We’re really enjoying Phil Barden’s latest thinking on ‘Liking’ versus ‘wanting’. Do brands and advertising have to be liked in order to sell?
Whether it be a new ad campaign or redesigned packaging, a key question for Marketing is whether consumers like the new materials, which elements they like best, what they don‘t like and what, therefore, should be changed. The perfectly plausible assumption behind this is that consumers choose to buy the products and brands that they like best.
But: How important is “liking” in establishing the desired impact on buying behaviour? Is customers‘ buying behaviour really governed by their “liking“ of the product, the brand or the commercial? If we observe our own behaviour then doubts are raised about this. For example, plenty of readers love their local bookshop but choose not to buy from it, instead making their purchases online. And we can all recognise the typical situation at Christmas: you have already eaten too many sweets and really would like to stop, but you reach for another one.
Research findings from neuroscience and psychology reveal why such liking does not necessarily result in corresponding behaviour: What we like (“liking”) and what we do, or what we want to have (“wanting”), is controlled by different neural networks in the brain. We can like things without wanting them. And we may want to own or consume things, without necessarily actually liking them or their advertising.
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