In branding and, more specifically, brand
communication there is the concept (element) called reason to believe.
In a nutshell, reason to believe is the argument supporting a (the) claim made by
a brand.
For example, a product line from the cosmetics
brand Nivea claims to help women to
prevent / reduce wrinkles. This sub-brand is Nivea Q10 or Nivea Q10 Plus.
The claim of helping with wrinkles is supported
by the argument (reason to believe)
that these cosmetic products have the Coenzyme
Q10.
If we see people (consumers) as rational
agents, the marketing / branding communication endeavour should go as follows:
The brand makes a claim – promises a benefit
for the consumer. In the example above this is dealing with wrinkles.
Next, the brand backs this claim with a very
strong rational argument:
The brand helps you with wrinkles because it
contains the Coenzyme Q10.
It is (more or less) assumed that the target
audience – the consumers – know what Coenzyme Q10 does and acknowledges its
benefits.
In behavioural science jargon, this
communication endeavour is focused on convincing System 2 that the brand claim (promise) is genuine and backed by
strong arguments.
At first glance and holding in mind an
idealistic view of human nature, this logic makes sense. Our consumers are
rational agents and we (the marketers) need to convince them that what we promise
will actually happen to them.
Nonetheless, this is (almost) completely wrong.
We know that people have two systems of
judgment, quite unappealingly named System 1 and System 2. We also know that the default way of reasoning is System 1 which is based on relatively simplistic rules of judgment
(heuristics). System 2 is the number
crunching, rational arguments and effortful reasoning way in which we process
information. And System 2 is called “2”
because it is the secondary judgment system. To put things simply, it needs to
be activated.
What is often ignored in presentations, talks,
books etc. on System 1 and System 2
thinking is how these judgment modes interact. I will not develop the topic
here (I did it in my first book It Makes (No) Sense). What is relevant for this post, is that System 1 and 2 work
together in detecting serious anomalies in the information processed. They work
like a smoke (fire)-detector. If
things are within tolerable boundaries, nothing special happens. However, when
there is smoke, the alarm is
activated and System 2 starts checking
for problems.
Going back to branding communication, talking
to System 2 by presenting solid
arguments to back-up a claim (promise), is deeply flawed for two (major)
reasons. First, System 2 might very
well not be activated, thus the communication effort might very well fall on deaf years. Second, more often than not
(and more often than we like to admit) marketing communication should not talk
to System 2. This is because System 2 might wake up and start looking
for problems in the claim and its backing… and most often it will find enough
of them.
So, what about reason to believe?
If we are to adopt a behaviourally informed
marketing approach, we should see the Reason
to Believe as Reason to Not Doubt.
I know, it sounds a bit awkward, but give it another
few minutes.
While on the surface reason to believe and reason
to not doubt might take the same form (shape), in depth they are
significantly different.
Reason to not doubt is that plausible (enough) argument
that makes you (the client) not doubt what the brand is claiming. In other
words, it is that piece of information that keeps System 2 sleeping.
Sometimes (too often, if you ask me), Reason to Not Doubt is more of a smoke screen or as we say in Romanian Dust in the eyes, that makes the bull-shit detector (System 2 in a
critical mode) not activate.
I will come back to the Nivea and the Coenzyme Q10
example and explain how reason to believe
is, in fact, Reason to Not Doubt.
But, first, I’ll explain the point with an example from the dating world.
Let’s assume that He and She had some
initial (social) contact. He calls Her to ask her out on a date. She is not very impressed by Him and wants to reject Him.
Knowing this, let’s assume that He calls Her to ask her out.
“Hi (a lot of bla bla) … Would you like to go
out on Thursday?”
She answers: “No”
Now, in His mind the alarm system is activated. Why
isn’t she willing to go out on a date? Did I make a bad impression? Doesn’t She
like me? You can figure out the rest.
But, as we know, ladies want (usually) to
reject gentlemen in a rather soft manner.
Now, let’s assume that She answers with:
“Sorry, I can’t. I’m busy”
The “I’m busy” part is (sort-of) a Reason to Believe. But as most of us
know, the “I’m busy” is not a very plausible reason why She is not willing to go on a date.
O.K. Now, let’s assume that She answers with:
“I can’t go out because I’ll be with my
boyfriend and he’ll not be very happy if I would cancel and go out with you instead”
In this case, the thought going through His
mind will be: I’m barking at the wrong
tree. There will be no doubt that she is not an available mating partner.
But here’s the thing / beauty of Reason to Not Doubt.
He doesn’t know if She really has a boyfriend, or even if She does, there is no certainty that She will be with her boyfriend at the
suggested time of the date. Nonetheless, 99.999% of Hes will not actually investigate whether She said the truth. He
will simply back-off because there isn’t any reason to doubt her claim …
Things are relatively similar in the marketing
communication endeavours. If a brand simply makes a claim such as It helps you with the wrinkles, the
immediate reaction might very well be: Yeah!
Sure… I have never heard that before.
When backing a claim such as It helps you with the wrinkles with a Reason to Believe such as because it contains the Coenzyme Q10,
the consumer should know or search what the Coenzyme
Q10 is and does – what are its effects.
Just as a note, I tried reading about the Coenzyme Q10 here, but I couldn’t understand a thing and I guess that the huge majority of
people in the target audience do not understand too much… though I might be an
exception since I was a very bad student in organic chemistry.
But more often than not, the people in the
target audience will behave like the guy asking for a date when faced with I’ll be with my boyfriend. It is
plausible enough to not doubt the claim.
On the surface, the fact that we should not
give Reasons to Believe, but give Reasons to Not Doubt might seem like a nuance. However, there are profound
differences and huge implications for marketing communication.
I hope I gave enough reasons to not doubt my
claim ;)
You should visit my website www.naumof.com because you liked what you read
;)
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