Just in case you were on another planet when this went viral, look at this:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo]
Even though I had primed you with the title, you have a 50% chance of not noticing a big black gorilla walking through that scene. If I asked you to count the different types of passes made (aerial or with a bounce) that would rise to 70%. And if you did it while talking on the phone, you have a 90% chance of not noticing a big primate walking past.
Yet as you read this you have email notifications popping up in the corner, Tweeter on your smartphone, radio playing in the background and a whole new set of modern day distractions. Homo Sapiens just wasn’t wired for it.
The authors of this captivating and eminently readable popular science book splash very briefly into marketing with a chapter about “Why a company would spend billions to launch a product that its own analysts know will fail” but this type of book is best read every morning in small chunks; it may save you from crashing into a motorbike (you are trained to look out for cars) and it will help you focus on the true essence of branding.
Which is soul.
Customers are seldom primed to notice what you think they will notice. All that information you might tick off a list. “Done that, included that…all done!” just doesn’t work. Especially if you are dealing with product or service (hospitality is a good example) which just isn’t on the radar most of the time. The essence of the brand has to include everything instinctively. I don’t paint my house everyday but on Saturday I might trundle into a store and decide on Dulux paints. As my eyes scan around the available selection I will probably have 2-3 kids somewhere in the store threatening to destroy it. I might be talking on the phone. But if the packaging is distrinctive enough, it will break through my inattention bias and I will grab a bucket and go. (Read here about the particular success story of triple sales.)
A generous taste of the book is available to read for free online here. The Invisible Gorilla effect in Greek politics here.
Comments are closed.