Is your business able to grab customers’ attention? Or do you think people just like your business? There’s a difference.
One of the primary purposes of a brand is to get people’s attention, to be able to stand out in a sea of commodity businesses. For people to start doing business with you, they must first notice you. Unfortunately, rather than trying to get people’s attention, businesses try to be liked. There’s a difference between what gets people’s attention and what people like.
What Gets Attention:
Unexpectedness and Contrast.
There is so much noise and sensory information vying for our attention. Too much in fact, for our brain to handle. To compensate, the human brain has trained itself to ignore most of the sensory data it receives.
Dr. John Medina, author of Brain Rules, says:
We don’t pay attention to boring things.
…the brain continuously scans the sensory horizon, with events constantly assessed for their potential interest or importance. The more important events are then given extra attention.
What’s more important to the brain? Two factors: Things we don’t expect, and things that are contrasted from the norm.
Unexpectedness comes from something that breaks our pattern. Like these pictures:
Normal
Unexpected
You are more likely to “like” the top picture (more on this below), but the bottom picture is more likely to get your attention.
Contrast is a good way to get attention for your business, especially if you are selling commodity products and services, which almost everyone is. Take a look at the pictures below, what gets your attention?
No Contrast
Contrast
For your brand to get attention, you must unexpectedly break normal patterns and contrast yourself from those selling the same thing you do.
What Influences Likeability:
Familiarity and Ease of Recognition
Because businesses like to please customers, they often ask them what they would like. What they like is not what gets their attention. People like things that don’t upset their apple cart.
Dr. Helmet Leder, who penned Thinking by Design in Scientific American Mind, says that we tend to “like” the aesthetic norm. And we have…
…an ingrained appreciation for the beauty of the prototype, which is often defined as the statistical average of all examples of that product or item.
Dr. Leder also says people like safety:
…familiar forms provide reassurance or security when a person’s mood signals an unsafe environment.
Ask people “What do you like?” and they will choose something average and something safe. If you base your product, service and experience decisions on what your customers like, you are doomed to mediocrity.
Attention vs. Likeability
If you ask people; “Do you like this?” …or “Which do you like better?” their response will be different than what would get their attention in a crowded room. That’s because people “like” average things, while unexpected or “un-average” things get their attention.
So which do you go for? A mix of both. Being totally unexpected, and surprising the customer at every turn will make them uncomfortable. However being totally predictable all the time will make you boring, and customers will soon tire of you. That’s when they are susceptible to let their eyes wander to something else that catches their eye, something contrasted from the average.
The thing is this: averageness comes to us naturally. Being like every other business in your industry is the norm and it’s difficult to avoid. That’s why you should turn your attention to the attention twins: unexpectedness and contrast. Concentrate on surprising customers and looking different from your competition. Once you get their attention customers will begin to like the things that come naturally to you.
What are you doing to get attention?
Don’t miss out on free marketing advice. For updates on new articles: Receive The Marketing Spot by Email or subscribe in a blog reader.