Staying on your Feet as Consumer Confidence Falls

America is immersed in what economists call "the paradox of thrift." As consumers worry more and spend less, their collective cutbacks keep money out of the economy and make matters worse.

As marketers, we communicate logical criteria such as performance and pricing, as well as sensory and emotional stimuli. The alchemy is in the mix. Now is the time to get back to basics.

Emotion rules. Studies of brain-injured people who have lost emotional function reveal a total impairment of the ability to make buying decisions, despite having all the facts. They are simply unable to shop.

Logic supports. With new and unfamiliar products, consumers seek categorization. The opportunity to choose from a smaller, better-defined subset improves decision-making and ultimately purchase satisfaction.

When emotion turns to fear and logic to financial survival, how should we respond?

Consistent branding brings affinity by building emotional bonds and clarity by simplifying choice. Consumers with a loyalty to a company, product or service are more likely to make contact and proceed toward purchase. They spend less time shopping around, even when their decisions are tempered by the bargain-seeking logic of frugality.

Now is the perfect time to reinforce relationships through marketing that provides encouragement and practical advice. These times call for new insight and efficiency in our strategies and communications. Call on Red Lizard Creative to help.

Image: www.nowwearetalking.au 

The Science Behind Creativity

What is creativity? Many of us would agree that it's the ability of our minds to invent something new and wonderfully different. 

Neuroscientists, using advanced functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI),  have looked into the brain to observe how creativity occurs. They found dopamine darting between neurons in pathways that eventually result in either a moment of perception or imagination.

Our eyes, ears and other senses transmit a vast array of ambiguous information to our brains. For perception, our brains follow a pathway that makes order out of chaos based on our past experiences and learned expectations. With imagination, the pathway takes a different trajectory and we no longer assume the obvious. It's like Magritte's icon of modern art, "This is not a pipe." We see something new in something we've seen countless times before.

Neuroscientists discovered that by the sixth time we encounter any combination of stimuli, our brains turn the pathway into a superhighway that processes and interprets with utmost efficiency. The path is set. Perception replaces imagination. The pipe is a pipe.

To engage in imagination and creativity, our brains need to move from the path of least resistance to the path not yet taken. We need to change the context of how we automatically categorize by experiences and disrupt that direct path to perception. When is a pipe not a pipe?

When our brains are challenged by stimuli they've never encountered previously, they invent new pathways. If we continually open ourselves to new information and experiences—and we open our minds to see things differently—our frontal cortices will create detours on the perceptual pathway that will lead us to new conclusions. We actually can reprogram ourselves to be more creative.

In our case, we began to look at the creative process and agency/client relationships differently. Our neural pathways left the straight and narrow. New ideas were unleashed. New opportunities came. We evolved into Red Lizard Creative.

Change and hope for healthcare reform?

Americans went to the polls and overwhelmingly voted for the change and hope promised by Barak Obama.

But how much change can we hope for? Maybe not so much when it comes to America's healthcare system.

The problem:

- double digit cost inflation and premium hikes

- $2 trillion in annual spending with questionable results

- 71 million Americans either uninsured or underinsured

The solution. Obama's proposed plan includes these numbers:

- $2,500 annual savings for the typical family

- $100 billion in upfront costs to bring coverage to most uninsured

- $50 billion to $65 billion annual cost after the plan is phased in

Some obstacles:

- 25% loss in value of the U.S. stock market

- massive bailouts for insurance and financial companies

- consensus on defining quality, affordability and universal coverage

Expectations:

- 60% of people who voted for Obama expect him to do something major to improve our healthcare system*

Of all the factors influencing the success of healthcare reform, overinflated expectations may be the most difficult to control.

America voted for change and hope. Let's be content with even the most incremental change in healthcare and not lose hope.

*Bob Blendon, Harvard School of Public Health

Healthcare Quality Ratings: Tuned In? Tuned out.

Have you noticed any quality ratings for healthcare organizations? More ratings are available than ever before, but fewer Americans recall seeing them or using them.

Between 2006 and 2008, the percentage of Americans who reported that they saw comparative health quality information for health insurance plans, hospitals or doctors dropped by 6 percent. (From 36 to 30 percent) The percentage of Americans who said they saw and used that same information fell from 20 to 14 percent.*

This downward trend has huge implications.

As the government continues to gather and publish healthcare data in hopes of increasing efficiency and reducing costs, fewer citizens are interested.

As health insurers increasingly generate information to empower consumer-driven healthcare, fewer patients are taking action.

As hospitals and health systems seek to differentiate themselves based on comparative quality reports, fewer consumers are noticing.

Why? 

- too many data sources with too little standardization

- needless complexity with lack of simple interpretation

- oversimplification that betrays the underlying data

- exploitation and overexposure of ratings in marketing

The two-year downtrend demonstrates that merely providing additional data isn't enough. We need data that is simple, consistent and relevant. Otherwise, consumers will continue to tune out. 

* Keiser Family Foundation's 2008 Update on Consumers' Views of Patient Safety and Quality Information