Persuasion Economics 5: Emotional Decision Making

70% of the decisions we make are unconscious. WRONG! Actually, 100% of the decisions we make are unconscious. We justify our actions and decisions after the decisions have been made. It's called; Post rationalized decision.

Imagine my shock when I found out that all our decisions are made in the unconscious mode.

This is week five of my Digital Psychology training by CXL and I'm learning about the emotional factors that affect our Decision Making process as well as how to map out a Persuasive Journey using Applied Neuroscience Methods.

I would be sharing my take home from these learnings as well as tips from my experience as a Copywriter and Mindset Coach.

My focus this week would be on the factors that affect our decision-making process and how cognitive load can distort us from taking some decisions.

Each piece of content would contain my thoughts and/or learning from CXL's teaching and a personal "How Can I Brand This" section, where I would share tips on how you can use the information for your brand success.

Enjoy...

4 Factors That Influence Decision Making

1. Cognitive Biases

Cognitive biases are systemic or programmed error in thinking that affects the decisions we make or the judgement we give. Sometimes, these biases are related to memory. That is, we stereotype a particular sect based on a previous memory of one from the sect.

2. Memories

Memories are past experiences which can also influence a person's future decision. If a person has had a previous negative experience from a particular person or sect, the memory is stored in their mind and picked up when a similar situation is triggered.

3. Reason

Abductive reasoning is a form of logical inference formulated and advanced by American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce beginning in the last third of the 19th century. It starts with an observation or set of observations and then seeks to find the simplest and most likely conclusion from the observations.

Reason is based on creating and testing hypotheses using the best information available.

4. Emotions

Decisions are emotional. Neuroscientist Antonio Damascio discovered that people who had a damage in their brain found it difficult to make decisions.

So, emotions help in the decision making process.

How Can I Brand This?

• What are the ingrained biases around your product that you can correct or address in your marketing?
• We’ve established this before. But first impressions matter. Give people an amazing Digital first impression of your brand, product or service.
• People will make decisions based on the information available at their disposal. What reasons are you giving them to look at you? What positive experiences and messages are you stating out?
• People will make decisions based on emotions. Therefore, infuse one or two emotions in your Marketing message.

Persuasive Journey Mapping

Everything in the world is BIG and that's what our marketing should be centred around.

B - Behaviour

I - Intelligence

G - Gap

A customer's decision is centred around his behaviour, his intelligence and the gap between your brand, product or service and his needs.

A customer has a dual processing brain. He makes decisions, especially buying decisions from both brains...but more of one than the other.

System 1 - Subconscious Emotional Processes

System 1 is automated, it acts on triggers. It is also associative. We tend to relate more with something or someone that we can associate with something we're previously familiar with. For instance, if we love dogs and we meet a new person who loves dogs as well, chances are, we are more likely to relate more with that person as opposed to if they didn't do or have anything we can relate to.

This system 1 is also relative. As in associative, we tend to relate with terms with seemingly relative terms.

Automated Heuristics is the ability to perform tasks that rely on complex analysis , subtle judgments and creative problem solving without Human Interface. To perform iterative problem solving techniques through Adaptive learning build on Statistical Machine Learning.

System 2 - Conscious Rational Processes

System 2 is usually absent during the decision making process. Unlike system 1 which almost acts on impulse, system 2 requires FOCUS to be activated.

Our consciousness is our comfortness. We buy whatever we buy because it makes us feel good.

Michael Gazaniga came up with the term;

Post-Decision Rationalize

This simply means that we come up with reasons, ratios and alibis for our behaviour after we've made the decision. We make the decisions and our minds come up with reasons for doing so just to comfort us that we made the right choice.

How Can I Brand This?

• Tie your products or services around something that your audience is already familiar with.
• If you have premium products, you can employ the associative laws by suggesting it subtly to your audience after they must have bought a previous similar product.
• How can you make your audience relate with you? What are the things they like that you can tie around your products?
• Always think in terms of value. Value first. Give first sparingly, before asking for their money in return.
• Use education based marketing approach for your brand, product or services. Let potential customers know the importance of what they are getting before getting onboard. Give them enough information to make the decision making process a lot easier.
• Outline the emotional benefits of your products. What exact emotion would you want your customers to feel?
• Give your customers a reason to act. Why should they buy your product? How would they feel after they do? What is the motive behind their buying decision?
  Understand these things and outline it subtly in your Marketing message.

That's it on this week's learning on Persuasion Economics. These are my personal take home from the learning sessions at CXL on Digital Psychology and Persuasion. I hope you got value or learnt something new. If you did, please leave a comment and let me know what stood out for you.

A huge thank you to CXL for the learning opportunity. You can check out their website if you want to learn how to take your Digital Marketing game to the next level. There are several digital courses which can help you become badass at marketing