Firing Your Consumers Brain

15 May 2023   |   By Anjali Malhotra 

All of business is about acquiring, retaining and managing customers. Whether you are a CEO, COO, CXO for Marketing, Technology, Sales or any other, you are likely to remain fairly pre-occupied with understanding your consumers’ behavior – how to best serve them, how to be relevant to them, how to remain attractive to them and how to actively woo them into your fold.

 

So how do your customers actually decide about using your brand? What’s going on in their brains, when they take calls like using, re-using or dumping a brand and its product? Marketers have been attempting to convert this into a science for crafting brand cognitions & imagery relationships for consumers, and & planting these in their mind.

 

Decision-making has a lot to do with the anatomy and physiology of the human brain. The brain contains billions of nerve cells arranged in patterns that coordinate thought, emotion, behavior, movement and sensation. A complicated highway system of nerves connects your brain to the rest of your body, so communication can occur in split seconds.

 

The brain has three main parts:

  • The cerebrum fills up most of the skull. It is involved in remembering, problem solving, thinking, and feeling. 
  • The cerebellum sits at the back of the head, under the cerebrum. It controls coordination and balance.
  • The brain stem sits beneath your cerebrum carries signals from the brain to the rest of the body.

It is the cerebrum that advertisers & marketers chase to woo, since that houses the lobes of the brain and is responsible for receiving and giving meaning to information received from the sense organs, like sight, smell, taste etc.

 

Going back to our nomadic ancestors who were basically lazy, impatient and simple. Their default reaction was to do nothing and certainly avoid any form of complexity, which required any amount of extra effort to understand. This is a basic principle of communication – “Less is More” – idea is to keep the messaging straight, focused, uncluttered, clear and crisp – in order for it to make sense to your customers. Customers do not make an effort to read fine print or convoluted sentences in an attempt to comprehend them. They simply shut the communication off, off their mind. Add to this the problem of plenty and you have consumers who will only notice messages that are easy and quick to understand in a second or under. That’s how much time they engage. When an advertisement is complex, layered, multi-dimensional or long, chances are it will go un-noticed completely. Hence brands go to tremendous lengths to simplify & crispen content, to improve its comprehension and relatability. 

 

We’ve heard of the left and right brains in the human cerebrum – left being more rational & logical, whereas the right is more creative and imaginative.  Its not really that hugely divided. The two hemispheres are connected by an information super-highway, the corpus callosum that transmits information across both sides in real time, enabling the processing of data at great speed. So consumers are able to utilize stimuli from both sides for taking decisions.

 

It is a well-understood belief that men tend to be more rational ie. left brained, whereas women are more led by their creative right brain. Which essentially means that their decision-making rationale & process differ somewhat. So if your primary consumer is one of the genders, the brand messaging needs to factor how logically or imaginatively the communication argument is presented to them. Chances are that the brain signals will pick up different stimuli and thus the visual and language codes for gender specific communication vary immensely. Now picture an ad for Lo’real versus an ad for Gillette. In a single glance, from the colors, tonality and overall look – it becomes clearly evident as to which gender it is meant for!

 

There’s another fine nuance worth considering. Women tend to have a thicker corpus callosum that transmits data faster making them utilize faculties from both sides of the brain quicker – making women more intuitive. So communication targeted at women ideally balances out both logical and creative arguments since they are able to balance both, faster. On the other hand, one will hardly ever find any airy-fairy rationale in communication targeted to men since they tend to be singular in their decision making process. Its just the way they are differently wired in their brain!

 

The primitive reptilian brain works on the principle of “Fight or Flight” mechanism. Which essentially means that humans have strong survival instincts, are essentially risk averse and will flee when they sense danger of any sort. There is a strong natural desire to avoid pain and seek pleasure. Using the pain pleasure principle to entice customers is an age-old brand communication strategy

 

Using pain as a motivator is a strategy that some categories use effectively – it’s called the problem-solution route. Here, brand communication focuses on establishing the pain of the problem- to activate the prospects brain, in fact heighten the pain to have them on high alert, before presenting the solution that then produces pleasure. Examples like insurance products actually use this to the fore, by amplifying the impending perils of a death in the family and the aftermath it can possibly lead to, before presenting their financial planning solutions that can help families to over-ride such a scenario. Even without going so far, take the example of a hyper-local delivery platform that promises to send you your groceries in under 30 minutes, when you are in a tough spot with immediate need for supplies.

