Matt Johnson's Blog, page 9

Exceeding Consumer Expectations with The Psychology of Randomness

Key points for exceeding consumer expectations with the psychology of randomness:

When we can have anything, we still want what we can’t expect. Randomness holds a special power in human psychology

This shows up for consumers in different ways: consumers of...

How Social Identity Impacts Consumer Preferences Towards Physical Products

Key points about this research on social identity and consumer preferences:

Despite the digital revolution, there are still instances in which the physical version of a product is preferred. 

This research suggests that when the product is linked with the c...

How The Neuroscience of Pain and Pleasure Influences Consumer Psychology

Key points for influencing consumer psychology with the neuroscience of pain:

Consumer behavior is complex, but it ultimately comes down to two motivational drives: pleasure and pain

Neuroscience research, using fMRI, finds that these two variables are cruc...

How to Drive Consumer Behavior Using The Psychology of Memory

Key points for driving consumer behavior with the psychology of memory:

Not all experiences are equally likely to be remembered. By designing for memory, marketers can optimize experiences for later recall

Capturing and maintaining attention is crucial, in ...

Driving Consumer Behavior with The (Unintutive) Psychology of Incentives

Key points for applying the psychology of incentives to marketing:

The Cobra Effect teaches us that, while incentives can be powerful, they can easily backfire if not understood correctly

In marketing, the power of variable reward is critical, as it can hav...

Why Marketers Need to Understand The Psychology of Incentives

Key points for applying the psychology of incentives to marketing:

The Cobra Effect teaches us that, while incentives can be powerful, they can easily backfire if not understood correctly

In marketing, the power of variable reward is critical, as it can hav...

What Christmas Ads Teach us about the Neuroscience of Brand Associations

Key points for how to build a Christmas brand using the neuroscience of associations:

Brand building ultimately comes down to how the brain learns associations, and develops basic categories of knowledge

Brands like Coke and John Lewis have successfully har...

The Neuroscience of Branding

Key points of the neuroscience of branding: 

The brand exists in the mind of the market, and in the brains of consumers.

Taken a level deeper, the brand is a pattern of connectivity in the brain's temporal lobes, representing the totality of semantic and em...

How Brands Can Tap Into Symbolism and Social Signaling

Key points for how brands can tap into social signaling:

In the consumer world, the dominant mode of communication is implicit. This is social signaling: things that consumers can’t say themselves, brands can say for them

Through deliberate branding, logos ...

The Key to Better Brand Communication: Interactive Alignment

Key points for how brands can harness interactive alignment:

As social creatures, humans have devised certain means of reducing ambiguity throughout the course of conversation

The most impactful mechanism is interactive alignment: we naturally, and unconsci...