The principle of contrast

By: Monika Evers

How to use contrast to increase sales.

I want to preface this topic with a study done on turkeys by animal behaviourist M.W. Fox (1974) I am not sure if you are aware, but polecats to turkeys are like foxes to emu’s here. So imagine setting up this as an experiment.

A stuffed polecat was dragged near a mothering turkey and understandably it rendered a vicious attack on the polecat. Next, it placed among the newly hatched turkey chicks with a tape recorder inside of it playing the "cheep cheep" sound of a turkey chick. When the tape was playing the turkey happily mothered the polecat as one of its nest of chicks, tucking it underneath her. As soon as the tape stopped playing the turkey began attacking it viciously.

The study showed that turkeys had a set of mothering behaviours that were automatic and unconscious. If it cheeped it would mother it, if it stopped cheeping it would murder it.

Many other studies since have shown that while these patterned ways of being maybe for the most part innate in animals, humans have sets of unconscious patterns of behaviours as well.

We use these sets of behaviour to bring more simplicity to our complex world. We learn skills like using a knife and fork to eat, which after a while become what we term an unconscious competency. We are able use a knife and fork without even thinking about it. Driving, at first for most is an incredible conscious challenge. After a while we can arrive at our destination and hardly be aware of our journey.

We learn to make decisions the same way and develop unconscious shortcuts so we don't have to think too much about what we may be buying. This is where brands live in these unconscious shortcuts. For example I buy Pura milk in a dark blue carton. Do I review all the milk containers every time I want milk. No I just buy “my Brand”. (Actually, I just switched to organic, but that was because  the word “Organic” is a far stronger influencer on my purchasing than any specific brand..)

“If an expert says it it must be true” is another automatic influencer. That is why the gold medals on wines holds sway with more people as do Awards for films.

“Expensive equals good” is another automatic influencer for those seeking quality.
That is the reason why when the store owner told her assistant to 1/2 the price of her slow moving jewelery and the assistant instead mistook the instruction to read x2 (double) the price, it took the glass jewelery into the “expensive equals good” price category compared to her other stock. Those clients seeking quality would have been influenced to buy those pieces because it initiated the automatic influencer around price.

In our practice we have found that automatic influencers even affect brands. Look beneath our conversation on the MetaBrand DNA process and you will see that it is all about mapping unconscious and automatic influencers that underpin our ongoing success with brands.

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