 

The brain seeks “good feeling” thoughts- hence tends to steer towards stimuli that make it feel pleasured. Use of brand stimuli to incite nerve centers in the brain that produce pleasure through the use of language, colors and tools like customization, make your consumers feel special and cherished, by producing happy hormones like dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, and oxytocin. Modern digital Mar-tech tools that deploy data to create personalized experiences for customers, use this very technique to encourage positive mood & warm cozy feelings from consumers, before they ask them to click on the know more or buy buttons. 

 

The core sciences of Design thinking – UX and UI design are totally pre-occupied with deeply researching consumer behavior and the need for simplicity & convenience when designing wire-frames, prototypes or choosing the impact of colors, layouts, typography etc., for each step of the user journey. Idea is to make sure that the customer doesn’t dis-engage or drop out mid-way. It is not just about what the users do as they undertake the journey on the application, but how they are made to “feel” during the process, not just the visual imagery but the brain insights it induces, not just about the language on the application but the “sticky notes” in the consumers brain.

 

Brand positioning experts also deploy positive imagery associations, like happiness, joy, love, care and pleasure to make consumer feel cozy enough to warm up to the brands. Examples like Coke’s Open Happiness campaign with delightful and heart-warming visual imagery that made consumers “feel” happy and accord those associations to the brand.

 

When a man (or woman) is hungry, his food neurons in the brain are ignited and saliva starts getting secreted, in the mouth and stomach, reminding him of food. Restaurant menus and food delivery apps deploy this very technique of fantastic food (porn) videos and stylized photos 

of stretching cheese, melting chocolate, glazed buns etc.. to fire up the food centers in the brain and secrete hunger hormones into his bloodstream – reminding him that he is hungry and encouraging the tendency to order more.

 

Well, next time you see an advertisement or a new application, think about what may have gone into its creation in order to enhance its appeal for the intended target audience.

 

Anjali Malhotra

Senior Partner at BOD Consulting | Founder, C-Xcel | Member of FICCI Wise Council | Director, Founder Institute | UCLA Anderson School of Management

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Ravi Kant

Founder and CEO, Innovation Spark Asia | Ex-RBS, Polaris | Delhi University | University of Virginia Darden School of Business

Ravi Kant has over 30 years of experience in IT outsourcing and a decade dedicated to fostering innovation through Design Thinking. He holds a B.Sc (Hons) degree from Delhi University and a specialization in Design Thinking and Innovation from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

Ravi is passionate about integrating user-centric design and strategic planning to cultivate a culture of innovation. Throughout his career, he has held senior leadership positions at RBS and Polaris. As the Founder and CEO of Innovation Spark Asia, he specializes in helping organizations achieve growth and profitability through creative problem-solving and strategic innovation.

Ravi’s extensive experience and dedication to mentoring emerging leaders and fostering continuous learning have made him a valuable asset in driving transformative change and cultivating high-performing teams.

Bhaskar Pramanik

Expert Advisor at BOD Consulting | Ex-Microsoft, Oracle and Sun Microsystems | Advisory Member of Board of Schulich University, Canada and Bennett University, India | IIT Kanpur

Bhaskar Pramanik is an accomplished management leader and professional from the Technology Industry. He is currently appointed as a Senior Advisor at Rothschild & Co. and Board Member and Independent Director of TCNS Clothing Company Ltd. He is also on the Advisory Board of Schulich University, Canada, and Bennett University, India.

He has previously held National and Global Leadership positions in leading Multinational Technology Companies like Microsoft, Oracle & Sun Microsystems. He has worked in India, Singapore, and the US.

He recently retired from the Board of SBI, India’s largest bank. He has also been on the Executive Committee of NASSCOM and the National Committee of CII and AMCHAM. He regularly speaks at Industry and Leadership forums.

Sidharth Balakrishna

Senior Partner at BOD Consulting | Mentor-MIT Boston, Faster Capital & Tiger Hall| Ex-Essel (Zee) Group and Cairn India| Authored 6 books | IIM Calcutta | SRCC

Sidharth Balakrishna has 18+ years of experience in senior management roles across many noteworthy organisations including the Essel (Zee) Group, Cairn India, KPMG, and Shell. He holds a post-graduate diploma from IIM Calcutta and an Economics (Hons) degree from SRCC, Delhi University.

He is a mentor with MIT Boston (USA), Faster Capital (Dubai), and TigerHall (Singapore) and mentors startups with MassChallenge (Boston and Tel Aviv). He has authored six books and is an adjunct faculty at many leading management institutes.

Deepak Vats

Senior Partner at BOD Consulting | Managing Director, Corpspark Advisors | Ex-BCG and ITC | IIM Calcutta | IIT Kharagpur

Deepak Vats has 16+ years of experience in defining strategic direction for global corporate leaders and new-age start-ups. He holds a post-graduate diploma from IIM Calcutta and a B-Tech degree from IIT Kharagpur.

