Those pesky misbehaving humans
I’m currently reading a very interesting new book called Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by Richard Thaler. Thaler is an economics professor who became inordinately interested in those curious, messy, illogical, maddening creatures called “Humans” sometime in the ’70s.
Economists then – and now – prefer to deal with the far more predictable actions of rational, logical beings. Since no such beings actually exist, economists constantly make bad predictions. The book is the story of Thaler’s struggle to account for actual Human behavior by combining psychology with economics.
The book has some powerful lessons for financial marketers on why and how Humans make financial decisions.
Most of these ideas (for example, people make decisions based on emotion) won’t be surprising to a seasoned marketer. But you have to bear in mind that many of your management colleagues think more like economists. They expect people to be logical, so part of your job is to bridge this gap by demonstrating the value of a strong brand and emotional marketing.
And of course, you have to watch your own creative work for dangerous signs you’re starting to think people actually use logic. Are you stuffing in too many words, benefits, arguments, and reasons? Are there too many options? Is there a strong, simple emotional center to each piece or is it a laundry list of features?
Remember to create marketing for humans, not logical economic units.
Related posts:
Bet on Emotion, Every Time
Five Ways to be More Differenter
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