When it comes to our decision making, this strictly on a biological and mechanical basis. What our subconscious mind will do is take a crude snapshot, a visual inventory of what’s registered by the eye. Then the brain attempts to process what it saw.
The brain then interprets and relays the data of what it thinks it’s seen, to the conscious mind. It supplies a detailed image of the event or object, this in a split-second.
So what the mind may perceive and what’s actually real, may not always be the true image of what’s actually there.
It’s instead an image that’s constructed by the brain, from the information that’s provided.
It will then fill in all of the missing blanks by either using assumed context, the minds prior experiences, or its expectations and beliefs. At times, it may even be your fantasies or desires.
The Assuming Brain
Our social perceptions, are all constructed on an analogous format.
We are usually supplied with limited data, and we’ll then fill in the gaps the best way we know how, more or less by assuming.
Our judgment of other people, our experiences with certain products, or our assessment of personal or business data. Are not always true objective reflections, when it comes to our social reality.
We’re only aware of our direct conscious influences, and not the entire process our subconscious mind will use to accurately construct our experiences.
We as a result will often mistake the roots of our judgements, feelings, or behavior.
The Consumers Brand Perception
So consider what occurs, when it comes to your experiences as a consumer.
Say you’re hosting a party, so you’re at your favorite store looking for a bottle of wine.
As you stroll up and down the aisles, while scanning all of the different variety of wines, what your brain does is rapidly processes all of the “data,” on the labels.
What’s surveyed are the various grapes, the wines vintage, and more importantly their price points.
You consciously absorb all the information, while also considering the type of food you’ll be serving with the wine.
Other factors which goes beyond your immediate visual processing, includes the direct yet irrelevant “environmental” factors. Such as the type of music that’s playing in the background.
Subconscious Consumer Influence
For instance, that particular store is having a promotion on a variety of French and Italian wines, all which are similar in price and dryness. They are all placed next to one another, on the shelf.
What the store will do to promote one brand of wine, is play distinctively recognizable French or Italian music. They may do this on alternate days.
The music is played directly above the wine shelf that’s being promoted that particular day.
What’s found, is on those days when distinct French music is played, 75% percent of the wine purchased that day was French.
During the Italian music days, 71% percent chose the Italian wines.
The music played, was clearly a determining factor in what type of wine the shoppers chose, all subconsciously.
Once they were asked why they chose that particular wine on that day, and if they thought the music had an influence on their choice in any way, they all denied it didn’t.
How And Why We Like To Buy
Another study was based on 3 different brands of laundry detergent.
Random consumers were asked to try them out for several weeks at home. They were asked to report which product they liked the best, and the reasons why.
The first box was predominantly blue, the other yellow, and the third was a combination of blue and yellow.
The test subjects, overwhelmingly favored the laundry detergent with the blue and yellow coloring.
Their reasons were based on the merits of the detergent itself, while no one mentioned the color of the box.
So why would a more attractive looking box, the blue and yellow, make the clothes clean better, as the detergents were all the same.
Our Brain Will Fill In The Blanks
Once we choose or judge a particular brand, and we have no scientific data for our mind to form a complete picture. We fill in the missing blanks, to what we remembered in the past.
It’s our subconscious mind that forms this image. It will complete the visual thought for us automatically.
This results in the assessment of a certain product, based on how the product is presented, and it’s branding.
What we’ll do is judge products on the store shelf, based solely on their coloring, for instance.
We’ll judge certain books by the design on their covers, or assume the success of annual corporate reports based on their slick glossy finish.
Once we combine all of our subconscious and conscious thoughts, there are plenty of factors at work.
They are not always directly related to the product itself, when we’re creating our mental imagery and beliefs.
Brand Marketing Over The Product Itself
We the consumer like to think we like a particular product or brand, because of the quality were getting for the price we pay. But in reality, we now know it’s based on the product’s overall marketing.
For instance, the exact same beer can be marketed in a variety of ways.
The beverage can be labelled with a different brand, or have different price points. They have proven to actually taste different to the consumer, even though it’s the same beer.
The same is true when it comes to tasting wine.
Even though most would rather believe it’s the origin, grape, vintage, or the winemaker’s expertise.
It’s usually more often the labeling, marketing, pricing and the promotion affiliated with it.