Automation
our subconscious brain automates responses, marketers can utilize this brain feature to build powerful brands
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While I miss the design elements of Mailchimp, this platform is SO easy to write on. I don’t waste time in adjusting fonts and formats. And more importantly, a sub stack newsletter looks the same across devices, whereas the Mailchimp email looks pretty ugly on some devices.
This is the third and final edition on unconscious biases. And we explore Automation.
Incase you wish to refresh your memory, check out the one on Simplicity here and Novelty here.
Fly on the urinal
Thaler, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, and Sunstein, a Harvard Law School professor, tackled the problem of urine streams that missed their mark in the men’s urinals at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.
They share in an article. “In a busy airport restroom used by throngs of travellers each day, the unpleasant effects of bad aim can add up rather quickly.”
All they did was print a black silhouette of a fly inside the urinals’ bright white bowls.
Men, even without realizing it, were compelled to aim at the fly.
Problem solved. “spillage” declined by 80 per cent.
This is a great example of how our primal responses are automated into our psyche.
Our brain is lazy and looks for shortcuts
We know that our subconscious brain processes 11 million pieces of information per second, while our conscious brain processes only 40 pieces per second.
If our brain were to consume every piece of information, it would self-combust. So, it creates mental shortcuts. These shortcuts are called heuristics. Simply explained, heuristics enable us to take decisions based on just a small piece of information.
All faces have two eyes, one nose, one mouth and so on, but with the help of heuristics, we can identify our mother in a crowded room in an instant. While our conscious brain cannot describe our mother’s face step-by-step, our subconscious brain recognizes her instantly.
If I show you this small part of a painting,
There is a high likelihood that you will instantly identify the full painting. You may not remember its name - ‘The Creation of Man” by Michelangelo.
Or you may even remember that it is on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
But you will definitely recognise it.
How?
You may have seen this painting multiple times in various media sources. While you consciously did not memorize each section, your subconscious brain assimilated, labelled and stored it.
A word that describes this is Thin Slicing. Thin Slicing means using just a tiny sliver of information to make decisions. It means that even if we are shown a very very thin slice of a cucumber, we know it is indeed a cucumber.
Thin slicing or heuristics cut short our decision-making, and automate our responses.
Mental model: System 1 and System 2
It is important to underline that heuristic processing of information is subconscious. The decision has been made even before our conscious brain realizes what is happening.
This is the basis for the famous System 1 and System 2 thinking, popularized by Daniel Kahneman.
‘System 1’ uses heuristics and thin slicing to take in information and respond rapidly. It is the intuitive, effortless, and automated response part of our thinking and sits within our subconscious.
‘System 2’ is the thoughtful, considered, more rational part of our thinking that resides within our conscious brain.
System 2 consumes more brain energy and also takes time. It is harder to do. That is why, we are wired to push as many decisions as possible into System 1.
Again, important to remember that most of our decisions are taken up by System 1. We call upon System 2 thinking when we have to learn something new. Or when the choice is more deliberate, i.e. difficult and critical.
Now that we know that we make decisions with two brains, what should brands do?
Successful brands cater to both systems
The best end state for all brands is to become a part of the intuitive System 1 response. For this, a brand must resonate emotionally and become a part of a consumer's experiences and memories.
When we associate Coke with Santa or think of Coke whenever we think of popcorn and movies, we evoke this memory structure.
On the other hand, System 2 needs logical, rational answers. If a brand does not pass muster on rational considerations, System 2 could overrule System 1.
A rule of thumb is that all marketing collateral that caters to the shopper skews to System 2. (It does have elements of the brand's memory structure that evoke System 1 memory, like the logo and colour schema, but it leans towards more rational messaging.)
Shopper collateral addresses queries and concerns. Packaging, point-of-sale material, shopper advisors, tactical advertising, consumer offers, etc., all fall into this bucket. This kind of marketing pushes the shopper to try the brand.
On the other hand, marketing assets, like TV advertising, combine emotional and rational messaging. They create a pull for the brand.
