Neurobrand Your Business to Engage with Your Prospect’s Mind
If you’ve been in business for more than five years, it’s pretty likely you know more about your area of expertise than 99% of everyone else. But knowing your stuff won’t make you a success. There is another field you’re going to have to become proficient in, if you want to become the go-to specialist.
Not surprisingly, it’s consumer behaviour. Something you probably were never taught and have spent almost zero time applying to your business, and it’s getting more and more vital for you to start learning it right now.
In the 1970’s it’s estimated that the human brain was interacting with around 500 branded messages a day. Today that figure has exploded to over 5000 a day. That’s a huge amount of clutter and distraction for your prospects brain to handle. How on earth are you going to stand out and be found?
You might be actively marketing and promoting your services and it’s all very well to write, blog, speak and post about your specialist services, but if you really want some momentum and a return on your marketing investment, you’re going to have to learn how to engage your prospects mind.
Fortunately, there is a new science coming out of the consumer behaviour arena called neurobranding, making it easier for you to learn how your prospect sees your brand and to engage with the right people, at the right time, with the right message. Leading Neurobranding author Peter Steidl says:
images and emotions are the language of the mind and memories are the building blocks of the consumer’s decisions.
So if you want prospects to choose you and convert quickly into ideal clients, you need to understand how the brain ‘sees’ brands.
The way my brain sees your brand
There is a specific part of the brain, called the amygdala, which is responsible for memory and emotion and it plays a big part in decision making. It instantly recalls memory to protect you from making a bad decision. It drives your ‘gut instinct’.
Memories that are stored with emotion are more clearly recalled, so a big tip for professional service providers who want to be remembered and referred, is to ensure your brand creates an emotion. Of course, it should be a positive one.
Maya Angelou famously said: “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”. What do you want prospects to feel about your brand?
A brand is basically a memory, with emotions attached to drive decision making. So it’s vital you create a brand that is easily recognised with a clear, consistent message allowing your prospects brain to know, like and trust you. Making it easy for consumers to choose you. If you don’t have a clear brand message and are constantly changing or updating what you stand for, it’s incredibly confusing for your prospects brain and a confused mind never buys.
We recognise brands the same way we remember people. The more often you see someone the more you get to know them and how they make you feel. When they change; a new hairstyle, wardrobe makeover, loose or gain weight, it surprises you. It’s the same if a brand changes or does something out of the ordinary.
New Coke was an example of how a brand can rapidly go from recognised and loved to feared and rejected. McDonalds is potentially reducing their trust currency with their mixed message of the old brand: easy, fast food and new brand: build your own which requires considerably more time and more decision making. Humans don’t like change, whereas instant recognition, repeated consistency and delivering what your brand promises, increases your trust currency.
The brain also wants things simple. Managing all those messages it gets daily and sorting them into conscious and subconscious is the job of the Amygdala. It only brings to your attention what you deem to be important.
How to make me care
How can you make your brand stand out and be found exactly when your perfect prospect is looking for it?
The brain uses something called reticular activation to bring to your attention what you are looking for. For example, think of a make of car you decided you once liked. Chances are, as soon as you made that decision, you saw plenty of them on the road. You may have even noticed their branding and advertising more. When you tell your brain you want something, it channels this topic to your conscious mind.
The trick here is to make sure that your brand message is clear and simple so your prospects brain can instantly recall what you stand for, so when the need arises, you are automatically selected.
Neurobranding opens up a specific program to develop a brand that speaks the language of the mind, making it easier for service providers who ‘sell the invisible’ to explain why someone should choose them.
Alexander Technique Practitioner Paul Cook had the brand “My Back Coach”, which lumped him in with all the other Chiropractors and Physiotherapists in the prospects’ brain. Neurobranding delivered a new brand name of Amoći (a Sanskrit word that means liberation) and he calls himself a “back pain removalist”.
He used his new elevator pitch recently and told us “Wow! A totally different response from my usual mumbled jumbled explanation of “what I do”. Everyone started drilling me with questions and then asked for my cards. Such a big difference!”
Because his brand message focuses on the prospects pain (literally) and clearly talks to their brain, with a language it can understand, his brand is now engaging and connecting more clearly with prospects who are looking for his help.
Clarity is vital. Having one distinct message, ignoring the ‘bright-shiny-objectitis’ that many entrepreneurs suffer from and getting over FOMO (fear of missing out) will help you define the single-minded purpose you want for your brand.
Natural Thyroid Specialist Anita Montesino was using her name for her brand with imagery and colours that sent mixed messages about her clinic. Neurobranding developed the brand name Vurv* focusing the brand message totally on what prospects wanted – more energy, rather than focusing on the particular methods she uses to deliver it. Her colours changed from soft blue hues to charcoal grey and orange, which tell the brain that this brand is all about energy and sustainability. Her icon looks like a firework, flash or spark, again signifying zest, zip and get-up-and-go.
She said of the brand that “the unique approach tapped into my psyche to bring out the best in my brand and guided the choice of the brand colours and language. This is the exact launching pad I required for my business, I love it and more importantly, so do my clients”.
What’s in it for me?
The final tip to developing your brand to speak to your prospects brain is to find the WIFFM – the What’s In It For Me. What is your ideal prospect interested in right now? What are they looking for? What is their pain that they want a solution for? Use reticular activation to your advantage and ensure your brand causes emotion and makes people feel a certain way when they interact with it.
If you want prospects to become infatuated with your brand, you need to speak the language their brain loves.
