It Is All In Your Mind

We've previously written blogs about the psychological effects of different colours and the associations that come with that in terms of promotional products. But this is a topic that goes so much deeper than simply the colour of the product you choose to promote your brand with. There are other ways to influence your customers actions that you could, and should, use to your advantage. What we're talking about is called 'Priming'.

What is Priming?

According to Wikipedia, priming is a memory effect in which exposure to one stimulus influences the response to another stimulus.

Source: Nevit Dilmen, Wikimedia Commons.

For example, one supermarket carried out research into this very subject. They played French and German music on alternating days over a set period, all the while measuring the sales of their French and German wines. Lo and behold sales of their French wines increased on the days the French music was played, and the same happened for the German wines.

So why did this happen? Well, customers who heard the French music associated it subconsciously with France, even if they didn't actively identify it as French. This then had a direct effect on buying behaviour and the customer wasn't even aware of it!

So how can this be translated onto promotional products?

Source: stib, Wikipedia.

Thinking about the colour of your promotional products still counts towards the priming effect, however, there are other levels that you could include to further influence your customer's buying behaviour or even their engagement behaviour with your brand. Think about the type of object you're using to get your message across. Ask the following questions and you should be on the right path to priming effectiveness.

What is the product's use? What type of thing would someone attribute to this product? What action do I want my customer to take? What colour influences that action? What is printed onto the product and how will this prompt subconscious action? How can you deliver this product with the maximum effect?

Imagine you own a Gym and you're headed to a trade show. You want to increase sales of your monthly membership to women's dance classes and at the same time increase awareness of your brand's social media presence. You have to set the scene and subconsciously prompt passers-by to sign up. Play dance music so that it can be heard, and choose a promotional product that makes sense. Perhaps a small towel printed with your logo and a label that can be scanned by the customer and take them to your Facebook page. You could even print the towel with words associated with going to a dance class, or for visiting you on social media such as 'Like Us'. This would affect your customer's behaviour without them even realising it.

However you go about it, make sure you think about the different levels available to influence your customer before considering a promotional hat when you're actually offering a hairdressing service.