1. PCB M2 Cognitive Biases & Heuristics

Cognitive Biases & Heuristics

The mental shortcuts your audience is always running & how brands exploit (or build around them) these are the specific repeatable patterns or irrational thinking that run on top of that hardware

anchoring bias

the brain’s tendency to rely disproportionately on the first piece of information it receives when making subsequent judgements. The first #, word or image becomes the “anchor” & everything else gets evaluated relative to it

Anchor inch bias experiment

Kahneman & Tversky experiment: spun a wheel rigged to land on 10 or 65 & were asked how many countries there are in Africa. Those who landed on 65 guessed higher. The ANCHOR CONTAMINATED THE ESTIMATE

Pricing Anchors

setting ur reference point. Why the “original price” is crossed out and the discount is secondarily shown so the higher price is the anchor

Prestige anchors

lux brands putting the highest-end products in the front of the store or at the top of the website in order to recalibrate what feels like a normal price.

Menu Anchors

“Star” or “decoy” items to anchor. Wine lists do the same thing and forging goes to Santos’s the board

Anchoring in branding strategy

you want to control the anchor. Always allow “original price’ b4 discount if ur launching a new brand into a competetive market ur 1st impression is ur anchor.

The Framing Effect

ppl respond to identical info depending on how it’s presented the frame (context, wording, the comparison point changes the perceived meaning even when facts are the same. This has to do with somatic markers. It brain inflated relative to a reference point. Changing the reference point will change the reference point

Kahneman & the Framing Effect

”the surgery has a 90% survival rate” v ‘this surgery has a 10% mortality rate. System 1 responds to the emotional valence we of the frame b4 system 2 can do the math

Gain Frames v Loss Frames

gain frames work better for prevention-focused products & decisions where ppl feel optimistic. Loss frames work better for high-stakes decisions where ppl are already risk-aware. “Get whiter teeth” v “stop the decay b4 it’s too late” gain v loss.

Framing & Subscriptions

For less than a cup of coffee vs $5 a month ect. Spotify, Netflix, Saa

Framing in % v absolute #s

Pharma ads use relative risk reduction; drug safety studies use absolute #s eg: form 2 in 1000 to 1 in 1000 vs reduces risk by 50%

“Free to refuse” frame

Being given the perception of choice in the matter, actually increases compliance.

Brand positioning frames

“the last bag u will ever buy” for lux brands to justify expensive products, also Patagonia- > expensive becomes economical when framed against the cost of repeated cheap purchases.

Priming

exposure to 1 stimulus influences the response to a subsequent stimulus w/out the person being aware of the connection. (Pre-loading content)

Semantic activation spreading

brain is pattern-matching & prediction machine. Ever experience activates a web of associated concepts in memory & those associations stay slightly “warm” 4 a pd afterward making relalted concepts easier to access.

Priminng Experiment

mention words associated to age ands being elderly Dan ppl will walk down a hallway measurably slower due to priming.

Scent Priming

grocery stores pumping bakery scents & Abercrombie

Music Tempo Priming

Slow music = ppl browse longer & spend more; fast music = ppl move quicker & make more impulsive purchases

Color Priming

Red primes urgency & appetite (fast food). Blue primes trust & reliability (banks, tech, healthcare), green primes nature & health.

Website design priming

Showing a cozy couch-job a furniture website b4 product listings primes comfort-seeking which leads to increased purchasing of comfort related items. The visual context contaminates subsequent evaluation

Language Priming in Brand Copy

lux brands avoid cheapening and discount words and choose words like “accessible”, “entry point”, “thoughtfully priced”

Halo Effect

A (+) impression in one dimension of a person, brand, or product spreads to color impressions in all other dimensions, even unrelated ones.

Cognitive consistency in axn. It brain craves coherent, unified assessments. It’s cognitively expensive to hold nuanced, complex, dimension-specific evaluations of everything. It takes a strong first impression or a single salient attribute & uses it as a proxy for overall quality. (Ex: attractiveness)

Halo in B&M

Apple: iMac to all other products released int he time thereafter.

This only works when there’s some plausible fit between a celeb’s persona & the brand or there will be cognitive dissonance.

Packaging as a Halo

Studies show that better looking packaging leads customers to-order the produce higher in quality. Heavier wine bottles w/ premium label.

Store design Halos

Apple stores, Glossier flagships, Allbirds retail

Brands invested heavily in physical retail as a halo generator

Horn Effect

Halo in reverse. 1 (-) impression spreads & contaminates everything else

Review Halos

the volume of social validation creates a halo around even a slightly lower score

Mere Exposure Effect

repeated exposure to a stimulus increases liking of that stimulus independent of any conscious evaluation or learning. Familiarity breeds preference

Familiarity Brooks’s trust over time.

Big brands running ad campaigns w/ no CTA are exploiting this

Exposure effect study

Exposure effect even works subliminally.

Showing ppl shapes so briefly they don’t notice will prefer those shapes

Exposure Effect with logos

mere exposure effect is how brand recognition becomes brand feeling (ex Nike swoosh reinforcing the association map)

Sonic Branding and Mere Exposure Effect

Intel’s 4 chime

Netflix “ta dum”

McDonald’s ‘ba da ba ba ba”

Auditory logos being built thru repetitive exposure triggers immediate brand association in System 1

These sounds activate emotional memory centers

Retargeting Ads on Digital Platforms & Mere Exposure Effect

your consciousness may be creeped out but familiarity with the product that is slowly converted into preference

Retargeted ads convert 3-5x the rate of cold traffic

Downside of Mere Exposure Effect

MEE /\ liking up until a point the repetition induced boredom kicks in and liking \/

Social Proof

when uncertain about what to do, ppl look to the behavior of others as evidence of the correct axn. The more ppl are doing something, the more correct the thing appears to be

Book on Influence

Robert Cialdini

Identified social proof as 1 of the 6 fundamental principles of persuasion & it’s probably the most powerful of the 6 in the modern media environment.

Social Proof & uncertainty

Social proof is is strongest when ppl don’t know what to do.

Novelty, complexity, unfamiliar environments that spike social proof sensitivity.

Every new product, brand & new category is fighting an uphill battle against the instinct to wait and see what other ppl do first

Exotic Social Proof

A credible authority validates the product. Perceived expertise transfers trust.

Celebrity Social Proof

aspirational figures using or enjoying a product operates as a halo transfer combined with the implicit logic that if someone successful chooses this, it’s probably a good choice

User Social Proof

reviews, ratings, testimonials from regular ppl. More persuasive than celeb endorsements for functional purchases because the relatability factor is higher.

Wisdom of crowds social proof

aggregate numbers. The crowd becomes the proof. Even if nobody verified its the users are happy, if the numbers of purchase ect are high enough, that’s perceived validation

wisdom of friends social proof

the most powerful variant

Amazon & Social Proof

its entire review architecture, customers also bought, frequently bought together

”bestseller” & “# 1” labels as social proof

Barnes & Noble’s bestseller shelf, Spotify’s “most streamed”, App Store “Editor’s Choice”

Social Proof w/ Waitlist & Launch queues