It’s a Saturday night and Jack is sat on the sofa getting ready to watch MOTD. PING! The hunger cravings start, and he fancies a morsel to fill a hole. So, what does he do? Reach for his mobile and searches for the first online order brand that springs to mind.

Brand Salience is a brand's propensity to be noticed or come to mind in buying situations. And for consumers, wanting that instant gratification of a food or drink order within 20 mins, they are going to pick whichever company comes front of mind first and then search for them online. Or even better type the URL in directly so the competition doesn’t come up under search. So, Brand Salience is incredibly important.

But how do you sustain market share with new competition coming out all the time? The bus shelters are littered with multiple businesses shouting for attention offering quick delivery to your door. OOH seems to be one of the key areas where the battle commences. So how do you fight your corner? How do you maintain your share of voice when so many others are shouting too?

Well here, the secret key to unlock that growth is brand assets that are embedded in emotive storytelling, that differentiates, disrupts and entertains, and ultimately makes people feel something. Because 95% of our decisions are made by the System 1 brain, the instinctual part of the brain that makes gut decisions. So, if you want people to do something you have to make them feel something first. And do it consistently, not just once, but invest in the power of emotion to embed in consumers’ memory structures.

We know that the system 1 brain prefers characters, plots, music, humour to create an emotional response. So, brands that encourage this (laughter, shock, tears, surprise, happy) will have a higher chance of being remembered at point of recall. We also know from twenty years of research (thanks to Binet and Field), that emotions are responsible for driving profitable brand growth. Emotional campaigns are twice as likely to be profitable as rational campaigns and more than twice as efficient at driving market share and work especially well over the long- term. Short term non-emotive campaigns can drive sales but not incremental brand growth.

If you think about it, an instant food order is also quite an emotive response and action “ooh I fancy some chicken wings” – it’s an emotional response to a basic need. And if we return to Jack sitting on the sofa for a moment – if Jack was prepared, he would’ve prepped a weekly food list from the supermarket and made his dinner in advance of MOTD. So it’s highly likely that consumers using these services are reactive and not planners. We know from our neuro-mapping framework that there is a particular target group that fit this type of personality (the Freedom Seekers) and we can identify the type of comms that they will love, hate and will be motivated by, and the behavioural science models that will influence them to make a purchase.

At Southpaw, we recognise that human attention is a scarce commodity, that more brands than ever are vying for that attention, and consumer expectations are at an all-time high. So, brands wanting to stand out need to fight their corner with insight, foresight, and creative firepower. We're a strategic creative agency that help challenger brands punch above their weight by using the power of emotion together with our unique neuro-behavioural approach to outmanoeuvre, rather than outspend, the competition. And we know, from twenty years of data, that companies who choose to invest in their brand to grow market share, will have the best chance of success through emotive storytelling.

To find out more about which group your ideal target audience fits within our neuro-mapping framework, and what we can do to grow your brand and sales, please contact laura.wood@southpawagency.com

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