Mastering Consumer Shortcuts: How Marketers Leverage Heuristics for Success

Doug Downs (00:06):

Back in fourth century, Greece, Alexandria to be precise. A renowned mathematician and philosopher named Pappus often wandered the city's lively marketplaces seeking knowledge and understanding of the world around it. He believed that real knowledge came from people and not necessarily from books.

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One day while strolling through the marketplace, Pappus noticed a commotion around a stall where a merchant was selling intricate puzzles. The puzzles made of interlocking pieces fascinated both children and adults who eagerly tried to solve them. Pappus observed the crowd. He noticed that some people, especially the children, solve the puzzles quickly. While others would struggle for hours intrigued, he decided to investigate further. He asked the merchant if he could borrow a few puzzles to study them, and the merchant gladly agreed. After hours of contemplation, Pappus realized that the children who solved the puzzles quickly used a different approach than the adults. Instead of trying every possible combination, the children seemed to follow a pattern or a set of simple rules. They used intuition to guide their actions, often finding the solution faster than those who relied solely on logic and trial and error. Pappus recognized this as a mental shortcut that allowed people to solve problems and make decisions quickly and efficiently. He realized they weren't trying to find the perfect solution, but one that was good enough. He wrote about this in one of his texts nearly 2000 years later. In 1945, George Polya studied and published a paper citing Pappus and called the Text Heuristic

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Herbert. A Simon studied Polya and published what he called bounded rationality. Rudolph Groner analyzed the roots of heuristics and proposed the way we think is heuristic versus algorithmic. And then in the 1970s, Daniel Kahneman, Amos Tversky famously published a study on heuristics in human decision making. Our brain takes shortcuts in its thinking and decision making, and there are all kinds of things that influence our conclusions. If our job in marketing is to influence people to like our stuff and buy our stuff, how do we become that shortcut today on stories and strategies turning shortcuts into gold mines?

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My name is Doug Downs. My guest this week is Nathan Yeung, joining today from Vancouver Canada's West Coast. Hey, Nathan, how's it going? Have you got one of those sunny days today in Vancouver? Is it that cloudy? It's going to rain and then it'll stop and then it'll rain. What's it like for you today?

Nathan Yeung (03:07):

Unfortunately, it's a little cloudy. I think today's the last day of clouds, and we're going to get about seven days of sunshine after this, so I'm looking forward to that.

Doug Downs (03:16):

And it's so beautiful. Just like Seattle, you have to put up with a bit of cloud, a bit of rain, but the views on the sunny days are amazing.

Nathan Yeung (03:23):

Yeah, when it's sunny here, it's absolutely gorgeous. It's a nice dry sun. We typically sit around 24 27 Celsius. We have beautiful beaches. It's gorgeous

Doug Downs (03:33):

Here. Awesome, awesome. Nathan, you're the founder of Find Your Audience a B2B marketing team. As a service, you've worked with large Canadian companies such as Constellation Software and Pro com. You've worked with prominent figures like Robert Herjavec, whom we know from Shark Tank in the US and up in Canada Dragons Den, you have 15 years of senior C-suite experience and expertise that ranges from management and operations advising for angel investors to becoming the COO of an ad tech startup. And you've given guest lectures at UC Berkeley, and St. John's University. So the scientific term for laziness when it comes to the brain at least is heuristics, makes it sound all fancy. Give us a quick overview of the mental shortcuts that we all take.

Nathan Yeung (04:21):

I think probably the easiest one that I think we all do, and I think we do this very, very naturally, is the availability and accessibility heuristic, which are almost very, very similar. The availability heuristic is really relying on immediate examples. And if you think about the accessibility heuristic, it's kind of similar. These memories are the most accessible to us, so they play on one another. And I think there's also something called the serial positioning effect, which is something similar where you only remember the beginning and the end of particular events. And all these rely on the fact that we do really, we are really specific in just memory, just really remembering certain parts. And when we think back at certain events, these are the only things that we reference. And you see this actually a lot in court cases as well. Usually when you're talking to a witness, they only very specifically remember certain parts, and it is usually the beginning and the end. So again, that's the accessibility bias, that's the accessibility and availability bias kind of being. It works, but in marketing happens all the time. And that's kind of why I think there's that term, the creative marketer, the reason why there's creative marketing is actually to make sure that whatever brand association we have, we do in such a way that it is memorable, which again is working on those biases.

