Chapter 13 of PSYCHOMarketing by Roger Nichols
Have you ever experienced déjà vu?—you know, when you become aware of something for the first time and then, suddenly, it seems to show up everywhere you go? Well, that is the “Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon.” It is also known as a “Frequency Bias.”
That feeling of familiarity stems from our psyche. According to research into the perception of low probability, events suggest that frequency illusions come from a combination of imagination and the manner in which data is presented. It’s actually a pattern your mind creates when it deviates to your subconscious instead of your reality.
We have all experienced it, but we likely did not pay attention to and/or label it. It is a figment of our imagination, and it shows how our brains can be playing tricks on us without our knowing. You have experienced it many times; maybe you could have sworn you stumbled on a new word—perhaps online or through conversation with friends or co-workers. Hours, days, or even weeks later, that same word might pop up in an article, news, a book, or be used by another person. This compels you to find out more about the word, the origin, and how it is used in sentence construction, among others, where you find out—to your great surprise—that it’s an old word that’s been there all along. This is often referred to as the “Recency Illusion.”
The “Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon” also influences our decisions as consumers. Sometimes we go for products we swear we’ve seen people using before we knew about them. It is also similar to synchronicity, which is the experience of having a critical incident. Have you ever craved bagels while driving and ended up coming across a bagel shop about three miles away? There are times you toy with the idea of calling a friend for hours, days, or even weeks until they end up calling you instead.
According to scientists, the explanation behind this is our brains’ partiality toward patterns. There is a peculiar way our brain labels information it recognizes as useful, even though it processes hundreds of thousands of thoughts a day. The brain’s cerebrum stores this information about events we are not conscious of.
It is said there are two causes for this occurrence. The first is referred to as “selective attention,” which occurs when we see or hear about information or ideas that our minds manage to suppress; our brains register it and then bring it to the front of our thinking when we encounter it again. The second cause for this occurrence is referred to as “confirmation bias.” This happens when we begin to see situations related to the events everywhere, and our brains acknowledge it as a social proof that we can explore.
Influencing Consumer’s Choices?
Sometimes this phenomenon happens when you have just come across a new brand on amazon, and you begin to see people using it almost everywhere you go. When your mind has registered this particular product, and you begin to see it out in the world, it tends to over-magnify the importance and quality of the product, and this can influence your choice. This shows that our view of choice is quite restricted and susceptible to manipulative techniques.
A friend of mine, let’s call him John, decided to get an aftershave after he swore it was the next best thing since sliced bread. After getting the product and using it for a while, he fell out of love with it. When I had a conversation with him about it, he said he had gotten the product because of an advertisement he stumbled upon, unconsciously, on social media. John said one of his followers on Twitter retweeted the ad on his timeline and made a couple of positive remarks about it. He checked the ad thread and saw many comments, with the positive outweighing the negative, and believe it or not, he said the ad also popped up on his browser and Twitter page repeatedly. That indirectly influenced his decision to get it, when he noticed the aftershave he was using at that time was about to be finished.
What this says about us is what we often think of as a good deal is a result of cognitive bias we conjure in our mind through a pattern our brain assembled. John thought that, since the ad kept popping up on his browser and timeline, it meant he had stumbled on the answer to his prayers. His action was further reinforced when one of his followers retweeted the ad and made a comment about it.
If you follow the pattern of the example, you will realize that everything started with a repetitive strategy: John kept stumbling upon the ad until he decided to check it out. Marketers make use of this strategy a lot, especially in this digital age where an advertisement can pop up on almost every unpaid website and application. This is why they advertise their products as briefly and colorfully as possible, by making use of captivating headlines and copy to get the attention of their target audience. These ads keep popping up until consumers notice them and register them in their subconscious.
This way of marketing a product is also establishing “social proof,” which we have already discussed (in Chapter 8). Using John as an example, the social proof—his friend retweeting the ad—reinforced John’s decision to test the product after a follower’s comments. The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon feeds on endorsements, which make consumers feel they have stumbled on the best product out there. Oftentimes, the Johns in the world get hooked on the testimonials they actually see on the feeds of a company’s website or social media pages.
The final step—the “social proof”—confirms this bias, which cements the whole thing by providing evidence to reinforce why their product is the best. The evidence to John was the number of likes and comments on the ad thread. He told me some people did comment that the product wasn’t as fantastic as the ad made it appear, but he ignored their comments because most people on the thread endorsed the product. Sometimes, some companies go as far as listing the ingredients and how the products are made. This can fascinate that given buyer who likes to “gather their evidence” by research.