>Brain Rules For Marketing - Part 2

John Medina’s Brain Rules is a fascinating book. Medina has taken the complicated brain and made it understandable and interesting with an engaging narrative. The book contains “12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School”

I bought it because Garr Reynolds on Presentation Zen said that Brain Rules would improve my presentations. He was right. What caught me by surprise was that Brain Rules contains powerful marketing rules. Medina didn’t write the book for marketers, but it is a treasure trove of marketing insight. In my previous post, I presented the first four rules. Here are the remaining marketing rules I harvested from Brain Rules:

Rule #5 – Use Frequency To Help People Remember

I recently made the case for frequency on Drew’s Marketing Minute. Frequency is the number of times an individual comes in contact with your marketing message. Frequency is critically important if there is no immediate need for your product. The reason: people forget. The majority of forgetting occurs in the first few hours of learning. In fact people forget 90% of what they learn within 30 days.

The solution to the forgetting problem is frequency. You can increase the life span of your message simply by repeating information in timed intervals. Medina says that “Spaced learning is greatly to superior to mass learning.” And the space between repetitions is a critical component for transforming temporary memory into a more persistent form.

Consistent repetition will create a more durable memory of your message. “Repeated exposure to information in specifically timed intervals provides the most powerful way to fix memory in the brain.” When you promote your business, you should do so with a consistent schedule and you should go no longer than 30 days without exposure.

Rule #6 – Elaborate Messages Are Stronger

Elaboration combined with frequency is a powerful memory cocktail. Extra information given at the moment of learning makes learning better. If you want people to remember you, help them remember you elaborately. This does not mean adding more detail and complexity (Rule #4). Stories and perfume are the best illustrators of this rule.

Using stories in marketing makes a message stronger. Stories provide elaborate details of your message without adding complexity. Details in stories are like little pieces of memory glue that bind the main point of the story into your brain archives. Likewise with perfume. A special date is made more memorable when your partner wears an alluring fragrance. Engaging the senses provides elaboration to the memory.

Medina says that “Extra information given at the moment of learning makes learning better.” and that “multi-sensory experiences are more elaborate.” Look for stories to combine with the key idea of your marketing message. Then engage as many senses as you can in your stories because multi-sensory experiences are more elaborate.

Rule #7 – Stimulate the Senses in Your Customer Experience

Stimulate more of the senses at the same time to maximize your customer’s experience. Our senses do not operate independently of each other. Medina says “that sensory processes are wired to work together,” integrating all sensory information into one experience. The more senses you involve for your customer, the greater the experience.

Visual sensory inputs influence auditory inputs. Visual senses are boosted by introducing touch. Multiple senses affect our ability to detect stimuli using the brain’s powerful integrative instincts. The effect is called ‘multimodal reinforcement.’

Multi-sensory environments are better than uni-sensory environments because they yield a more accurate recall. Medina says that in these environments (think: customer experience) “recall has better resolution and lasts longer.” Use multiple sensory cues in your customer’s experience to enhance the impact.

Rule #8 – Visual Marketing is Strongest

Vision dominates all other senses. In fact, the brain uses half of its resources on vision alone. Medina says “vision is probably the best single tool we have for learning anything.” If information is presented orally, people remember about 10%, but add a picture and that figure jumps to 65%. Pictures transfer information.

Medina also says this: “pictorial information (is) superior in capturing attention – independent of its size.” And then Medina drops the marketing bomb: “Because (vision) is also a more efficient way to glue information to a neuron, there may be strong reasons for entire marketing departments to think seriously about making pictorial presentations their primary way of transferring information.”

So what kind of visulas work best? Brains pay lots of attention to color, orientation, size and motion. However, the brain does not like complexity in its visuals. The rule then is to use simple, colorful visuals in context with motion.

A Marketing Gold Mine

I’m on record as saying that every marketer and business owner should read Brain Rules. It’s one of those books that combines all your previous marketing knowledge into a unique and insightful marketing perspective. It’s a book that turns on the proverbial light bulb.

For more on Brain Rules see the website:
Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School

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I bought it because Garr Reynolds on Presentation Zen said that Brain Rules would improve my presentations. He was right. What caught me by surprise was that Brain Rules contains powerful marketing rules. Medina didn’t write the book for marketers, but here are the marketing lessons I harvested from Brain Rules.

Rule #1 – Pay Attention to the Emotional Environment

The emotional state of the consumer at the time and point of connection matters. The impact of your marketing message may be significantly affected by the emotional environment in which the impression takes place. Medina says that “Certain types of learning wither in the face of traumatic stress.”

Consumers needs to feel safe and comfortable with you. Connect with them on a level at which they can learn and communicate or you or run the risk of isolating potential customers. To maximize effective exposure to your marketing, connect with consumers on their level in an emotional environment in which they feel safe.

Rule #2 – Emotions Get Attention

Medina says that “Emotional arousing events tend to be better remembered than neutral events.” And that “Emotionally charged events persist much longer in our memories and are recalled with greater accuracy than neutral memories.” To make your marketing message more memorable and persistent, use emotions.

Emotionally charged events are divided into two categories: universal and unique. Universally experienced stimuli come directly from our evolutionary heritage and hold the greatest potential for use. When using emotion in your marketing, choose emotions with which everyone can identify.

Use a hook in your marketing that triggers an emotion: fear, laughter, happiness, nostalgia, incredulity. In addition, use strong emotional narratives that are crisp, relevant and to the point.

Rule #3 – To Gain Attention, Appeal to Memory, Interest and Awareness

Memory: Medina says that “What we pay attention to, is often profoundly influenced by memory.” And that “in everyday life, we use previous experience to predict where we should pay attention.” When framing marketing messages, you should use a setting with which consumers can identify. Use something they may have experienced in life.

Interest: However, we also pay attention to things that catch our interest such as newer stimuli. “The unusual, unpredictable, or distinctive are powerful ways to harness attention in the service of interest.

Awareness: Awareness is necessary to gain attention. To create attention, use a sensory stimulus which alerts the brain to pay attention.

The bottom line of rule # 3: Appeal to the senses and be interesting while helping consumers recall a past memory.

Rule #4 – Market One Key Idea at a Time

Medina says that the most common communication mistake is “Relating too much information.” That’s because “knowledge is organized around core concepts or big ideas.”

Businesses tend to cram as much as they can into their marketing message. But the brain doesn’t like that. It prefers to pay attention to one thing at a time. Medina says that “better attention always equals better learning.” And that “The more attention the brain pays to a given stimulus, the more elaborately the information will be encoded and retained.”

“The Brain cannot multitask. Multitasking, when it comes to paying attention, is a myth. The brain naturally focuses on concepts sequentially, one at a time.” Further, “research shows that we cannot multitask. We are biologically incapable of processing attention rich inputs simultaneously.” So your brain doesn’t want a bunch of unimportant details attached to the main idea: “our heads tend to be filled with generalized pictures of concepts or events, not with slowly fading minutiae.”

So Medina says to “Start with the key ideas and, in a hierarchical fashion, firm the details around this notion.”

Now see: Brain Rules For Marketing – Part 2