Fourteen Lectures on Consumer Psychology

Chapter 5 From what aspects attract consumers' attention (2)
Exercise is the most common form of variation.When it comes to sports, most people respond enthusiastically.Most of the time, though, movement is barely noticeable.When we stop immersing ourselves in our own world, we realize that sports occupy a very important place in our lives.We can sit by the beach for hours, quietly watching the waves rise and fall on the sea; we can also lie on the grass and focus on the clouds floating in the sky; we can also sit in front of the fire and watch Looking at the dancing flames, lost in thought, forgetting everything around.

How to explain these preoccupations?Maybe it's still instinct, like explaining intensity and breadth.In ancient times, when human ancestors were still running in the jungle, the most important thing in life was to move.The slight movement of leaves may indicate the appearance of powerful enemies, and the slight shaking of branches may be a harbinger of death.

So human ancestors developed an instinct to pay attention to all moving objects.Because if one day he loses vigilance against moving things, it means that death is approaching.As descendants of primitive humans, human beings are used to keeping a close eye on any moving objects. Slowly, this survival instinct has been internalized into a necessary skill for each individual in the population, and has been passed down to this day.

There is another explanation for why humans tend to pay attention to moving objects, that is, there is a certain degree of similarity between movement and mental activity.Mental activity is like an ever-flowing stream in which moving objects easily occupy a place.Their movement can be described as two distinct platforms, one moving (mental activity) and the other relatively stationary (object seeking attention).It is very difficult to get from the latter platform of the static noted object to the previous platform of the active mental activity, but let the platform of the static noted object move towards the direction of the stream of mental activity and at the same speed as it , it is much easier.At this time, the consumer's psychological activity and the moving object remain relatively still, and the consumer is easily attracted by the object.This result is mainly due to the fact that moving objects and streams of mental activity have many essential similarities.

Mental activity In addition to flowing in a certain direction, the creek is also moving internally.The presence of eddies in the creek causes the stream to oscillate back and forth.The stream of mental activity keeps flowing, and it is difficult for objects to stay in the middle of the stream without being washed away.Readers can verify the correctness of the above statement by whether they can focus on the letter O for a long time without shifting.Although one strives to keep one's attention on the letter, one finds it nearly impossible to keep one's attention for long periods of time.Attention wanders from one part of a letter to another, from top to bottom, from left to right, and then drifts away from the letter to something else.

Psychologists have found that the time for a person to maintain 100% attention on an object is only two to three minutes at most.Under normal circumstances, this concentration can only last for a second or two.After this period, the eddies rising up in the stream of mental activity will rush objects in the center of attention elsewhere, and then bring objects that have hovered on the fringes of attention to the center.At any one time, there are many objects scattered in different places in the stream of mental activity at the same time.Cross-sectional analysis of psychoactive streams at this point: Object A (Bundt Cough Syrup) is about to end its dominance of attention, ceding dominance to Object B (positioned adjacent to its Wrigley gum ad), and shortly thereafter, Object B In turn, the domination of attention will be transferred to object C (Sloan oiled).

Observing a cross-section of these transitions is a lot like viewing a kaleidoscope.Inside the cylinder are colorful glass blocks that change position from moment to moment.They move from the edge to the center and fall from the center to the edge.

From the above, it can be found that sports is one of the main techniques used by salesmen to attract consumers' attention.This technique can not only help him attract the attention of consumers, but also help him keep the product image in the hearts of consumers for a long time.Your attention can be instantly drawn to a moving object: a model in a window waving a safety razor, or a shoe in an ad wading in a puddle of water, for that very reason.

A perfect combination of motion and light, neon lights excel at capturing human attention.You can test this out as you walk down the brightly lit streets.You'll find yourself staring at those flashing ads all the time.No matter those advertisements are on the street or on a street corner, even the neon light shadows across the street reflected on the glasses lenses can keep your eyes on.In addition, you may also find that dimly moving advertising signs are more likely to attract attention than bright, stationary signs.

Perhaps the most thorough example of the use of motion in advertising is the moving image ad.This moving picture is a dream that humans have existed since the beginning of cave life.Rich and poor, young and old, wise and foolish, have all prayed for its presence before their altars.They explain their fascination with it for various reasons, whether aesthetic, social or economic.Movies, as a new form of entertainment, make this dream of human beings within reach, and each viewing costs only a small amount of money, but this is not the reason why it attracts human attention.Despite its goofy humor or countless flirtatious stories, the movie remains popular.Film's role as a sales medium has yet to be discovered.In fact, it is a natural ally of advertising sales because of its gift for capturing human attention—pictures in motion.

We are amazed at how powerful the instinct to move is, but only because it captures our attention in an instant.The same is the car on the screen, a moving car is more likely to make us feel happy than a stationary car.

color
The fourth factor that has a significant impact on sales is color.Books abound explaining how color captures human attention.

There are many kinds of colors. Some psychologists believe that there are 3 colors in the world. These colorful colors can be simplified.Generally, visual stimuli that affect human mental activities can be divided into two categories: gray (ie, black, white, and 700 intermediate grays) and color.In order to make the argument more rigorous, black, white and middle gray need to be ruled out first.

The results of psychological experiments show that red, green, blue and yellow are more attractive to human eyes than other colors.Mixing these four colors with the 700 different shades of gray mentioned above, the salesman has enough room to display his talents, and he can even mix different colors for each customer and attract their attention.Even in a relatively flat gray space (one of which is the base color of newspaper advertisements), an amazing variety of colors can be created.Thanks to modern printing technology, people can debug a lot of amazing color effects.But these countless colors only account for a small part of all colors.In terms of attracting consumers' attention, the best choice is red, green, blue and yellow.In front of them, other colors will be eclipsed.

There is a lot of evidence that color can attract attention.For example, in daily life, when the first American settlers wanted to sell glass beads to the Indians at a high price, were they selling black or gray glass beads?Of course not, Bass made a point in the history books that they sold "coloured" beads.It is said that online store owners also find that color catalogs stimulate consumers' desire to buy more than black and white catalogs.Many psychological experiments have also proved that the use of color to attract human attention is very effective.

Why do colors attract people's attention more than gray?The explanation might be that colors reflect light with longer wavelengths than grays.Whatever the reason, using color when we need it makes it easier for us to succeed.

Color has many other functions besides attracting attention.For example, color can maintain attention, but also can cause people to produce pleasant emotions.This sense of pleasure may be derived from the nature of color, which can be transferred to the object that will be sold.This point is applied to different brands of cosmetics, and the most direct result is the packaging of different colors.This sense of pleasure may also be due to the fact that the color evokes some happy associations in consumers.To successfully use this function of color, we will face the problem of how to use color properly.These issues will be discussed in subsequent chapters.

summary
This lecture discusses four factors that attract consumers' attention: stimulus intensity, breadth, variety and color.But it’s not that consumers are only attracted to these four factors.Other factors, such as repetition, are also very important.We will discuss the role of repetition in the next lecture.

(End of this chapter)