The formatting for the outline is all messed up so please follow this link to get my outline for my paper.
https://webspace.utexas.edu/csw347/Customer%20Insights%20Paper.doc?uniq=-1ylj70
Background: This is a proposal and analysis for potential expansion for HEB grocers using pricing and branding insights.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
It's all in your head.
Just like Freud believed, Rapaille believes that many of our actions and decisions are rooted in subconscious associations with particular words, products, emotions, and feelings (Minus the whole sex and anal aspect). According to Rapaille, people formulate these subconscious associations at a very early age, or whenever they are first exposed to the stimulus. Neurologically, this makes sense to me because your brain is always forming connections within itself, linking different parts of the brains with different neurons and synapses as stimuli are introduced. These associations stay engrained in your brain permanently and cannot unlink themselves. I’ve always thought that combining science, whether it is psychology, neurology, or whatever, with marketing and decision making would prove to be an effective combination. I don’t understand why it’s not utilized more frequently than it is, but then again, the process of integrating technical science into marketing research can be lengthy and costly.
Three different levels of the brain affect the way humans think, react, and make decisions. The cortex governs our intelligence and logical functions – that is, everything that we rationally and consciously do. The limbic system controls our emotions and includes structures that help us form spatial relations, long term memory, and carry out autonomic functions such as hunger, thirst, and sexual arousal. The final system that controls how we operate is probably the oldest element of the evolution of our brain: the reptilian brain. True to the name, the reptilian brain controls our most basic instincts – the need to eat, to find shelter, to reproduce, and in general, the need to survive. So what does this have to do with marketing? Well, while humans may be the most evolved (if you do believe in evolution) and rationally capable animals… we are still just those… animals. Not all of our actions are guided by rational thought, or even by emotion. Our brains are so complex and utilize so many different structures and parts that it is hard to say what governs our actual decision making. For example, say someone asks why I prefer Kraft cheese over Sargento cheese. My rational answer is that the taste is better. While this may be a perfectly warranted and accurate response, the real reason that drives the purpose might be much deeper than this. It may reside in my emotions, my subconscious, or even a combination of the two. The better question to ask is: Why do I prefer the taste? While Rapaille’s point is that there is a subconscious and often logically irrational buzz word that ultimately affects the purchase decision, I am trying to illustrate that his conjectures definitely have some merit from a physiological standpoint.
Once I understood the rationale behind his research, I found the experiments he conducted to be ingenious. First, get everybody on the same page and in the same train of thought by exposing the consistency in people’s logical thought process. Then, take away that comfort of consistency in challenging people to illustrate a point in a way that they are not used to thinking (explaining it to a 5 year old). Finally, minimize cortex stimulation in order to amplify the use of the limbic as well as reptilian systems of the brain. It appears that Rapaille has done some amazing research in this field, and I think other people can take a hint from his successes. Although let’s not get carried away in all of this talk about the subconscious and forget what makes humans human… our rationale.
Three different levels of the brain affect the way humans think, react, and make decisions. The cortex governs our intelligence and logical functions – that is, everything that we rationally and consciously do. The limbic system controls our emotions and includes structures that help us form spatial relations, long term memory, and carry out autonomic functions such as hunger, thirst, and sexual arousal. The final system that controls how we operate is probably the oldest element of the evolution of our brain: the reptilian brain. True to the name, the reptilian brain controls our most basic instincts – the need to eat, to find shelter, to reproduce, and in general, the need to survive. So what does this have to do with marketing? Well, while humans may be the most evolved (if you do believe in evolution) and rationally capable animals… we are still just those… animals. Not all of our actions are guided by rational thought, or even by emotion. Our brains are so complex and utilize so many different structures and parts that it is hard to say what governs our actual decision making. For example, say someone asks why I prefer Kraft cheese over Sargento cheese. My rational answer is that the taste is better. While this may be a perfectly warranted and accurate response, the real reason that drives the purpose might be much deeper than this. It may reside in my emotions, my subconscious, or even a combination of the two. The better question to ask is: Why do I prefer the taste? While Rapaille’s point is that there is a subconscious and often logically irrational buzz word that ultimately affects the purchase decision, I am trying to illustrate that his conjectures definitely have some merit from a physiological standpoint.
Once I understood the rationale behind his research, I found the experiments he conducted to be ingenious. First, get everybody on the same page and in the same train of thought by exposing the consistency in people’s logical thought process. Then, take away that comfort of consistency in challenging people to illustrate a point in a way that they are not used to thinking (explaining it to a 5 year old). Finally, minimize cortex stimulation in order to amplify the use of the limbic as well as reptilian systems of the brain. It appears that Rapaille has done some amazing research in this field, and I think other people can take a hint from his successes. Although let’s not get carried away in all of this talk about the subconscious and forget what makes humans human… our rationale.
