being able to have the product in the place where it's more likely to be triggered in the brain of the customer to want to buy right then before they're going to forget about it. I know how many times have you gone to the grocery store for one specific thing and it's the one thing you forgot. It's even on your list. Whatever happens to be. And it's because it wasn't in the right place, it wasn't on your path, it wasn't triggered in your brain. You get busy, you get overwhelmed and you forget where things are. So making it as easy as possible. This is expecting error as we talked about in nudges and all that of of that. You need to use those associations of the brain to make it as easy as possible on the customer and be strategic on your side to think about how you can make that easy, where those errors are going to be so that you can help them to overcome and show that they're going to make the right choice. Simple associations like this are often ingrained in our lexicon. They're things we already know and associate together and have done since we were kids, like dogs and cats. But how hard is it to create one of your own? Availability. The focus of episode 15 is the main concept at play here. This is the weight our brains place on one thing based on how easily that item comes to mind when we see or hear something else. When I Talked about the KitKat and coffee campaign on the power of habit and the huge increase in sales that campaign saw saw, it was a newly created simple association. KitKat has always had a great jingle which helps it really burrow into your brain. And you see coffee all the time at work. When the two o' clock desire for reward hits your brain, you crave sugar and caffeine. You can get the double whammy with a KitKat and coffee. This campaign didn't have to do much because it found an easy association and the right place to buy the ads. In their case on the radio again for that meeting musical jingle which resulted in double digit growth every year for a decade, which is pretty impressive. Above all, a brainy brand knows that everything matters. You've heard me say it on the podcast all the time and there's a reason for that. And this is why I truly believe behavioral economics is the future of marketing and branding. In every industry, in every application, every type of business can benefit from this information. When you understand how the brain works and all the bizarre ways it makes decisions, it unlocks a powerful space where you can see what a certain word choice or ad placement could do that another would not. It's almost like seeing the Matrix, how the character says he doesn't even see the zeros and ones anymore because his brain has been trained to look at the code and see what it all represents. The field has a long way to go before these formulas are all found out, and in many cases, because the brain is so complex and evolving, I doubt it will ever be an exact science. And personally, I think that's a good thing. There's always a little mystery in which brain center will be triggered and how it will respond. And as new brands develop new personalities in the space, they will create new opportunities and paradigms and everybody has to react. Brands Brands have personalities just like people, and for good reason. If you remember from earlier in the episode I mentioned expectations and their impact on brands, known personalities create expectation in our brains. Let's think of a snarky or kitschy brand like Sour Patch Kids or Mountain Dew or Doritos. They tend to push the envelope and do crazy things. When you see an ad is for one of these companies, you expect there's going to be something funny or crazy, and your brain builds anticipation, releasing dopamine. So when the payoff comes, it's even more exciting than it would have been from another brand. But what if a hospital used this sort of messaging or a bank. Probably not a great decision. It's out of character and causes concern. It's the Freaky Friday effect when you expect someone to act one way and they act completely differently, like their person personality has been surgically replaced with that of their opposite. It's unnerving. You wonder what else might be wrong with them and want to stay away. Your brain can tell on some level something is wrong. It starts to notice and file that away in the I don't like this file. Smart brands know the work is never done. You can never rest on your laurels and say, cool, we made it to the mountaintop. We're the leader and we always will be. No, no no no no. There is always another competitor, a new medium to look into, a new product entering the market, and a disruptor ready to shake up the space. As we talked about last week in the conversation about Apple Card, also known being talked about as the Disruptor card, and what it could be doing for financial institutions across the country and really the world, people who are born born for marketing and branding find this concept exhilarating. There's always a new puzzle to solve while others get burnt out. A truly brainy brand, one that is laying the foundation of their messaging and who knows who they are and how they would respond. Who has a brand personality so well known that it's like a real person they can react properly to change and create some of it themselves. Take a minute to think about some of your favorite actors and actresses. The ones who you know no matter what, will win your heart and mind on screen that will absolutely crush any and every role. Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day Lewis and Johnny Depp may have come to mind for some of you. Or what about Claire Foy taking on the role of Queen Elizabeth in the Crown? Or Rami Malek playing Freddie Mercury in Bohemian RA Rhapsody? Stunning performances by both of them. We would all tend to think that actors go on talent alone, that they wake up one day and can just do whatever role they're trying to portray perfectly. But it's not as innate as it might appear. Most award winning actors and actresses spend countless hours, in some cases months or years, preparing for these roles. They have coaches for the way they should walk, talk, move their hands and some take on immersive strategies. And this is both for created characters or real people you might be portraying Daniel Day Lewis reportedly lived in a jail cell eating only prison rations in preparation for one role. And on Gangs of New York he wore a very thin coat because that's all that would have been available to his character at the time. And he wanted to really experience it. And he got pneumon at As a result, Leonardo DiCaprio has spent time with mercenaries. Robert Dairo endured extreme workouts and had his teeth filed down for his role in Cape Fear. Natalie Portman took ballet for a year to really take on her role in Black Swan and do all the dancing herself. Why am I telling you all this and what does it have to do with branding? Method acting is a lot like business branding because they both require a lot of preparation and understanding of. Of things that may never be brought up. There's a lot of work, often blood, sweat and tears, that goes into the prep to really understand what the character was going through, to be able to live and breathe as that character and respond in the way they would respond, given their background and history. That shows through even when we can't put our finger on it as an audience. It's because our brain is picking up on all of that and brings authenticity to the piece. It feels real feel, and we trust it. When an actor doesn't do as much prep and things feel forced, it shows and we have an inherent feeling something is off. We don't like it as much, even if we can't say why. This is where some directors will allow or encourage improvisation from the actors. And you trust that they can do what the character would do because they've done all this prep and they can get into that psychological mindset of the person. The best brands, brainy brands, know everything about who their brand is as if it were a person or a character. It has history and personality that shows through in everything it does. In the same way an actor might say, my character would never do that with all the confidence in the world. Someone who owns a brand should know what is in or out of character, the right words, mannerisms and backgrounds. On an intuitive level, when brands have great personalities, it ties into the associations people have about them, whether they're customers or not. On the priming episode, I mentioned a study where individuals were shown an image of a logo for a fraction of a second, so quick that the conscious brain couldn't pick it up. Half of the participants got a flash of the Apple logo and the other half the IBM logo. When then participating in a creative exercise later on, those who were shown the flash of an Apple logo were more creative and innovative in their idea generation than those who were shown the IBM logo. Now that is a strong and Brainy Brand the other important thing to remember if you want a brainy brand, in addition to knowing that everything matters, is that perception is reality. Whether you're thinking about this or not, your brand has a personality. It probably isn't one you want if you aren't putting the effort into creating it yourself. You can create the most amazing brand in the marketing department, but if it isn't lived and and felt through the entire organization, it's a flop because the front line shapes the brand. A lot of the time. If the experience doesn't match up, people can tell right away and they aren't shy about complaining on social media. That is why brand and culture are so closely intertwined. I was recently featured in an article by the American Bankers association about this called HR and Marketing an A Natural Partnership, which is linked in the show Notes. Brainy brands need to have everyone on board rowing the boat in the right direction. It should be almost fanatical where missions and values are more than just sitting on a shelf somewhere. Everyone knows and can recite them from memory. They truly live and breathe who the company is and what it is about. And then customers can feel it too. Zappos is a prime example of this. If you haven't read Delivering Happiness, I would highly recommend it. And there is of course a link for you in the show Notes. And if you ever have an opportunity to take a tour of the campus in Las Vegas, you absolutely should. It was a great experience to see the Zappos culture firsthand. So where does Behavioral economics come in? The concepts of BE are about more.

