Behavioral Priming: The Marketing of Wining and Dining
We’re in hell right now, gentlemen, believe me. And, we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell one inch at a time.
Now read it again as Al Pacino.
In the movie Any Given Sunday, and in any given football movie, the coach always gives a final pep talk. Putting the fight in the team that leads to a victorious play to win the game.
And to the relief of our internal nervousness that they might not win even though the win is on the movie poster.
So what is a pep talk? What is Al Pacino trying to accomplish?
Priming.
Al Pacino is priming his team for success. He gives them a hint of what it will feel like to climb out of the “hell” of losing. He instills an emotion that energizes the team to push towards success. Inch by inch.
What is Priming?
priming - noun.
In cognitive psychology, the effect in which recent experience of a stimulus facilitates or inhibits later processing of the same or a similar stimulus.
In Al Pacino’s speech, he is simulating the after-effect of winning. Or better put, the ability to beat the odds that are stacked against them. It is a collective experienced that doesn’t exactly ensure victory, but it does prime them for it.
Conversely, if Pacino show up and said.
Hey guys, we did our best, and I am really proud of you, so let’s go out there and finish strong. Regardless of the outcome, we’ll still get ice cream on the way home.
His team probably wouldn’t win. Half defeated in their own mind. They would play out the clock, and the movie would not have been made.
But how does this relate to marketing?
In Vino Veritas
In 1997, North, Hargreaves, & McKendrick conducted a study to see how music might influence purchasing decisions in the supermarket. They found some interesting results.
For the experiment, they attempted to influence shoppers choice between German and French wines by playing background music that gave a certain French or German feel.
Accordion musique for Frenchness. Oompah band musik for Germanness.
Now these shoppers had to choose which wine they wanted to purchase. Overall the French wines won as you could have guessed. The French are kinda known for their wine.
The French wines were chosen 5 to 1 as the accordions danced in the background.
Not surprising.
But… German wines were chosen 2 to 1 as the Oompahs oomp-ed in the background.
Which is surprising. German wine isn’t famous, but it still won out when customers were primed to think of the Vaterland.
In wine there is truth…
Now, for an even more interesting experiment, they should have cranked up Rammstein to see how many people ditched the wine section all together and bought Jägermeister and Red Bull…
Priming is done subconsciously. You aren’t usually aware of it if you have not been trained to pick up on it… and even when trained, you’d likely not noticed it most of the time.
That is because priming is a cognitive bias that we use to make decisions quicker and easier. The amount of information and stimuli bombarded our senses all day makes it impossible to logically account for all of it.
So our brains make it easy. It takes in and processes stimuli without letting us know, and shoves it right back into our decision calculus.
We think we want German wine, when really we want to Oompah. Therefore, we must want to Oompah the right way… mit a bottle of Wein.
Creating Hunger
Influencing a decision between the origin of a wine is pretty harmless. No one is going to be negatively affected by that choice (unless Rammstein…).
But the food industry, specifically the Fast Food industry, definitely takes advantage of their knowledge on priming and uses against our normal eating habits.
Harris, Bargh, and Brownwell did a study on TV ads and how they influence our actual behavior. Not just how we choose between options.
In their experiment, grade schoolers were asked to watch a cartoon with advertising between segments. Adults were asked to watch a TV show with advertising between segments.
Half of the kids were shown snack related ads; the other half, non-food related ads. Likewise for the adults, half saw food ads, and the other half non-food ads.
For the kiddos, they were given a bowl of Goldfish (the snack) to munch on while watching their cartoon.
For the adults, there were asked to attend a “separate” experiment after watching the show.
The Results?
The children who were shown snack related ads ate 45% more Goldfish than the ones who saw non-food related ads.
The adults had all types of snacks (healthy and junk food) to munch on during the “separate” interview. The ones who were show food ads ate significantly more than those who didn’t see food ads.
The thing is… the type of food shown in the ads did not influence the type of foods eaten. But it had a huge impact on the amounts eaten.
The food ads literally created hunger, or at least a “mental hunger” to consume food.
Priming in Marketing
It could be argued that priming is marketing.
We always talk about relieving pain points. About talking about the benefits of a product, not the features. Copywriting experts say we should paint a picture of what life is like after the customer use a product… yadda yadda yadda..
Is that not what Al Pacino was doing?
In his speech, they are in hell. Sounds painful. That is what losing looks like. And if they can muster the strength and buy into their conviction that they can win, then they will crawl back to victory.
Wine is something we experience. And creating that experience sub-c while we are shopping for a bottle influences the type of experience we “see” ourselves wanting.
And apparently we are all exactly like the classic joke we made as little kids:
Is Priming Deceptive?
Priming is a matter of fact. Brands and industries exploit it all the time. But do I think it is a deceptive practice?
Not exactly. If a brand wants to sell you a Hydro Flask, they are going to do their best to make you want it. Make you see how much awesomer and less dehydrated your future self could be.
But when it is specifically targeted at kids and teens to influence habits or decisions that the “adults in the room” know are harmful…
Well that’s a different story.
It is, however, important to understand how many factors influence the decision we make as consumer, and as business owners, how much is going on in the mind of your customers when choosing between you and the competition.
Now… who’s up for that ice cream
Comment below with your thoughts on priming… which wine you would choose… and which fast food chain you there thinking of...