Consumers have a source of apathy to most new product introductions, from TV-show to snacks and home electronics. It is important to understand that, for a product to succeed, it must first make a connection with existing concept stored in the unconscious.

The habitual minds must go through a physiological change to accommodate a new concept and a new brand. This is a process, not an event, and it can’t be successfully circumvented simply by spending money on advertising or getting good placements in stores.

When we think about what it means to be human, we typically think of the attributes of our conscious mind. Our ability to remember facts and faces or to solve complex problems. Our ability to create art and science.

Our memories of the events of our lives create the sense of our personal identity. Yet for all the conscious mind’s remarkable abilities, neurobiologists and cognitive psychologists contend t hat the unconscious mind controls as much as 95% of human behavior.

Imagine driving your car to work. You’re there. Most often you can’t recall even driving. You can’t recall all the cars you’ve met, the weather, the pedestrians nor which lights were red or not.. You didn’t think of the direction, not how to gear nor to steer.. You just did it.

This illustrates to power of the unconscious mind.

The conscious mind decides to go to work. The unconscious mind drives the car.

Kahneman’s System 1. The intuitive, unconscious, rapid and emotional.. Can also be called the habitual mind. The habitual mind is guided by the past but lives in the present.

Roughly 80% of all new products fail or underperform expectations. One of the easiest jobs in the world is to criticize decisions that have yielded bad outcomes.

It is hard to imagine any other area of business tolerating dismal results by having the attitude “Let’s throw a bunch of stuff on the wall and see what sticks”. In other words, “Let’s waste a lot of money!”

By knowing implicit associations it’s easier to find and trigger the emotional cues consumers have in their minds. Many of our clients are testing their brands, products, packaging design etc with Straylight’s Implicit Association Test.

Without knowing your brands’/products’ implicit associations, it’s like rolling the dice and hoping for a good outcome..

Photo in the article is Carl-Eric Persson‘s poster “Ballet de Marionnette”