Doug Downs (05:51):

Okay, so let's go into that. You believe that consumers are inherently lazy, and I agree, given the context, I know that you mean, does it mean we just sort of lay around on our phones on the couch? While we do do that, don't we? But if we're inherently lazy, how does it shape our marketing strategies?

Nathan Yeung (06:09):

It shapes our marketing strategy in the sense that you have to think about your consumer being that lazy. And I think if you don't think that way, you overlook a lot of different parts of the tactical parts of your marketing. And a great example of that is I call this, it's called the spotlight syndrome, where a lot of companies are very scared of doing, call it very impactful creatives because they go, well, if we do this, creative people are going to maybe be potentially offended, and so therefore I don't want to do that. So let's do this kind of middle of the road type creative where it's neither cool or funny, it's just factual. And what ends up happening is you forget that as consumers we're lazy. We have very small attention spans, and if that creative or that ad, whatever that campaign is, is not as simple as impactful as possible in that two second timeframe you have of their attention span, you're not going to make an impression.

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And if you don't make an impression, then how are you going to be accessible when they actually want to make a decision, right? There's another statistic that says 95% of the time the people you are actually talking to aren't actually in the market to purchase something. So you have to be mentally available. If you're not mentally available, how is it that someone's going to actually ultimately know to use you when they have a need? If you don't do that, then you put yourself in a really bad position where someone goes into that process, has a competitor in mind, and now you actually have to compete one-on-one, right? And that's actually the worst place you want to be because that's the most expensive place to be. So I can explain that later as we talk about this, but you got to think about it is we have to make our messaging as simple as possible. We have to make our creative as memorable and as simple as possible. And if we don't do that, then we're forcing that consumer to use way too much energy to try to understand who we are and how we solve something that might be a pain point for them.

Doug Downs (08:16):

And I need to be mentally for them accessible in that moment when they're looking to either make the purchase or they've crossed over from interest to desire.

Nathan Yeung (08:26):

Absolutely, a hundred percent.

Doug Downs (08:28):

Okay. How important is it to know what my consumers are doing at that moment in time when they're really thinking about making the purchase? And I'll give you an example of what I mean in podcasting, one of the things I ask in focus groups for listeners is, okay, what are you doing? What is your habit when you're listening to the podcast? Are you on the Peloton? Are you taking the dog for a walk? Are you driving? What's your habit? And what are you doing just before that? So how important is it to know that state of mind that your consumers are likely in just before that point of purchase? Because that has to impact heuristics in some way.

Nathan Yeung (09:08):

And I think that's a beautiful point. It leans into this other thing where I say we're all people of choice and we have our own likes, own needs and our own kind of things that we enjoy. And you're certainly right. Some of the people that are listening podcasts are listening podcasts on the treadmill or on the peloton. That's something that I do. Or sometimes often it's in the car. And I think that's where actually channel strategy comes really important because one of the philosophies I have is actually any business can actually market on any channel. And the reason is is because the way we consume media such as a podcast is very specific to us. So some people, rather than being on the train and listening to a podcast, they're on Instagram, so they'll actually consume media on Instagram. So I think you're right, there is a very specific need for you to understand how someone is consuming that medium.

