From business owners to advertisers to budding students to absolutely ANY audience ever, we are all irrational creatures without even realising.
In fact, our partners at Smarter Click go as far to say we are ‘predictably irrational’. Marketers and companies can anticipate consumer behaviour and our purchasing decisions and act accordingly. The fascinating depths of behavioural science are discussed more by advertisers than actual scientists and is a fundamental of impactful marketing.
So are we really that transparent or do we still think we can outsmart and overhaul the marketing messaging system?
Let’s discuss.
Our buying habits
When we shop (both in store and online), we might make a more instantaneous decision, as in, those ‘spontaneous’ and ‘off the cuff’ purchases we really shouldn’t have made but we will spend an endless amount of time justifying in retrospect anyway. Or we might use ‘considered’ thinking for longer term purchases.
This is System 1 and System 2 thinking in a nutshell.
We crack this shell wide open in Back to Basics but essentially, even System 2 [considered] thinking has some System 1 [quickfire] thinking playing its part in your decision making. From that fancy display ad you saw or the clever messaging you recalled on a TV advert, it all contributed to your impulsiveness to invest.
The subconscious conversations we have in our heads
The excellent must-read ‘Buy-ology’ by Martin Lindstrom takes an even bigger crack at ‘systematic thinking’.
Think of the supermarket. You are only going in for a few items (although that is never the case). Most consumers think about their choice for all of two seconds- System 1 thinking. For the essentials like tea bags, bread and shampoo, you rarely take time to think about what is going in your basket. But that’s not strictly true.
Our brain relies on shortcuts that have been created to help us make these purchasing decisions. It cuts out the subconscious conversations we have and spits it out into one quick, yet concrete decision. There are plenty of bread options, for example. You don’t think you are having a conversation with yourself when you choose Warburtons over Kingsmill. But your brain is screaming at you in fast forward mode.
It is saying… wow I can only see orange when I think of bread so I must choose Warburtons and it is the safe option that the whole family love, oh and it is definitely easier to spread… and let’s keep going, ooh I am definitely sure my sandwiches taste better when I use Warburtons and I know the slices are thick enough to take my desired fillings and.. you get the point. Your conversations are rational here. You have considered the purchase and that is simply because System 2 thinking IS playing a big part- even for seemingly ‘instantaneous’ System 1 purchases.
So in short…
Yes, we are still very much irrational creatures, but we are so predictably irrational. You may think those decisions that you shrug off as ‘instinct’ or ‘no reason’ really have nothing to them. But the real rationale, as Lindstrom perfectly sums up yet again, was based on a lifetime of positive and negative associations with the brands around you.
For a bit more context on us humans and what makes us think the way we do (or what makes us not really think at all), check out the First Things First section- and beyond- in Back to Basics.