Why Weird Works - The science behind the content

So it's been sometime since the last article, (what's 3 years between friends right?), but I wanted to get back into the swing of things with a quick read that examines one of my favourite behavioural biases, the Isolation Effect.

To paraphrase the Isolation Effect: Items that stand-out-like-a-sore-thumb are more likely to be remembered, and why is that important? Because it's very hard to buy something you can't remember.

I won't bore you with the discovery from Professor Von Restorff back in the 30's, but in short, the reason this is useful to marketers and design teams is that the decisions a brand makes during a production to 'play it safe', or indeed to 'copy the category quo', is perhaps the most dangerous thing you can do, blending in to a plethora of 'same-same, but different' beige bullshit.

Now I'm not saying, 'being weird for the sake of being weird is the route to success', as if that were the case, I'd be rivalling Elon right now, but when applied appropriately, being distinctively different has a direct commercial benefit.

The reason for this links back to one of the core building blocks of how brands grow under, Mental Availability, or in other words, who is top-of-mind in the category?

In summary, by standing out from the crowd, your brand is more likely to cut through the thousands of messages that we are exposed to on a daily basis, and therefore, more likely to be remembered and bought from.

You can view how we adopted this approach and the results for a materials technology brand here: https://www.vaughanandcompany.co.uk/work/integrated-graphene

If you do have any questions / queries do leave a comment below and I'll be sure to get back to you!

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Ryan

#content #communications #cgi

References:

• Sharp, B. (2010). How brands grow: What marketers don't know. South Melbourne, Vic: Oxford University Press.
• Hunt, R.R. The subtlety of distinctiveness: What von Restorff really did. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 2, 105–112 (1995). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03214414