You don’t have to be a mind reader

Last week I saw a story saying for the first time researchers will attempt to image the brains of shoppers in an attempt to understand their shopping behaviour. While this seems like a story from a Sci-Fi movie, researchers from Bangor University and the shopping behaviour specialists SBXL will ask retailers to simulate a normal £80 grocery shop while having their brain imaged by an MRI scanner. This is obviously an interesting development for businesses looking to understand consumer decisions, but it reminded me that good PR still has an important role for businesses in understanding customer perceptions and informing the decision making process.

Understanding the customer mindset doesn’t necessarily need an MRI scanner and a bunch of expensive software – sometimes it can be as simple as asking them a question. Research is a great way of understanding customer concerns, topics they find interesting and product features that they find most and least useful. Big Data analytics is also making strides in making sense of the masses of information that companies now have on their users and using this to inform their business strategy and give focus. What has always been less tangible and harder to understand is what makes customers form these opinions, and this is where we have to look to the wider media and what they encounter on a day to day basis.

News and opinion via trusted sources still remain some of the most effective ways of conveying information to an audience. A good journalist understands the issues that are affecting their readers and help them make informed decisions, and a good PR should do the same thing. This early phase in the customer journey is where information is gathered, weighed and assessed, and PR provides a way for businesses to convey their message at this crucial phase. Rather than blindly plugging any arbitrary marketing message, effective PR means knowing the customer problem and suggesting a solution that offers real value. This can be helping them weigh up the pros and cons of a tricky IT refresh or get their heads around a new foreign market that they have no understanding of. This modern customer is savvy to ulterior motives and this means information needs to be presented it is a way that is balanced and appears beneficial rather than just broadcasting a message – this is why advertising pages are skimmed over so quickly in magazines and newspapers (gone are the days of Mad Men when someone would look at a picture of a Beach Bunny drinking a bottle of coke and immediately rush out for a fizzy beverage).

Understanding the mind of the reader means conveying information in a way that is relevant and easy to understand. In PR we understand that a good piece of writing gets the key message point across in the first couple of lines, because the reader only reads for about 5 seconds before losing interest. “How to” guides and “Top 10” lists continue to be effective for the very reason they are easily digestible, light in tone and can be easily shared with others - we have even seen Buzzfeed claim to be a more relevant news source for young people as well as a source of cat-related GIFs to be shared over e-mail.

Understanding the customer mindset is the Holy Grail of marketing, but there are many ways to understand and become involved in decision making process without involving high levels of radiation. Understanding your audience, offering balanced views and presenting a relevant solution are still some of the best ways to influence customer decisions.