Rightward Ho!

Today's’ markets have a stronger right brain orientation than younger markets of the past. This is because the majority of adult consumers are now over the age of 40, when mental activity in the right hemisphere of the brain tends to increase. This is a critical factor in creating messages for older markets because the brain’s right hemisphere sees things differently than the left hemisphere does.

The left hemisphere sizes things up in words. It’s the brain’s word processor. The right hemisphere perceives reality in images – in sensory images to be more precise.

The right  brain’s larger role in the formation of perceptions, thoughts and decisions in older minds increases the importance of conveying information through sensory information – sights, sounds, aromas, tastes and touch.

But how does one convey nonvisual sensory information in a print ad? By creating multisensory word pictures. Even though the right brain has only rudimentary word processing skills, it draws on image-associated words to key the formation of sensory images.

For instance, consider onomatopoeia – words that imitate the sounds they represent, such as words like splash, wow, gush, kerplunk and tinkle. Coupling those words to visual images of a dog jumping into a family pool, a kid opening his much hoped for Christmas present, a fire hose, a stone dropped in water, or an antique shop door being opened by a customer all create multisensory word pictures.

For good reason we call attention to the idea that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Standing as abstract representations of reality, words generally are less evocative of emotions than images are. Sensory images are far more effective in this regard. And of course, the stronger the emotional responses generated by a message, the greater attention the message is likely to get.

Generating emotionally strong responses is more critical in older markets than in younger ones because older minds depend more on emotions (gut feelings, a.k.a., intuition) in forming perceptions, thoughts and decisions than younger minds do.

The stronger right brain bias of older consumers also increases their responsiveness to messages conveyed through stories as opposed to declarative statements. Stories generally do a better job of emotionally engaging older minds than  declarative statements do. In fact, older consumers are more likely than younger consumers to ignore a message that simply describes a product with little or no affect.

The rightwards shift in mental activity that is associated with older minds promotes a number of crucial changes in how older people see the world and try to make sense of it. In the next post I will discuss more of these changes and their implications for marketing.  

Comments

[joared]

I look forward to what further you have to write on this topic. I would be interested in knowing if there are significant gender differences in this right hemisphere shift? I would posit that the shift occurs in a greater percentage of males than females. This view is based on my perception that more males have mental activity occurring predominately in their left hemisphere. So the transition would be more profound in men than women who have tended to use both hemispheres all along. But, don't know what the research may show.

[David Wolfe]

Your surmise about a stronger shift among men toward increased use of the right hemisphere is correct. BTW, it's not that women use the right hemisphere more and left hemisphere less. It's that they have more connections in the commissure that connects the two hemispheres. Thus females have more cross talk between the two hemispheres which tends to render more balanced perceptions of reality (save for when emotional or other factors arise to distort perceptions -- as happens in male brains as well, I should add).

[Jeff Madsen]

This sounds like there is tremendous overlap between great emotional direct response marketing and what you are prescribing. Is that correct? If not, what are the differences?

[David Wolfe]

to Jim Madden,

Yes, you are right.