2: The Craving Brain
The chapter begins with an anecdote about Claude Hopkins, an advertising executive in the early twentieth century who is known for making boastful and outlandish claims that play fast and loose with the truth. This anecdote is about selling toothpaste to Americans, getting them in the daily habit of brushing their teeth, at a time when almost no-one did.
His key tactic was to make a product a daily ritual by finding some trigger to which its use could be tied. In the case of toothpaste, he suggested to people "run your tongue across your teeth" and spoke of the naturally-occurring film of mucus, which is quite harmless, as the cause of discoloration and decay. The sensation of that film, which occurs whenever the tongue incidentally touches the teeth, because a cue to use toothpaste.
This was highly effective, and it's suggested that during his first advertising effort, the number of Americans who purchased toothpaste went from 7% to 65%. This was not Hopkins's only campaign, as he had great success in other areas as well - but it demonstrates his basic approach to advertising: to find a cue, associate it to a behavior, and deliver an appreciable benefit.
There's a bit about simian experimentation, monitoring brain patterns in a task-reward experiment. Some observations:
- A spike in brain activity initially occurs when a reward is received, but when a habit is formed it moves to precede the activity that earns the reward - it is the anticipation, rather than the sensation, that causes mental stimulation.
- This is also the reason test subjects become frustrated and even angry when the experiment is changed and the reward is withheld.
- Once a subject becomes settled in a habit, the habit becomes more pleasant than other stimuli. Offered food or the opportunity to leave their cage, habituated monkeys remained seated in the test chair.
There's another bit about a pastry store that intentionally avoids the food court in shopping malls, because it recognizes that the cue (the scent of baked goods) is overpowered or lost in the chaos of other food smells. For its customers, the scent of the product triggers the habit of consumption - and a customer is "hooked" by it. Since they are stimulated by the trigger, they are emotionally deflated if they don't indulge.
Similarly, just the sight of someone else smoking triggers smokers to crave a cigarette.
The buzz of a cell phone to trigger checking email and social media is likewise a trigger. Disable the buzz, and people don't feel the need to constantly check their inbox. But the buzz creates a sense of anticipation that causes the action to be triggered - and to be difficult to resist.
They consider how this also applies to positive behaviors, such as exercising. When a person becomes habituated to exercise, they become uneasy and irritated when they do not exercise. The same process can therefore be used to create good habits as bad ones - or if the cue is tied to a different activity and different reward, to replace bad actions with good ones activated by the same trigger.
There's a rather extended bit about P&G's initial failure to sell Febreeze deodorizing spray - because people don't generally recognize how bad their homes smell. Smokers, pet owners, and the like are all inured to the constant scent, even though others find it offensive. There was no cue, nor any perceived benefit from using it.
The way they eventually were able to sell Febreeze was to condition customers to do it as the last step in cleaning a room. In this way, the product became associated to the sense of satisfaction for having done the work. They also had to add a bit of scent to the product as a sensory trigger - so that the smell of the product became a sensory signal that the unpleasant task of cleaning was "done." A product that has no aroma provides no such stimulus.
They return to toothpaste - the reason it's often flavored with mint is that it creates a flavor and a physical tingling sensation to close the feedback loop. Toothpaste doesn't have to have a flavor, or it could have a different flavor, but the taste and sensation of various kinds of mint provide a strong sensory signal that a benefit has been received. Habits are easier to form when there is a sense-benefit than one that has to be imagined.