Advanced Marketing Lenses

LENS #1 (of 10): PREFERENCE

(I originally posted this in the Online Business Community, so if you are a business builder and want to learn more, join us there.)

Different people have different preferences.

Some people hold onto things for a long time…

They resist change more than others.

While other people require almost constant change…

And they resist repetition.

Now, you’ve probably seen these two different types of people…

But what’s important to notice is the context around those preferences.

You see, it’s not the person always resists change or resists repetition…

They have different preferences when it comes to specific things.

I’ve told you before about the questionnaire we send our customers after they join…

And one of the questions we ask them is how often they buy a new phone.

Another question we ask is when the last time they bought a course was.

We want to understand their purchasing preferences…

Because understanding your audience and your niche is understanding their behavior.

I’ll give you my own preferences (just don’t try to use them to sell me stuff)…

I buy a new phone when my current phone breaks or stops working.

Same with my computer.

I know other people who always buy the newest version…

So that’s every couple years.

And this is just one example of preference, related to one type of purchase.

There are other preferences too…

Which are typically related to cultural conditioning or utilitarian values or other beliefs…

And technically, that could be part of another lens…

So we won’t get into that too deep right now.

But one more thing about preferences:

There’s an interesting story about Spotify…

Spotify had a service called “Discover Weekly”…

Basically, they would use their algorithm to curate a mixtape specifically for each user.

And it meant to help the user discover new artists and songs.

But after one of the software updates, they found a bug.

For some reason, people were being shown songs and artists they already knew.

Not the entire discover weekly playlist…

The playlist would include a lot of new stuff too…

But it would also include stuff they were familiar with.

At first glance, it seems like a big problem, right?

After all, the whole point of discover weekly was for users to discover new stuff.

But when the executives at Spotify looked at the data…

They found something very interesting…

Users actually engaged with / listened to the content MORE…

And revisited and replayed the playlist MORE…

When there were some familiar songs included.

Now, it seems counterintuitive, right?

Why would someone use a discovery playlist…

Meant specifically to find new artists and songs…

And then end up listening to the same stuff they already knew?

Well, it turns out there’s been a decent amount of research into this topic.

There’s actually a sweet spot between new and old…

And when artists hit that sweet spot…

Or when technology hits that sweet spot…

They unlock virality…

It turns out that even people who want something new…

Want it to be new in a familiar way.

You see… when something is new… it’s risky.

People don’t like risk.

If you do something completely new…

Others are likely to mock you, reject you, etc.

Because they might not even be able to comprehend that level of newness.

And they themselves need social cues to help them understand what to do (and think).

Another factor at play here is called the “mere-exposure effect”…

Basically, people are biased towards liking something the more they come into contact with it or the more they are exposed to it.

They are biased toward familiarity.

So, why does marketing and advertising always seem to focus on newness?

Research shows that marketing focused on familiarity with a pinch of newness works better.

There is a balance of including all the familiar things needed to make people feel safe…

While at the same time including elements of surprise and newness that grab attention.

Using different words makes this even clearer:

When given the choice between something that is SAME or something that is NEW…

People feel safer with SAME because there is risk associated with NEW.

But when given the choice between something that is SAME or something that is SAME BUT NEW…

Many people tend to prefer SAME BUT NEW…

Because the risk is much smaller, due to the SAME element…

But they already know it if it’s only SAME…

So the NEW element makes it more interesting.

Another example:

Do you want to buy a car?

Probably yes at some point in your life.

Do you want to buy a skaberdabie?

Probably no because you don’t even know what that is.

Now, if I tell you that a skaberdabie is like a car, but it flies…

Do you want to buy a skaberdabie?

Probably no because you still have no mental construct on which to understand and assess what this thing really is.

Sure, you know what a car is…

And you know what it means for something to fly…

But this thing is only “like a car”… and “it flies”…

Sounds risky…

And it also sounds like a lot of work to understand what it really is…

Before buying it, you’ll need to do a lot of research…

Maybe it doesn’t work like a car works at all…

Maybe it only looks like car, but doesn’t function like one…

Or maybe it functions like a car, but doesn’t look like one…

And that could be even worse…

Because then all of your friends would see this thing…

They wouldn’t know what it was…

And they would judge you for it.

Which means you could risk losing social status…

No way you’re buying it… no way you’re taking that risk…

But now, think about this…

If, instead of asking: Do you want a skaberdabie?

What if I instead asked you:

Do you want a flying car?

Just think about it…

You know flying cars exist already…

Almost no one has one, so your neighbors might judge you still…

But at the end of the day, it’s a car, right?

If they ask what it is, you don’t have to explain with words they don’t understand…

You say “flying car” and everyone gets it.

And this might even elevate your social status because now you’re ahead of the curve.

People might think you are more successful…

You have access to resources and people and connections that they don’t.

After all, you were the first one on the block to get a flying car.

So you are much more likely to buy something called a “flying car” than to buy something called a “skaberdabie” or any other ridiculous name I could come up with.

This is the problem extremely creative people face…

Total and complete ingenuity…

Creating an absolutely new concept…

Is less likely to be accepted by the masses than something more familiar with a slight twist.

So when you are creating a product, or marketing it, or advertising it…

You should consciously appeal to people’s bias towards familiarity.

If you want to learn more about this, look up Raymond Loewy’s “MAYA” rule…

MAYA stands for “most advanced, yet acceptable”.

We might also call this lens of preference “sentiment”…

What do people accept?

If you look at the evolution of different versions of the iPhone…

They all look very very similar.

But every couple years there’s a new model with some “surprising” changes.

They make it more advanced…

They make it new…

But it’s still the same thing you know and love already.

On the other hand, some breakthroughs get completely ignored…

They are “too far ahead of their time”…

One example is Google Glass (which you might not even remember).

Google came out with computerized glasses in 2014…

2014…

2014!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was 10 years ago!

But people weren’t ready for that.

“I don’t want to wear a computer.” - that was the sentiment…

They thought…

It was too new… too different…

That’s scary.

Apple on the other hand came out with the Apple Watch and AirPods…

Which were extremely successful.

Now there’s an entire category of computerized accessories called “wearables”.

And even though the Apple Watch and AirPods were technologically less advanced…

They were more acceptable…

And therefore more widely adopted by consumers.

They were less invasive in people’s everyday lives because…

Glasses would alter everything about how you perceive the world…

Whereas earphones and watches felt less intrusive.

And 10 years later… what is the result?

The less technologically advanced products won…

Because they were more acceptable…

Which is another way to say that they aligned with people’s preferences better.

Another example is ChatGPT…

This technology has been available to the public since 2020…

But most people don’t know how to use an API playground…

In 2020, that was the interface…

But when they made some small changes and opened the chat interface…

This was something more familiar to people.

Anybody could type words into a chat…

And the back-and-forth conversation style of the chat environment was familiar because people were already used to using two-way chat interfaces online and even with SMS.

Only after it became familiar and acceptable did ChatGPT’s popularity really surge.

And that’s how it went from advanced, but unacceptable…

To advanced AND acceptable.

They tapped into the true preferences of the marketplace…

And the deeper psychology of the consumer…

A psychology that gives attention to novelty and surprise…

But which ultimately prefers familiarity.

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