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But I would challenge the fact that actually the reality is that all channels have a portion of your ideal customer profile, likely consuming it in a way of which would be beneficial for you, which is why as you see companies mature in their marketing function, they have to spread across channels in order to continue growing their audience because not a hundred percent of their total addressable market consumes media in a good way to make decisions on a podcast. So once the podcast audience that consumes it in a meaningful way is done, they have to go to Instagram or they have to go to Facebook, or they have to go to Snapchat for TikTok or Google Ads or Google Display and things like that. So you're absolutely correct. I think the way people consume is really important, but I wouldn't say that that's the number one thing. I think it's something that all people do, but we just don't actually really know how much percentage of every single channel.

Doug Downs (11:04):

You mentioned that marketing can seem easy sometimes because of cognitive biases. Can you explain some of the most significant cognitive biases that marketers rely on and how marketers make use of these biases but still remain ethical? So if I know that by marketing in a certain way, I can get people to make that impulse by great, I've tapped into it, but how do I do that and still be an ethical guy?

Nathan Yeung (11:35):

Ethics is such an interesting topic, and I'll touch on it so lightly when it comes to marketing. And I think what one thing we can ethically do is we as marketers have a job to educate our consumer. And we can do that a ton of ways of which some are completely unethical, but in the most ethical senses, I think anchoring heuristics is an ethical way for us to actually help consumers make a concerted choice. Because the goal here is that we're trying to have consumers feel comfortable with choice. One of the natural things for everyone to do is they don't actually like to be forced into choice. And I'm sure if you're listening right now, I'm sure you've been in a situation, let's call it last minute tickets to Taylor Swift. I think this is a great example, right? Last minute tickets to Taylor Swift.

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You've got your date, you really want to go. So you go to a scalper and you get a single price and you buy it. When you buy it from that scalper last minute, you don't feel great. Why you didn't have any choice. Now the scalper could be ethical and say, Hey, I have floor tickets and those are $5,000. But if you get a lower bowl or a thousand dollars, if that scalper actually educates you on the fact that it's like, look, there's actually more expensive tickets, but I think the a thousand dollars tickets, it's probably where you want to be. You actually feel a little bit comfortable because now you actually have a bit more of a choice, even though the $5,000 is not a choice for you at all. It's something that's completely out of your price range. Just mentally being aware that you have the capacity to choose something else allows a consumer to feel much more comfortable, much more confident in their choice.

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And so when they make that purchase, they're actually genuinely more happy. You see this also in negotiation tactics where you actually never want to receive, you actually never want to say yes to the first offer. So when someone says, Hey, I'll pay you a thousand dollars, you're actually better off saying, no, I'll pay you 900 because the other individual actually feels better because they think they might've gotten a better deal. And so the anchoring and choice is a huge thing, and we can do that in a very ethical way where we help consumers feel more comfortable making that purchase and making them ultimately more comfortable and confident in that choice.

Doug Downs (14:04):

The fact that we all take these shortcuts and we don't necessarily think things all the way through, and I totally agree. Does that make trust that much more important, a human asset?

Nathan Yeung (14:15):

Absolutely. Absolutely. We are built to conserve as much mental energy as possible. It's just who we are, and that's the whole reason why we have heuristics. We don't have time to look at a thousand different options. We don't have time when you're buying that new car to figure out what the difference between the suspension system is from A BMW to a Kia. We just don't have time. So a lot of this comes from trust. Trust from the brand. Is the brand authentic? Is the brand or the company really building that level of brand trust where they go, I know that they're building the best things. That's why there's always that old age thing. It's like, oh, you buy German products versus Chinese products. Given the choice, if someone handed you two boxes, one from Germany, one from Japan, or one from China, no one's really going to go for China. And that's no offense. It's just ingrained in us in terms of manufacturing trust, in cultural trust. And so you can see that in just such a simple example. So trust is massive because everyone takes, if everyone uses these mental shortcuts, trust becomes a major underlying factor on how much you believe in that heuristic and how far you believe in it.

