Unreasonable Conference Picks Experts’ Brains on Consumer Behavior

We need to take the time, as an industry, to stay educated. That doesn’t necessarily mean going back to school or getting another degree. It means taking in new theories and ways of thinking and utilizing it to push your agency, brand or company forward.

Unreasonable is an event, now in its sixth year, that encourages ongoing education, helping marketers better understand consumer behavior. Hosted by Young & Laramore (Y&L) at Newfields, the Indianapolis Art Museum on September 30, the event brought together scholars, marketers and advertising students in a day-long discussion about the behavioral and brain science behind the consumer.

While neuroscience isn’t new to the marketing world, having a collection of experts in one place, connecting with marketers and relaying practical information and stories in a digestible day-long event makes it engaging and energizing. 

Tom Denari, President and CEO of Y&L, kicked off the day by stating: “We often try to convince people using facts and reason. (But) we’re not as rational as we think we are.”

Denari hosted the conference that boasted top educators and marketers leading discussions on everything from brain science to figuring out Gen Z and AI.

It was a day that imparted information many in the industry may not think about, and it elicited plenty of praise from attendees. Heather Packo, Assistant Dean of External Partnerships, The Media School at Indiana University Bloomington, attended with several members of the school’s advertising faculty, and she said throughout the day there were many moments where the research being presented connected directly to what they’re teaching in the classroom. 

“Faculty left with fresh examples and ideas they can bring back to students, particularly around consumer behavior and decision making,” said Packo. “That’s one of the strengths of The Media School’s advertising program at Indiana University. We bring together academic research, industry insights, and hands-on learning so students understand not just how to create compelling campaigns, but why people respond to them. Events like Unreasonable help strengthen the connection between research, practice, and student learning.”

Getting Unconscious

“The other day, I saw a subliminal advertising executive, but just for a second.” – Steven Wright 

Subliminal cues are nothing new in advertising, but Gavan Fitzsimons, a professor of marketing and psychology at Duke, elaborated on decisions made every day by consumers outside of their conscious awareness. 

Much of the consumer world operates outside conscious behavior, he said. He used an example of a study done asking movie goers about how many times they reached for a handful of popcorn. While most said three, video showed that they reached for the snack at three times that amount: 30. 

Another example showed that restaurants that offered a healthy choice on their menus had the opposite effect on the consumer, making them choose an unhealthy choice over the healthy choice. 

Understanding unconscious cues can help marketers and consumers make better choices, Fitzsimons said. 

Many of the speakers at Unreasonable were able to get their scientific points across through relatable storytelling, which helped bring the science to life for the attendees. That was certainly the case with Emily Falk, Director of the Communication Neuroscience Lab and the Climate Communication Division of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at University of Pennsylvania. 

Falk utilized examples from her own family to make a salient point that stories, rather than just using facts or commands. Stories, she said, transport people into the message better than just plain facts. It disrupts parts of people’s brains to help them reason, which even held true when she was trying to reason with her young children, whose rational brains aren’t fully formed. Stories help people take a step back and look at situations from another perspective, not just their narrow view.

Denari hosted audience Q&As with the hosts, letting attendees query the speakers for greater understanding of their subjects.

Remember Your Memory and Your Money

Lila Davachi, a pioneer in the study of human memory and a professor of psychology at Yale, brought the subject of memory to Unreasonable for the first time. She stated up front that people remember what matters to them, but how those memories relate to the actual reality of what is happening can be fuzzy.

“Memory is built to extract the meaningful moments in life,” stated Davachi. But those memories can change over time. 

Davachi separated memories into two categories: “Gist,” which are fuzzy memories, and “Verbatim,” which are high-resolution memories that recall exact words. 

Most people utilize Gist memories, those that recall the meaning of an experience rather than exactly what happened. The brain does so, she said, to find a sweet spot between novelty and expected information. 

For consumers to get the most from their memories and doing tasks, repetition and re-testing are vital, a point which marketers should realize.

Beyond memory, brands need to be conscious of how they engage with their customers, and Demi Oba, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Harvard Business School, talked about humanizing your brand through consumer engagement. 

Specifically, he discussed what happens when brands communicate like people. People tend to refer to brands more like a singular person when they interact with them online, but there can be a dark side for brands soliciting consumer engagement.

He brought up his interactions with a brand he loved. That brand asked its fans to send in quotes of what they liked, but when he did and his quote wasn’t used online, he had a negative reaction to that brand for the first time. 

Oba warned marketers that unrecognized engagement can lead to negative feelings and lower engagement by consumers with that brand in the future. He stated that when a brand solicits consumer engagement and then essentially ghosts that consumer, it has violated social norms. Brands need to respond if they want to keep their consumers happy, he concluded.

Money is a subject that unfortunately doesn’t elicit joy in most consumers. 

Eesha Sharma, Associate Professor of Marketing at the Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University, discussed how money and the mind are intertwined.

When she queried the audience about their feelings about money. Nobody had a positive reaction. Most stated that their relationships with money mostly involve anxiety and stress. One person even shouted out “toxic.”

Those sometimes fraught relationships with money are often the basis for their purchasing. Sharma said that for many, it’s not about the things a consumer has, but how they feel about those things and purchases. Many consumers are willing to pay more for experiential purchases, like travel and meals, rather than material goods, said Sharma.

One takeaway was that people who plan their purchases, rather than impulse buying, lead to greater fulfillment with their purchases. How they feel tells you how they’ll behave, said Sharma.

Tweaking the Algorithm

Algorithm has become somewhat of a divisive term, and that’s because computer algorithms have been created with human bias and often serve us only the things we think we want to see, stated Carey Morewedge, Professor of Marketing at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.

Morewedge argued that we need algorithms that improve our behavior, not confirm our preferences. The problem is that we teach algorithms biases like fast thinking, which delivers “wants” not “shoulds,” and social norms and status quo. 

Morewedge is helping lead the charge on creating algorithms that find people’s values rather than just their immediate desires. He said there are four ways to make algorithms better: audit them for human bias; expand the time horizon to capture shoulds over wants; train them on best practices; and blend revealed preferences with stated preferences. 

The only brand representative of the day was Jenny Haggard, Global Head of Thought Leadership at streaming platform Spotify. Her talk centered on the behavior of Gen Z and their listening preferences.

Her one big warning to the crowd was not to treat Gen Z as one group. They are a diverse generation, with three distinct ages — high school-aged, college age, and young adults. 

“Life stage trumps demographics…they’re looking for things they can control,” said Haggard, like feeling better at the gym and gaming, and they use Spotify playlists as soundtracks to those activities.

Takeaways included that Gen Z is loyal to their favorite creators; brands need to shift from discovery to devotion, and brands need to keep Gen Z engaged with content they actually care about. 

Denari and Kari O’Neill, vice president of strategy at Y&L, closed out the session with practical examples of the subjects discussed during the day from their client catalog, including “Gist” with Homemade Ice Cream, and leveraging influence with Paddeltek pickleball.

“No matter what you’re selling, we’re selling to human beings. We have to understand how they’re feeling,” said Denari.