The Power of Instinct: Conversation with award-winning marketer and behavioral expert Leslie Zane
On June 27th, ODP Partner Joanna Stone Herman engaged in an enlightening discussion with Leslie Zane, a leading expert in behavioral marketing and brand growth. Ms. Zane discussed her newly released book, “The Power of Instinct,” and shared her revolutionary approach to marketing that bypasses the resistant conscious mind to reach people’s instincts, changing brand behavior faster and more easily. Ms. Zane discussed the role of applied behavioral science in giving companies a new kind of competitive advantage which she calls the "Instinct Advantage." Client brands experience remarkable acceleration in topline growth because they are working with customers' brains rather than against them.
Here are a few essential takeaways that can redefine how we think about creating "go-to" brands and improved financial performance:
Key Insights:
- Shift Focus from Conscious to Unconscious: Traditional marketing efforts often target the conscious mind, which influences only a minor fraction of consumer decisions. Leslie Zane advocates for strategies that tap into the unconscious, where most human decisions are actually made. This approach is not limited to consumer brands; it is category-agnostic, and today approximately 50% of Ms. Zane's work at Triggers® is B2B. She explains, "Business buyers, investors, even health care providers make decisions just like every other human: on instinct."
- Build a Strong 'Brand Connectome®': The ‘Brand Connectome®’ is defined as the cumulative network of memories and associations that becomes “glued” to a brand over time in people’s minds. More than just a scientific concept, the Brand Connectome® is the command-control center for all instinctive brand decisions. Shaping a brand’s associations in the network is the difference between success and failure. Ms. Zane outlined the new rules for maintaining a healthy, growing Brand Connectome®. Remarkably, the old traditional rules of marketing work against the human mind, which means that they’re actually a recipe for shrinking business. Ms. Zane shows us a better way.
- Find Your Growth Triggers: Ms. Zane advocates for the use of “Growth Triggers ®” in communications - supercharged cognitive shortcuts (both visual and verbal) that are so packed with positive associations that they work instinctively to overcome negative associations and change people's minds faster. Like fertilizer to grass, Growth Triggers® boost brand salience and awareness, which translates to higher business growth. Said another way, you can’t grow your brand’s market share until you first grow its mind share.
Whether you are a CEO, CFO, entrepreneur, or investor, instinct is the most powerful force for changing human behavior, and harnessing it is the key to sustainable business growth. Ms. Zane's insights and proprietary techniques challenge conventional marketing wisdom, offering a fresh new playbook that prioritizes deep, instinctual engagement over surface-level appeals. This is the "Age of Instinct." Companies that adopt these new techniques will have a competitive advantage. Companies that do not will be left behind.
View the recording of the interview:
Speaker
CEO, Triggers Brand Consulting
and Instinct Marketing Pioneer
LESLIE ZANE is an award-winning marketer and behavioral expert, TEDx speaker and foremost authority in harnessing the instinctive mind for brand and business growth.
During her early career at P&G and Johnson & Johnson, Zane maintained that what people say is unreliable, that telegraphic cues are more effective than direct persuasion and that brands are being over-promoted instead of creating instinctive brand preference. Like many unconventional thinkers, her ideas were often dismissed. In 1995, she founded Triggers®, the first brand consulting firm rooted in behavioral science generating over $25 billion in incremental revenue for Fortune 100 clients.
An alumna of Yale, Harvard Business School and Bain, Zane is a recipient of the Congressional Women of Distinction and Ogilvy Award. In 2021, she coined the term “Covid-stasis,” predicting lasting behavioral effects of the pandemic. Zane’s work has been featured in over 25 prestigious publications including Harvard Business Review and World Economic Forum. Her upcoming book, “The Power of Instinct: The New Rules of Persuasion In Business And Life,” has been hailed as “the biggest gamechanger since Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Blink'” and is set for release by Hachette in June 2024.
Zane serves on the board of El Centro Hispano which empowers Hispanic immigrants with skills to thrive in the United States.
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Partner
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