Than just buying decisions.

Many large companies have been creating Behavioral Economics or Behavioral Strategies or Insights departments to advise others throughout the organization about the brain's decision making process and how that impacts the brands under the umbrella. Others hire out to consultants like myself for this sort of thing. Behavioral Economics and other studies of the brain look into why people do the things they do and how to use that insight to predict what they might do in the future. It's a fascinating space full of possibilities and many, many, many, many tests to be undertaken as we perfect the field. And I for one am so excited to be a part of it.

I hope you've enjoyed this episode digging.

Into branding and how behavioral economics and the insights from brain and behavior ties in for companies to create truly brainy brands.

So what got your brain buzzing as you thought about creating a brainy brand? Was it thinking about your company like a person and knowing everything about its personality, priming and brain associations? Or maybe that perception is reality, and it might be worth embracing what the public says about you, even if it's different than what you've planned to be about.

Whatever the pieces that resonate with you.

Now is a good time to pick what's most important for you to implement. If it was the end of next year, what's the most important thing you should be celebrating having accomplished, and what aspect of Brainy branding would be most.

Likely to help you get there?

Start planning for that now and make it a priority. I've linked to the episode on setting Brainy goals in the Show Notes along with a lot of other great related content, including those on Surprise and delight and episodes on the peak end rule things that are really, really focused on how you can be creating a great experience that weren't out at the time that this original episode aired. So you can use all of that on your path to brainy branding.

And of course, if you want a.

Consultant to help you on that path, I would love to connect and see if it makes sense for us to work together. Send an email to melinathebrainybusiness.com so we can chat about it. And of course there's a link to a form in the show notes to make it really easy all@the brainybusiness.com 230 I can't wait to chat with you. And just like that, episode 230 on creating a Brainy Brand is done. Join me Friday for a brand new episode with Matt Johnson discussing his new book Branding that Means Business. It's going to be a lot of fun. You definitely you don't want to miss it.

Until then, thanks again for listening and.

Learning with me and remember to be thoughtful.

Thank you for listening to the Brainy Business Podcast. Melina offers virtual strategy sessions, workshops and other services to help businesses be more brain friendly. For more free resources, visit thebrainybusiness.com.