Over time, consistent and emotionally rich thematic advertising, if done right, embeds the brand deeper and deeper into system 1 intuition.
This rational + emotional bridge aligns and synchs the consumer watching the TV ad at home and the shopper buying the product.
Crafting this ‘bridge’ and balancing system 1 vs system 2 part of marketing is the ‘SCIENCE and ART’ of brand building.
Time marinates brand relationships. The short-term goal of advertising is to generate immediate action (solve for system 2). But the long term value of advertising is to build enough emotional goodwill (appeal to system 1), so that the consumer automatically picks the brand over others.
That is why the most loved brands are heritage brands. They benefit from decades of consistent advertising and steady product delivery, which has helped them deepen meaning in consumers’ brains. All heritage FMCG brands fall into this bucket.
But new brands don’t have the luxury of time. So how do they build deep system 1 connections fast?
They do this through Salience and by offering Real Differentiated Value.
Salience: a new brand often needs to shout the loudest to make up for decades of advertising by old brands. The rule of thumb for salience is to spend a share of advertising (share of voice - SOV), which is higher than the share of the market (SOM). (~SOV>SOM)
Real Value: Often, just shouting loudly is not enough. A new brand has to offer real and differentiated value—new benefits, a new way of doing things, or a deep, insightful message that the brain sits up and notices. More on that in subsequent articles.
Most consumer tech brands tick the boxes on both Salience and Real value. These technologies have changed the way we work, live, and communicate. They enjoy organic word-of-mouth salience, which is the dream of all marketers. That is why they have upended the brand valuation status that FMCG brands took decades to build in just a few years.
Brand building is an iterative process.
I analyze the messaging evolution for Tata Sampann Spices over six years to illustrate how different aspects may have catered to System 1 or System 2.
Apologies to my friends who don’t know Hindi. I think you will get the gist through the analysis, though.
Case Study: Tata Sampann (2015-20)
Time marinates brand relationships, which requires consistent messaging. The only thing that has remained constant is the use of a credible chef, celebrity Sanjeev Kapoor.
2015: generic message, decent food beauty shots, and lightweight use of celebrity chef
Real value: Just as you put love into your food, we put love and care into the way we pick and process spices.
The message rings true, but it is generic. It does not change consumers' attitudes about food, cooking, or spices.
The message is not unique. Other brands in other categories have made similar claims before.
So, the idea is intuitive but not novel enough to be memorable.
Neither does the promise offer real value.
Brand message: “The Taste of Love” wrestles for attention with Sanjeev Kapoor’s 4sec cameo to say “The Start of Goodness”. Well, which one is it?! There should be one summary of the idea that stays consistent and embeds into the brain.
2016: The celebrity chef used well, unique product insight but made the home chef look naive, and there are no food beauty shots
Real Value: “A spice is just powder if it is missing its oils”
This is a surprising truth about spices. It teaches us something new, and so it gets noticed and approved by the system 2 brain and also sticks in the system 1 brain.
‘Spices that retain their oils’ is real value. A mom will hear this and she just might think, ‘hmmm, next time I should try those Tata spices that retain‘
Delivery by the chef adds credibility - and appeals to both systems 1 and 2.
Brand Message:
Consumer benefit laddering is done well. Food gets its taste from spices —> spices get their taste from their oils —> we retain the oils in our spices. It is intuitive, delivers new news, and is simple. The logic and newness appeal to System 2, and the deliciousness appeals to System 1.
Moms are obediently taking notes and look naïve. The golden rule is never to make the consumer look stupid, which might put off systems 1 and 2. We love to learn from our heroes. The moms could have been in the kitchen, whipping up dishes along with the chef.
What would have sealed the deal for me is a tip from the chef on how and when he adds spices to add that special chef’s touch. In fact, secret tips and hacks that chefs use could become a digital content platform for the brand. Again, this is novel and would appeal to system 2, which would make a mental note to notice all such messages in order to learn more.