He is an expert in growth strategy, organisational transformation & new business build. He has previously worked with leading global & Indian corporates and is a Co-founder and incubator of multiple startups in the E-Commerce, SAAS and Technology domains.

Atul Takle

Senior Partner at BOD Consulting | Senior Advisor to PR24x7 and Bridgeweave Technologies | Ex-RPG group, Tata Consultancy Services and Accenture | JBIMS Mumbai | Sydenham

Atul Takle has 30+ years of experience in corporate communications and marketing. He holds a postgraduate degree from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai and a bachelor’s degree from Sydenham college in Mumbai.

He has worked with renowned organisations like RPG group, Tata Consultancy Services, Accenture in India, Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited and SKS Microfinance.
He is currently engaged as a Marketing Consultant to the Scindia School and NIIT University and is a Senior Advisor to PR24x7 & Bridgeweave Technologies.

Sandeep Das

Senior Partner at BOD Consulting | Ex-McKinsey & Co., Kantar Consulting and Interbrand | Delhi University

Sandeep Das has 20+ years of experience working with global brands across multiple geographies on brand, growth and corporate strategy. He holds a master’s degree in Business Economics and Marketing from Delhi University.

He has a successful track record of working in impactful, senior and high client-exposure roles in leading research organisations like McKinsey & Co., Kantar Consulting, Interbrand & Ipsos Strategy3.

Anjali Malhotra

Senior Partner at BOD Consulting | Founder, C-Xcel | Member of FICCI Wise Council | Director, Founder Institute | UCLA Anderson School of Management

Anjali Malhotra has 30+ years of corporate experience across industries like Media, FMCG, Retail and BFSI sectors. She holds a postgraduate degree in Business administration and Management from UCLA Anderson School of Management.

She is the founder of C-Xcel, a boutique advisory practice that helps B2C businesses to achieve greater success through Customer Centricity. She has built brands in highly competitive markets including early-stage businesses like Revlon, Dishtv and Aviva. Over the years, the industry has recognised her as Cx100, Digi 100, Top 10 CDO, Digitalist Thought Leader, Marketer of the year- Media & Entertainment and Best use of Technology in Marketing.

Saurabh Uboweja

Founder & Managing Partner at BOD Consulting | Board member-World Communication Forum Association | Adjunct faculty-EU Business School | Ex-Citibank | IIM Calcutta | NIT Bhopal

Saurabh Uboweja has 16+ years of experience in consulting, branding, leadership development and digital transformation. He holds a post-graduate diploma from IIM Calcutta and a B-Tech degree from NIT Bhopal.

Recognised as one of the 50 Most Influential Strategy Leaders by the World Marketing Congress two times, he serves as an advisor on the boards of both listed and non-listed firms. He is an adjunct faculty at many leading business schools including the EU Business School.

Ajay Kohli

Expert Advisor at BOD Consulting | Chair and Regents Professor at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business | Among 100 most cited authors in the fields of Business and Economics combined in a decade | University of Pittsburgh | IIM Calcutta | IIT Kharagpur

Dr Ajay K. Kohli is Gary T. and Elizabeth R. Jones Chair and Regents Professor at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business. He previously taught at eminent institutions like Emory University, Harvard Business School & The University of Texas at Austin.

He holds a doctorate degree from the University of Pittsburgh, a post-graduate diploma from IIM Calcutta and a B-Tech degree from IIT Kharagpur.

He is among the 100 most cited authors in the fields of Business and Economics combined in a decade, and two of his articles are among the 10 most cited Journal of Marketing articles in the past 25 years. In 2017, he received the AMA-Irwin-McGraw-Hill Distinguished Marketing Educator Award and in 2016, he received the Paul D. Converse Award, termed “Marketing Hall of Fame” by Fortune.

Anil Kejriwal

Expert Advisor at BOD Consulting | Founder-I2Cure Pte. Ltd | Board Advisor of Felix Realty | Chairman of the Board of Uttar Industrial Estate- Uttar Development Pvt. Ltd. | IIT Kanpur

Besides investing in several IT start-up companies globally, Anil Kejriwal is the founder of I2Cure Pte. Ltd a global Biotech Company that manufactures patented Molecular Iodine (I₂) products for the global market. The company aims to bring the first-ever range of Cosmeceutical, Pharmaceutical, and Veterinary products based on a breakthrough in Advanced Molecular Iodine (I₂) Science; to provide the world with a solution to deliver more than just short-term, superficial protection against germs and bacteria, viruses, and fungi.