Doug Downs (15:38):

And this is why what my friends and family recommend to me is so important because I trust them. I trust those in my circle and maybe my slightly outer circle as well. Yeah,

Nathan Yeung (15:47):

Yeah, absolutely. And there's something called the zero moment of truth where Google actually talks about and shows the difference between the influence and impact of all kinds of different mediums. And word of mouth is huge. It's always huge because you have so much trust with your friends, your family, the people within your inner circle

Doug Downs (16:09):

Overconfidence. You mentioned in some of your documentation that overconfidence negatively impacts marketing efforts and business outcomes. What are some of the signs that a business is becoming overconfident? I think

Nathan Yeung (16:24):

A great example of this is I did this at a conference with a hundred CEOs, and I said, it is really interesting because there's statistics out there that 90% of CEOs say that they know marketing, and yet 70% of CEOs also say they don't know or they don't believe that their marketing function is performing well. So that's kind of like saying 90% of CEOs know how to drive, but 70% of them have drivers that don't drive well. So how does that work? And what that really actually is, is likely overconfidence. 90% of these CEOs likely have a healthy level of overconfidence of what they think marketing is. And there's another consumer psychology term called the illusion of explanatory depth, which is basically, we like to say we know things when we really don't. We know the surface of things. So we say we know marketing, but you don't actually know everything about marketing.

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It's kind of like when people say, acting is easy, acting is not easy. We have this want to just say, we know things, but we really don't know all the intricate details of what's required to do these things Well. And when you're overconfident, you're going to overlook a whole bunch of different things. You're going to overlook how much your customers trust you. You're going to overlook the fact that maybe your marketing isn't the right team for your organization. You're going to overlook that maybe your ideas as the CEO may not be the best ideas and overconfidence, especially in marketing, because I find marketing to be one of the few functions in our organization where everyone says they know how to do it. It lends itself to just a poorly run function. You run into different problems, such as, again, the CEO thinking that they could run it. You run into the fact that you go into too many stakeholders getting involved in marketing because they're overconfident in their abilities. Then you get a function that's not really a marketing function. It's kind of like a pseudo democracy that's not being really run well and being run by a bunch of people that actually don't know marketing. So these are just some of the very obvious things that I've run into, especially in some of the early stage organizations or mature stage organizations. I wouldn't say any company is immune to this problem.

Doug Downs (18:50):

Okay. And last question, some marketing campaigns that come to mind for you that effectively used heuristics and consumer laziness.

Nathan Yeung (18:58):

I think the best consumer campaign that comes right to mind and see, this is funny because when you say that I'm going to have availability and accessibility bias, but the whole point Exactly, yes. The whole point is, is that if a marketer does that well, that is why it's the best campaign. It's going to be the Old Spice commercial,

Isaiah Amir Mustafa, Old Spice Commercial (19:18):

Hello, ladies, look at your man now back to me now back at your man. Now back to me. Sadly, he isn't me, but if he stopped using Lady Scented body Wash and switched to Old Spice, he could smell like he's me. Look down, back up. Where are you? You're on a boat with the man. Your man could smell like what's in your hand back at me? I have it. It's an oyster with two tickets to that thing you love. Look again, the tickets are now diamonds. Anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady, I'm on a horse.

Doug Downs (19:48):

I'm on a horse. I'm on

Nathan Yeung (19:48):

A horse. And what's beautiful about that is it's tapping into, so if anyone ever wants to but go read books on how to memorize 52 cards, they always talk about how exaggeration is one of the biggest forms or the biggest factors into your brain remembering something. And that commercial was just exaggerated. Everything about it was exaggerated. And because it was so exaggerated, the actual entire commercial is memorable. And because you remember that so well, you remember the brand, you remember what they do. You remember even the actor, there's so many different parts of that commercial you can remember.

Doug Downs (20:31):

He was brilliant. He was absolutely brilliant in those ads. By the way, what a tough role to play.

Nathan Yeung (20:37):

And I think to me, that was one of the best commercials that I can remember in my lifetime. I know there are more, but that's the one that my accessibility goes to because it's the one that I remember the most. And that means the marketers and the people behind that specific campaign obviously knew what they were doing. They knew that they needed to do something creative until therefore they executed on that.