Monday, November 5, 2007
In the Zone
Not to beat around the bush too long, but Michael Shermer says that humans tend to convince ourselves to believe: We overvalue the "hits" that support our beliefs, and discount the more numerous "misses." This represents the core of his argument. People will see the things that affirm certain beliefs, ideals, and biases, while at the same time, they will choose not to see the things that affirm the opposite.
I believe that this is a fundamental principal that guides human action. Everything that we do, everything that we think, and every reaction we have is a product of our preconceived individual beliefs. Humans are very one-track minded and will easily conform to the preconceived notions that they already have. I see this every day, but I don’t completely understand why this is so. At a deeper level, I think it has to do with a person’s desire to not stray away from their comfort zone. Everybody has a zone of comfort in whatever they do, whether it be in talking about religion, meeting new people, or trying to determine how the Earth rotates. Introverts have a differing level of comfort in social surroundings than extroverts. Imagine that a devout Catholic who was raised to believe in everything about Catholicism has a conversation with an atheist. The atheist provides undeniable proof that Catholicism is flawed and that the beliefs that this person has held for his or her entire life is based on a lie. How do you think that this person is going to take it? I don’t know for sure, but probably not very well. He or she will dispute the evidence and self-rationalize to a point that puts them back into their comfort zone. Most people do the things that keep them in the zone, and try to avoid all the things that take them out. This logic may not always hold true, but I think it’s reasonable to assume that humans like to live their lives in their comfort zone.
This concept can be useful for understanding people’s choices in making purchases. How far are people willing to go out of their zone for certain products? What kind of qualities or aspects of the product do people relate to, and what qualities put them in their comfort zone? Knowing this can be incredibly valuable for marketers because they can really target what people want in a product or service. If you keep them in the zone that they want to be in, then you have a repeat customer.
Another interesting point that Shermer brought up was that people are easily persuaded by the power of suggestion. I saw all of his examples that he put up and I thought they were pretty interesting when I saw how the crowd responded to the slides and clips he used, especially the Led Zeppelin example. People heard the word Satan in the reversed playing of the song, but I don’t think many were convinced that this song was actually a satanic song. However, when he put up the lyrics, I bet he had a lot of people convinced that the song was about worshipping the almighty Lucifer. This leads me to the conclusion that people will easily give into ideas if they are unfamiliar with what is put in front of them. I think it’s natural for people to be inquisitive about things that they don’t know about, but our society has created people that think it’s bad to not know something, so in an effort to feel like they understand (being knowledgeable and understanding is a natural zone of comfort for anyone), they accept and believe what they see.
I believe that this is a fundamental principal that guides human action. Everything that we do, everything that we think, and every reaction we have is a product of our preconceived individual beliefs. Humans are very one-track minded and will easily conform to the preconceived notions that they already have. I see this every day, but I don’t completely understand why this is so. At a deeper level, I think it has to do with a person’s desire to not stray away from their comfort zone. Everybody has a zone of comfort in whatever they do, whether it be in talking about religion, meeting new people, or trying to determine how the Earth rotates. Introverts have a differing level of comfort in social surroundings than extroverts. Imagine that a devout Catholic who was raised to believe in everything about Catholicism has a conversation with an atheist. The atheist provides undeniable proof that Catholicism is flawed and that the beliefs that this person has held for his or her entire life is based on a lie. How do you think that this person is going to take it? I don’t know for sure, but probably not very well. He or she will dispute the evidence and self-rationalize to a point that puts them back into their comfort zone. Most people do the things that keep them in the zone, and try to avoid all the things that take them out. This logic may not always hold true, but I think it’s reasonable to assume that humans like to live their lives in their comfort zone.
This concept can be useful for understanding people’s choices in making purchases. How far are people willing to go out of their zone for certain products? What kind of qualities or aspects of the product do people relate to, and what qualities put them in their comfort zone? Knowing this can be incredibly valuable for marketers because they can really target what people want in a product or service. If you keep them in the zone that they want to be in, then you have a repeat customer.
Another interesting point that Shermer brought up was that people are easily persuaded by the power of suggestion. I saw all of his examples that he put up and I thought they were pretty interesting when I saw how the crowd responded to the slides and clips he used, especially the Led Zeppelin example. People heard the word Satan in the reversed playing of the song, but I don’t think many were convinced that this song was actually a satanic song. However, when he put up the lyrics, I bet he had a lot of people convinced that the song was about worshipping the almighty Lucifer. This leads me to the conclusion that people will easily give into ideas if they are unfamiliar with what is put in front of them. I think it’s natural for people to be inquisitive about things that they don’t know about, but our society has created people that think it’s bad to not know something, so in an effort to feel like they understand (being knowledgeable and understanding is a natural zone of comfort for anyone), they accept and believe what they see.
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