Anil is a B.Tech from IIT Kanpur with over three decades of experience and serves as a Board Advisor of Felix Realty and Chairman of the Board of Uttar Industrial Estate- Uttar Development Pvt. Ltd.

Manoj Agarwal

Expert Advisor at BOD Consulting | COO-Algonomy | Ex-Future Group India and Procter & Gamble | Chartered Accountant | Mumbai University

Manoj Agarwal is the Chief Operating Officer of Algonomy, a Bengaluru-based digital retail solutions company. A certified Chartered Accountant, he has over 20+ years of experience in global organisations, playing diverse roles with increasing responsibilities, including leading and managing high-performance groups to deliver impactful business results.

His expertise lies in Information Architecture and Strategy, Organization Design for productivity, Organisation Change Management, Data-Driven decision-making, Customer service model, Business Intelligence, Enterprise Performance Management & Financial Reporting and Consolidation.

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Arun Gupta

Senior Partner at BOD Consulting | Independent Director & Board Member: Hemas Pharmaceuticals, Sri Lanka and Locuz Enterprise Solutions, India | Co-founder, Fortytwo Labs | Ex-Head eCommerce at DHL | Ex- Head Internet Services at Hughes Telecom | Leadership Development Program- The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth | Leadership Development Program- ISB | Post Graduation in Software Technology from NCST. 

With 38 years of professional experience, Arun has led many groundbreaking IT-driven ventures, shaping the industry and fostering technology adoption. His consulting practice has its foundations based on success as a CIO/CTO across various verticals, geographies, and businesses in mid-market, large enterprises, and Government entities.

Arun’s expertise lies in IT strategy alignment to business strategy & plan, project planning and management, identifying and creating business value from IT, technology team effectiveness, and business Intelligence and analytics. His domain expertise includes Retail, pharmaceuticals, e-commerce, and logistics – though he has consulted across other verticals too.

He has garnered numerous industry awards and recognitions, including the Hall of Fame Awards by CIO Magazine and Information Week. Furthermore, Arun is a celebrated speaker globally and has a passion for photography and travelling.

J Suresh

Expert Advisor at BOD Consulting | National Council Member of Retailers Association of India | Ex-HUL and Arvind Fashions Ltd. | IIM Bangalore

J Suresh is a highly respected leader and key spokesperson in the Consumer and Retail Industry who is currently working as an Independent Consultant. In a career spanning over 4 decades, he has largely worked for Hindustan Unilever Ltd. & Arvind Fashions Ltd. He retired as the MD & CEO of Arvind Fashions Ltd in 2021. He holds a post-graduate diploma from IIM Bangalore.

He serves as the National Council Member of the Retailers Association of India and in the past has been the Chairman of CII’s National Council on Retail & Chairman of India Fashion Forum.

He has played a key role in mentoring & leadership development of his subordinates. Many of them have grown to be successful CEOs of many companies.

Thomas Varghese

Expert Advisor at BOD Consulting | Business Head-Aditya Birla Group’s Textile Businesses | Ex-Chairman, CII – National Committee on Retail (2009-11) | Harvard Business School | IIT Delhi

Thomas Varghese is the Business Head of Domestic Textiles, Overseas Spinning and Acrylic Fiber Businesses of The Aditya Birla Group’s Textile Businesses. In the last 21 years, he has held multiple positions in the group and helped Aditya Birla Retail emerge as one of India’s foremost Supermarket & Hypermarket Retailers as its MD & CEO.

He holds an Advanced Management Program degree from Harvard Business School and Bachelor’s degree in Textile Sciences and Engineering from IIT Delhi.

Apart from being the Chairman of the CII – National Committee on Retail for 3 years (2009-11) and a member of the Coca-Cola Retail Research Council for Eurasia & Africa, he has received many accolades including CEO of the Year by the Asian Retail Congress in Mumbai (2012), Most Admired Retail Professional of the Year at IRF (2010), Outstanding Business Leader by Aditya Birla Group (2004) and Distinguished Alumnus award of the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi (2002).

Dr Raman Kumar

Professor | Researches on Asset Pricing, Derivative Securities and Financial Markets | Served on over 50 dissertation committees | Ph.D.-University of Pittsburgh | PGDM-IIM Calcutta

Raman Kumar is the R.V. and A.F. Oliver Professor of Investment Management in the Department of Finance, Insurance and Business Law at the R.B. Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech. He received his PGDM (MBA) from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh. He teaches finance and economics courses in the undergraduate, MBA, Executive MBA, and PhD programs.
His research work largely centres around Asset Pricing, Derivative Securities, Financial Markets, Market Microstructure, and Empirical Research Methods in Finance, with some of his works published in prestigious publications such as the Journal of Finance, Journal of Finance and Economics, and Journal of Corporate Finance. 

