Brand Cues, Customers, and Confusion

As individuals, we are all experiencing a troublesome combination of the deluge of information from an increasing number of sources, considerable demands on our time, and an increasingly complex world.

Unsurprisingly, people cope with this using techniques the brain uses to allow us to make sense of our environment: information-reduction strategies. Just because something reaches our senses does not mean we will pay attention to it. Most sensory data is either screened-out or greatly simplified before it reaches our consciousness.

Similarly, when customers pay attention to the images and messages businesses promote, listen to the opinions of others about a solution, and perhaps even think about and remember these exchanges, they will only do so if the topic is relevant to them in the first place and can be integrated into their personal view and mental picture of the world. Things which do not relate, or are out of context, are essentially meaningless background chatter.

Particularly when attributes are difficult to assess (or too troublesome to evaluate rigorously), we rely on cues to guide us. Some examples of cues which guide consumer buying behaviour are shown below.

One of the original roles of branding was, of course, to provide customers with markers that they would know indicated the quality and other promised characteristics of the product.

We like things to be simple. We shun complexity wherever we can. We avoid spending time on things which have little value to us either functionally or emotionally.

Relying on trusted brand names and reputations can replace the need for in-depth knowledge or the need to spend much time evaluating choices on the part of the customer.

When a customer chooses to invest time and effort in evaluating a potential purchase they are deciding to invest personal commodities which may be just as important as the money they may eventually spend.

Some examples of purchase types and the strategies customers use to guide their choices are illustrated in this diagram.

Assisting customers by keeping things simple, and understanding consumer buying behavour relating to how cues are used can be extremely important in developing a successful business.

Paradoxically, customer confusion is sometimes exploited by companies whose market share is under threat. In the IT world spreading "FUD" (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) has been a tactic used for several decades - originally by IBM ("no one ever got fired for buying IBM"), and more recently by the Microsoft in its fight against the Linux operating system. Among telecommunications market leaders, a common tactic is to make direct comparison of prices as complex and confusing as possible.

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