Doug Downs (21:01):

And if memory serves me correct, that was a Super Bowl ad to begin, I think to begin with, do we remember differently when there's a big occasion? So Super Bowl is a great example. About half the people watching are watching for the ads, right? To see if they get a great big belly, belly laugh. But I'm expecting it. And if my level of expectation is that much higher, is that a good thing or is that a bad thing when I'm expecting? How do heuristics play a role there?

Nathan Yeung (21:29):

I think heuristics still play a role there because you're actually mentally investing into it. It's kind of no different than if, I guess what we're really saying is people haven't invested in tension span towards this. And if you were to take that outside of the context of Super Bowl, you have an invested attention span. When you're reading a book, you have an invested attention span When you're on the Peloton listening to a podcast,

Doug Downs (21:53):

I do, when I read a book, I have my yellow highlighter. I am expecting you to give me things I want to remember later on.

Nathan Yeung (22:00):

And so what that actually is, is a form of priming, if you think about it. So we're priming ourselves for memory recall. We're priming ourselves because we're saying, Hey, this is actually going to be really interesting. I'm paying attention, and that's actually the biggest thing. I am paying attention. Most of the time we're not, right. So I think in the instance of a Super Bowl ad, not only typically are they pretty good in the sense of making sure that they're creative, you also have an audience that has an invested attention span, so therefore they're primed, which means they're likely, they're more likely to actually remember the ad, even if it's not the best ad possible.

Doug Downs (22:40):

Any others that come to mind?

Nathan Yeung (22:41):

I have to admit, probably the other one, which is not a direct campaign, but certainly was intentional, was for anyone that was watching a family guy back in the day, there was a scene where they said, oh no. Oh no. And the Coolaid guy busts through the, I think a brick wall, and he goes,

Seth McFarlane, Family Guy Characters (23:02):

Oh yeah, Mr. Griffin, I think your words have touched us all. I'm sentencing you to 24 months in prison. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh, yeah.

Nathan Yeung (23:15):

And just that one specific scene I think brought Kool-Aid back up in terms of being recalled as a brand, because back then, Kool-Aid was not doing that well. And I think that one scene certainly brought up their brand awareness, I'm sure, especially if you looked it up on Google Trends. And so that was certainly a memorable moment.

Doug Downs (23:38):

Well, and on that, props to Mattel for their recent participation in the Barbie movie, right? I thought they were terrific the way they showed the brand in that movie.

Nathan Yeung (23:46):

I think that was a great renewal of a brand, and I think that's the beauty of marketing, right? You can reframe something, and if you reframe it well, you can really renew everything around that.

Doug Downs (23:59):

Perfect. I really appreciate, I've studied heuristics, and this was an amazing conversation, Nathan, thank you for this.

Nathan Yeung (24:06):

No, I appreciate the time. It's something that I found so interesting and have a part of writing my book. It's been a joy just to read more about it and also understand how this all applies to all the work that I've done in the last eight years.

Doug Downs (24:19):

We got to link to your book in the show notes, so thank you.

Nathan Yeung (24:22):

Awesome. Thank you so much.

Doug Downs (24:24):

If you'd like to send a message to my guest, Nathan Yeung, we've got his contact information in the show notes, and definitely check out his book. Stories and Strategies is a co-production of JGR Communications and Stories and strategies podcasts. You know what? Our YouTube page is starting to grow. We've crossed over 50,000 views. I'm happy with that. I know some of you probably have 500,000, 5 million views. That's cool. But we started this page in December, so seven or so months ago, we've hit 50,000 views. I'm kind of pleased with that. We would love it if you would check it out and maybe subscribe to our YouTube channel. Segments of this interview are on that channel. Thank you to our producer Emily Page. And lastly, do us a favor forward this episode to one friend. Thanks for listening.