He has served on over 50 dissertation committees as Chair, Co-chair or member for PhD students in the Departments of Finance, Accounting and Information Systems, Marketing, Management, Hospitality and Tourism Management, Economics, Building Construction, and Civil Engineering at Virginia Tech.
Shubhendu Agrawal

Shubhendu Agrawal

Senior Partner at BOD Consulting | General Electric (USA), Nestlé, Tata Motors | IIM Calcutta | University of Pune

Shubhendu Agrawal has 18+ years of experience in Strategy, Business Operations, Organisation Transformation, Process Design & Implementation and Commercial Excellence. He also has extensive experience in the end-to-end New Product Development cycle – from consumer insights to product adoption & growth. He holds a postgraduate diploma from IIM Calcutta and a B-Tech degree from the University of Pune.

He is passionate about profitable growth & social impact and serves as an advisor/member on the boards of several social enterprises & non-profits.

Kanika

Kanika Mathur

Senior Partner, BOD Consulting | Founder, K-Trends | Ex COO APAC Mullen Lowe I Ex-Senior Vice President (Digital & Content Marketing), Dubai Tourism | Ex-Managing Director, Digitas | Ex-CMO, Harappa Education

As a Marketing & Digital Transformation Strategist, Kanika Mathur has 30+ years of extensive interdisciplinary experience across Technology, CPG, Travel and Ed-tech. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Arts from Delhi University.

Her professional career spans multiple industries and renowned organisations. She founded ‘Solutions Integrated Marketing Services’ in India. She set up Razorfish for the Publicis Groupe & shaped it into one of the country’s largest interactive agencies. As its first CMO, she also helped bolster the Harappa Education brand.

Sumit Singla

Sumit Singla

Senior Partner, BOD Consulting | Independent HR Advisor at MSMEs | People Strategist, CompTeam | Guest Faculty Member, MDI | ex-Deloitte | ex-Accenture | ex-Aon

With 18+ years of experience in the HR and Consulting domain, Sumit Singla has worked with various prominent organisations. He holds a Bachelor’s in Engineering from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh & a PG Diploma in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations from XLRI Jamshedpur.

He has teamed up with diverse clients on a variety of high-impact projects relating to HR transformation, organisation restructuring, M&A, and HR tech.

Currently, he consults with micro, small & medium enterprises to intensify their HR capabilities, while also mentoring young professionals. He has authored a book that deals with workforce experience & also participates in speaking engagements, forums, and guest lectures at business schools.

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Dr PV Ramana Murthy

Expert Advisor at BOD Consulting | Managing Partner at Pinsight By PV | Adviser – Employment and Labour Law Practice at Economic Laws Practice | Board Member at Swadha Foundation | Ex Global CHRO, Indian Hotels Company Ltd | Ex Executive VP HR, Coca-Cola

Dr Murthy boasts an extensive 35-year corporate career, during which he contributed to renowned Fortune 500 and Global organisations. Apart from being a Lawyer, he holds a Master’s Degree in Organisational Psychology from INSEAD, Singapore. Additionally, he earned his Ph.D. in Strategic Human Resource Management from Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Andhra Pradesh. 

Beyond his legal background, he serves as an HR Advisor and Consultant, extending his expertise to Indian and multinational companies. His focus spans leadership development, culture transformation, and integrated talent management services. His recent collaborations include supporting organisations like Bosch, Tata Projects, Novo Nordisk, and Taj SATs.

During his stint at Coca-Cola, Dr Murthy not only managed the global leadership development function for the Bottling Investment Group (BIG) but also facilitated impactful leadership development initiatives.

    Mukesh Mathur

    Senior Partner at BOD Consulting |Ex-Godrej & Boyce, Polaris Retail Infotech and Oracle India | IIM Calcutta | IIT Kanpur

    Mukesh Mathur has 40+ years of experience in sales, marketing, and general management with leading Indian Companies and MNCs. He holds a post-graduate diploma from IIM Calcutta and a B-Tech degree from IIT Kanpur.

    He is passionate about training managers in KAM, value selling, and negotiations. He has been in senior leadership positions in Godrej & Boyce, Polaris Retail Infotech, and Oracle India, successfully managing multiple product categories including consumer durables, office automation, banking equipment, industrial material handling, and service engineers.