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12: The Evaluation System: Pleasure

Brands are marketed on one of two platforms: purchasing or consuming a brand will (1) make you feel less bad or (2) make you feel more good. While "less bad" and "more good" seem like different ways to state the same thing, they are not. The biological systems for positive and negative emotions are entirely separate: one is not the mere absence of the other.

Our emotional state is not controlled by a single slider - it is the confluence of many emotional responses. We feel good and bad at the same time, and the brain determines which of our sensations gets focus and controls our general mood (and our existing good/bad mood determines which sensations get attention).

It is commonly believed that the "strongest" stimulus tends to command attention, but in an situation when there are many strong stimuli, the result is merely confusion and over-stimulation, causing a negative flight) reaction even if the individual stimuli are each positive.

However, even a mild stimulus can command attention, more so than others that seem to be more intense, depending on our reaction to it. That is, our gestalt. In a noisy environment, a familiar voice that speaks your name seizes attention - not because it is the loudest or strongest stimulus, but because it is the most relevant.

Which stimulus comes to our attention is often not the result of a conscious decision - but whether we choose to react to something that comes to our attention often is. Some reactions are autonomous - to cringe when we sense danger happens so quickly that we cannot control ourselves - but most reactions require conscious thought and a choice. Purchasing decisions, even so-called "impulse" buys, require us to make a more conscious and rational decision.

In terms of decision-making, the "feeling bad" system is considered to take precedence. We can be 99% comfortable and happy, but the 1% that causes us displeasure tends to take the most attention and provoke the most action. Most of the products we purchase, in volume and in value, pertain to avoiding pain.

Most marketers completely miss the boat on this: they seek to associate their brands to pleasure - and when it comes to choosing a brand rather than a product, pleasure-seeking may have stronger influence than it normally does, but still takes a back seat to pain-avoidance. We do not purchase designer clothing to feel good about ourselves (pleasure), but to avoid feeling that we do not belong to a class or group we desire to be part of (pain).

However, this does not mean we are motivated entirely by pain, merely that it is a stronger motivator than pleasure: we may be motivated by hunger to eat, but if pain-avoidance was our sole motivator, any edible item would be acceptable. The fact that we prefer certain foods, and certain brands of food, derives from seeking the greatest pleasure.

The biology that underlies pleasure-seeking has been thoroughly explored by research into drugs and addiction, which has been heavily funded in recent years. Several structures in the limbic system have been identified as the "reward circuit," and the release of serotonin and dopamine are closely related to the sensation of pleasure in general.

The process of creating memories is autonomous - it happens constantly and involuntary - and the presence of dopamine when a memory is created associates positive emotions to the memory itself. This becomes part of the gestalt, that the memory of consuming a specific food is associated with a pleasant sensation, such that consumption of the same food in the future is encouraged by the positive emotions surrounding the memory.

Further reinforcement is caused when the action is repeated, and dopamine is again released, such that each time the action is undertaken, pleasure is experienced, and the association of the action to pleasure becomes stronger.

Some researchers have questioned this relationship, arguing that dopamine is associated to anticipatory desire (wanting) rather than the pleasure that arises from actual consumption (liking). Research is shown of decreasing the desire to eat in rats by suppressing dopamine, but this did not decrease their subsequent pleasure reaction after being tube-fed.

In buying behavior, the customer can experience pleasure just upon seeing a brand that gave them pleasure in the past. And in that sense the term "shop-aholic" is somewhat accurate. Such individuals take pleasure from the act of obtaining, but not necessarily consuming.

The association to pleasure is so strong that an individual can experience some level of dopamine release by hearing about, or even thinking about, desirable objects. This facilitates planning - as we get a sense (or more aptly, a sample) of what our emotional state will be when we obtain the object of our desire, and can better formulate and commit to the plan.

The author re-mentions that he is not suggesting that consumers are entirely hedonistic and irrational in purchasing decisions. We experience emotions when planning and decision-making, but are not controlled by them. The frontal lobes will consider alternatives before any action is taken, and ultimately we may decide to refrain from acting.

'Dopaminic Memories' Of Brands

Brands seek to associate themselves to pleasure. For repeat customers, the pleasure arises from their first-hand experience with the brand itself; but to attract new customers to an unknown brand, advertising focuses on associating an unknown brand to other positive memories, to borrow upon "dopamine moments" the prospect may have experienced.

The author considers there to be four types of dopamine moment:

  1. Pleasant things that actually happened as a result of the brand, or when the brand was present
  2. Pleasant things that happened in the absence of the brand, but that the subject might believe happened in its presence (false memories)
  3. Pleasant things that actually happened, to which the brand is not presently associated
  4. Pleasant things that didn't actually happen, but which the subject thinks would be pleasant if they had

Once these moments can be identified, they can be associated to the brand, to create the perception that future purchase of the brand will result in pleasure.

Television advertising borrows heavily upon the moments - mainly the last three kinds - in using imagery that evokes imagination, leveraging known experiences and associating the feelings associated to them to an unknown experience.

Bio-Measures And Dopamine

The dopamine system is the one of greatest interest insofar as marketing is concerned: it is believed that all you have to do is make sure your brand stimulates dopamine release, and does so to a greater degree than competing brands. "In fact, this might be the best definition of the objective of all marketing activity."

As the release of dopamine is not an electronic activity, it cannot be directly measured by EEG, though it is theoretically possible to measure activities in parts of the brain believed to be stimulated by dopamine. Unfortunately, there are a few obstacles to doing so:

As such, we are left with the general theory of pleasure, but not a sufficient method for measuring the activity in the pleasure centers of the brain in a timely enough manner to draw firm conclusions.