Lead with your Left and Hit with your Right?

Brain-oriented web marketing is now entering the highly scientific realm of robotic chips, wearable tech and intense FMRI research on the human brain. Marketers and brand strategists are thinking of how content can be invented with appeals that will hold their own in the customer’s mind. That is while we may still possess the ability to control our own thoughts — until the day when artificial intelligence may become more dominant.

Today’s brand strategist may wish to consider the brand-positioning appeals and approaches that communicate with the common left-brain and right-brain dominance theory. And most important in today’s omni-media and mobile brain assistants, (PDA meets a new MBA), is brand content that communicates to both the left and right brain hemispheres.

Considering more recent science that might debunk this separation of the brain (see links below), here are some strategies that consider the left and right whole-brain brand game:

Connect to a Google Place Page where a brand can present rational brand attributes for the left-brain and then emotional and creative inspirations for the right-brain customers. Giving customers the opportunity to contribute their own perceptions that may create on-line response content to further promote the brand. We are all aware of how different people react to different products and brands based on their own buying psychology and now having the opportunity to provide their own referrals and opinions.

An innovative way to attract customers could be to create left or right brain focused content, or provide a combination of left and right brain content that will relate to the more self-aware, self-styling customer. For example, automobile advertising that sends a message of high-tech performance might connect with the left-brain and sexy dramatic design might connect with the right-brain. A combination of both messages reaches the whole-brain thinker.

The whole-brain brand game can certainly make the most of omni-media with the selection of a mix of social media to encourage brand loyalty that is measured by CLM, Customer Loyalty Metrics. All brands are searching for new techniques, and using psychology, old and new, to attract and hold on to the ever-changing mind of the consumer.

Jockey brand is “Supporting GreatnessTM“ by incorporating images of iconic men in history, e.g., General Patton, Babe Ruth, Neil Armstrong, in their new campaign. We see a strategic blend of clever, product benefit copy and attention-getting visuals.

For a PRO Left-Right Brain discussion, go to:
http://www.chatterbuzzmedia.com/brain-vs-left-brain-marketing/
“Left brain marketers list off the product or service’s functions, reasons why it is needed and why it is the best of its kind available. They approach customers from a very practical standpoint and deliver their information in an orderly and organized fashion. Right brain marketers, however, promote their product or service through story telling. The plot of their campaign introduces a problem, has a climax and then presents the solution as being whatever they are selling.” …

For a CON Left-Right Brain science discussion, go to:
http://www.livescience.com/39373-left-brain-right-brain-myth.html
Popular culture would have you believe that logical, methodical and analytical people are left-brain dominant, while the creative and artistic types are right-brain dominant. Trouble is, science never really supported this notion.
Now, scientists at the University of Utah have debunked the myth with an analysis of more than 1,000 brains. They found no evidence that people preferentially use their left or right brain. All of the study participants — and no doubt the scientists — were using their entire brain equally, throughout the course of the experiment. …

Whichever side you may take in this discussion on left or right brain orientation, we suggest that we all maintain our sense of humor:

We would like to hear from you:  Are you a left, right or whole-brain marketer?

 

Arthur & Peggy Winters co-teach SXB 200 Brand Marketing Communications for Image & Meaning and SXR 050 Intro to Branding: The Art of Customer Bonding.