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Nursery Marketing!

Does an apple a day really keep the doctor away? There is enough evidence to the contrary. Yet why do we continue to believe it?

Blame it on the rhyming nature of the aphorism!

When sentences are spoken rhymingly, it ‘enhances processing fluency’, say linguists and cognitive scientists. Rhymes sound nice, are easily understood and, hence, we equate that smoothness with accuracy. We even believe they are true!

In a famous study, two psychologists, Matthew McGlone and Jessica Tofighbakhsh gave participants 60 aphorisms and asked them which one were accurate descriptions of human behaviour.

30 of them were lines that rhymed. For example, Woes unite foes. Life is mostly strife.

They took 30 other rhyming aphorisms but modified them to make them non-rhyming. For example, Woes unite enemies. Life is mostly struggle.

Participants rated the aphorisms that rhymed as far more accurate than the ones that didn’t rhyme. Though each pair essentially meant the same thing!

This cognitive bias can be used effectively by marketers to make their work more memorable and engaging. They could use rhymes to make brand names, baseline, advertising copy, social media posts and what have you. Customers will remember them easily and, importantly, believe them to be true too!

The smart ones already have. Take brand names: 7-Eleven, Krackjack, Cakes & Bakes etc.

And baselines too. Rocotile, the roof tool tiles brand claims: ‘No need for AC, Cooling your home is easy’. Gillette sums it up even better: ‘The best a man can get’.

Rhymes can enhance reason. Processing fluency being the reason!

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Everybody talks. Every body talks more!

Spoken words of a person carries far less weight compared to his body language. In the scope of human evolution, language is a relatively recent addition and invention. Humans had been interacting well before languages were found and formed and were communicating through nonverbal modes.

In fact, nonverbal communication is hardwired into our brains, much deeper than our language-processing abilities.

We don’t realize it but our body sends out thousands of signals every minute. These are part of the millions of body functions controlled by our subconscious mind. The scientists say there is far too much body language for us to control consciously. For instance, without looking, do you know which way your legs are placed?

You had to look down to find out yourself, right? Simply put, we can’t micromanage body language.

Also, our body language represents our mind and mental state irrespective of whether we know it or not and whether we like it or not. Our facial expressions voice, tone, posture and every little component of our body is broadcasting our mental and emotional condition every single minute of every single day!

Since we don’t control our body language consciously, whatever we think will end up in the way our body speaks.

MIT Media Lab proves, after extensive studies, that it could predict the outcome of negotiations, telephone sales calls and business plan pitches with 87% accuracy by just analysing the participants’ body language, without even listening to a single word that was spoken in the process. The mind controls our body!

But you can fool your mind! How?

Human mind cannot differentiate fact from fiction. While watching a movie, we are moved to tears. When someone scratches a board, we cringe. When we see someone eating, we feel hungry. Even imaginary events make our mind produce real physical reactions. Like I said, our brain cannot distinguish imagination from reality. The brain will send the body commands assuming the situation is real.

Case in point is the Placebo Effect in medicine. When patients are told they have received a medical intervention when in fact nothing has been done, they experience a real improvement in their medical condition.

Mind affects body. But since mind can’t distinguish imagination from reality, what we imagine impacts our body language!

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