Not enough thought has been put into the casting of moms. They look like cookie-cutter replicas of each other—generic, with no personality. System 1 would have instantly identified with one mom type had the casting been diverse—north, south, or east of India—and maybe one of them was slightly traditional-looking, too.
Food cooking shots are missing. Our System 1 brain is drawn to food. Building a consistent visual identity around food and cooking would help the brand in the long term.
2017 May: lost the plot and interrupted the tone and manner of the brand, a hackneyed attempt at a new human truth
Maybe a new marketing manager joined the team. There is a drastic break from the brand's tone, manner, and visual identity. The look and feel are also not in line with the category or consumer belief about spices. There is no food appeal. This whole campaign looks like a mistake.
Although they have scratched the surface of a human and cultural truth that many cooking brands have identified, kitchens and how we cook and eat are changing.
There is no redeeming quality in this campaign. Enough said.
2017 Dec-2018: the prodigal marketer returns
The 2016 campaign was brought back. Whew.
2020: same unique product insight (our spices retain oils) laddered to health
I think the product insight is novel and differentiated. However, this time, it is laddered to health benefits (pandemic effect). I don’t have a sense if this worked better, but I do think taste benefit is important. But mom is not shown as naïve; in fact, she is the cook. The product window is very strong as it shows the oil in spices. Spice beauty shots replace food beauty shots, which also works.
Finally, packaging.
Tata Sampann worked with Entropik Tech, which describes itself as India's first emotional AI company and got some interesting insights on pack design.
They initially had a picture of finished dishes, but when replaced with a picture of the spice, it connected better with consumers.
Now, the range has pictures of spices for single spice packs and pictures of the dish for complex spices (e.g., dal spice mix, pao bhaji spice mix).
Personal Mastery: Unconscious Competence
When we learn to drive a car, we have to concentrate very hard on each action. It is impossible to change gears while steering the wheel and pressing the accelerator simultaneously!
This is Conscious Incompetence. Our conscious brain knows we don’t know.
But once we have enough practice, all these actions are filed away in the hard disk of our subconscious brain. We safely drive from point A to point B while listening to music and enjoying the scenery, going through all the motions of driving without having to think about them.
This is when our subconscious brain takes over, and we enter a state of Unconscious Competence.
Various aspects of our personality and work are part of unconscious incompetence. Converting unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence is our entire life's work, and we can learn from Atul Gawande about this.
He is a top global surgeon. At the height of his career, he sought the help of his professor to observe him and point out areas he could improve.
The professor noticed the little things—where Gawande’s elbows were positioned or that the light was not falling in the right place. His “fresh eyes” saw things as they were, not as Gawande perceived them to be. Not only that, but the professor chunked down Gawande’s surgical style and helped remind him of what he had forgotten.
“That one twenty-minute discussion gave me more to consider and work on than I’d had in the past five years,” says Gawande.
Worth checking out Atul Gawande’s Ted Talk on why even experts need a coach.
All of us, no matter how senior or seasoned, have parts of unconscious incompetence. If we can find someone we trust to watch us in action and shed light on our blind spots, we will do ourselves a huge favour.
Personal mastery
When we respond very quickly via mental shortcuts and turn out to be right, we call that pattern recognition and are celebrated as wise and intuitive.
On the other hand, when we are wrong, we call that jumping to conclusions and are called foolhardy and immature.
The road from foolhardy to wise is paved with mental models. Read more about mental models here.
Survey results
Thank you to those of you who filled in the survey. 11% of the audience who opened the newsletter answered the survey. I would say that is a decent conversion rate!
Apart from this, there were two main suggestions.
1) Lose the introduction: done! From now on, we will dive into the topic right away.
2) Move to substack: done
See you on 29th July next. Stay inspired!
Absolutely love this blog. :) The System 1 and 2 actually reminds me of the 'SELF 1 and SELF 2' concepts in the book "Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey". And how self 1 sometimes doesn't let self 2 just "Play". :)