The Buying Brain: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind (15 page)

Before we delve too deeply into the Buying Brain of female consumers, a caveat: These figures represent average male and female brain tendencies.

P1: OTA/XYZ

P2: ABC

c07

JWBT296-Pradeep

June 7, 2010

6:39

Printer Name: Courier Westford, Westford, MA

The Female Brain Is Buying

69

They’re not absolute and they don’t accurately describe each and every individual. For example, I can tell you that, in general, men are taller than women, but we all know women who are taller than many men. In like manner, not all men possess a prototypical male brain, nor does every female possess a prototypical female brain. Still and all, men are most likely to have a male brain and women are far more likely to have a female brain. So let’s begin from there.

Meet the Female Buying Brain

Now that we’ve gotten the disclaimer out of the way, let’s get to the gender differences. Like everything else that arose during the course of human (or any other) evolution, you may be assured that any changes we incorporate into our brain structures exist for one reason: to give an
advantage to our offspring
and thereby to help ensure the survival of our species.

So why did gender differences in the human brain evolve? The answer, quite simply, is because the two genders had two very different agendas. Primitive
homo sapiens
males and females faced entirely different selection pressures.

(Read about the early evolution of the two sexes in Chapter 3) Men, for example, needed to hone—quickly—their systemizing and mechanistic skills because they were imperative for inventing, making, and using tools and weapons. Empathy, however, was not an important skill for males to master.

Better to kill your enemy swiftly and dispassionately than take the time to talk
through his experience with him and try to comfort him.

The need for close social networking was also not a high-stakes skill for males, since they needed to be alone and focused for long hours on the hunt.

Filial bonds with others were also not highly prized among primitive men, since confrontation and combat established their places in the tribal hierarchy.

You never knew when you’d have to kill your BFF (Best Friend Forever) to protect your mate or your property. Instead,
the top male achievement
was independence
: being able to act, mate, procreate, hunt, and live without relying too much on other males.

At the same time in our distant past, females became experts at empathizing, because those skills made successful mothering and caretaking easier. Highly
empathetic brains could anticipate and understand the needs of infants who could not yet talk
, and socially astute brains helped adolescent women make friends and allies in the new environments that became their homes after they mated (females left their tribes on taking a mate to avoid P1: OTA/XYZ

P2: ABC

c07

JWBT296-Pradeep

June 7, 2010

6:39

Printer Name: Courier Westford, Westford, MA

70

The Buying Brain

inbreeding, a critical threat to species survival). Multitasking and enhanced memory skills also served the newest tribe member well, as she learned to get along with the females in her new tribe, to practice their established rituals, and to remember the best places to find food.

Remember: The human brain hasn’t changed much in 100,000

years.
But society, particularly women’s roles in it, has changed dramatically—even within this generation. From the right to vote and own property to the right to govern your own reproduction, to today’s situation with more women than men in the workplace, women have stepped into a new role in the world in an evolutionary blink of an eye. As a result, their
hard-wiring is occasionally
at odds
with the demands of the twenty-first century. Witness the rise of social networking sites for women to get a sense of how women, for whom community is most important, create their own families and virtual “over-the-fence” friends. Think of ways you and your brand, product, or company can align with this very real need by offering social media opportunities for your female consumers to meet others who are just like them. Consensus is a matter of survival both to the ancient and the modern female brain.

The worst possible scenario for an ancient human female would
be ostracism from the group.
She and her children would likely not survive. That same brain still functions in women today, elevating conflicts and disagreements to life-threatening emergency status in her brain. This emergency status causes the release of cortisol, a powerful stress hormone, which floods her system and prepares her to fight or flee.

The levels of cortisol remain elevated and stay in her system much longer that with male brains. Unlike male brains, the cortisol pulsing through her veins actually impairs her performance (it enhances male performance).

Women remember the stressor and the events immediately following it far better than men do. In terms of marketing mistakes, one may be all you get.

Women are supreme at creating their own families, either online, at work, or in the playground. These liaisons often last a lifetime.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the female brain reacts to details of life management as potentially catastrophic. Men reach that level of agitation only when there is a threat of immediate physical danger. So anything a marketer can do to lessen the impact of the life management hurdles she must deal with daily will be appreciated, remembered, and rewarded by the female brain.

P1: OTA/XYZ

P2: ABC

c07

JWBT296-Pradeep

June 7, 2010

6:39

Printer Name: Courier Westford, Westford, MA

The Female Brain Is Buying

71

Anatomy of the Female Brain

All brains are female from the very beginning; “baby girl” is our default setting. During the eighth week of gestation, a testosterone bath occurs in about half of all fetuses. If this powerful shower of testosterone happens, some communication centers in the brain shut down, while other centers for sex and aggression gear up, and a male brain is born. If no testosterone appears in the picture, communication centers continue to grow, complex pathways develop across the two hemispheres, centers that specialize in emotion bloom, and the brain remains female. Then, from the second month after conception to the end of their lives, the brains of men and women remain different (see Figure 7.2).

Do you want to know some more interesting facts? I just used a typically female tactic of inviting you into a conversation with me and seeking your
Figure 7.2

The female brain is fundamentally different from the male brain.

Source:
Photo by NeuroFocus, Inc.

P1: OTA/XYZ

P2: ABC

c07

JWBT296-Pradeep

June 7, 2010

6:39

Printer Name: Courier Westford, Westford, MA

72

The Buying Brain

compliance. The male approach would have been more direct: “Here are some more facts.” Did you know, for example, that preschool girls take turns during play about 20 times more often than boys do? Or that female babies make eye contact about four times more often than boys in their first three months?

As adults, women continue to smile more than men, and to nod their heads in agreement with others far more than men do. Consider all of these traits and tendencies when you depict females using your product or package.
Use
collaborative, reciprocal language—for example, “Let’s put an end to boring dinners.”

“We support doing less laundry, don’t you?”

Show a woman engaged with others or, if she appears alone, make sure the female representing you appears open and caring, and that she is making eye contact with and even explicitly agreeing with your consumer. Comparing the typical male brain to the typical female brain, she has four times as many neurons connecting the right and the left brain (collectively, they’re called the corpus collosum). This means that she processes information through
both
rational and emotional filters
, unlike men, who use either one side or the other to process information. In constructing messages to her, always include some emotional component. Even if your positioning is based on hard, cold facts, she will process it more fully if her empathic, emotive brain is engaged.

This superior connection between the two hemispheres makes
the female
brain the most highly-attuned multitasker of all time.
She accesses both sides of her brain quickly and easily, moving with remarkable dexterity between analytical and emotional processing. So, talk to both the emotional and rational sides of her mind. She relies equally on both and, in fact, filters rational messaging through her emotions. Engaging both rational and emotional circuits enables the kind of holistic, interhemispheric thinking that comes naturally to women. She is the ultimate holistic thinker and does not solve logical problems without emotional oversight.

Celebrate the superior ability to multitask in the images and messages you use to address the female brain. While males are more single-focused and can be shown honing in on the drive, for example, females are never doing just one thing. Show them using the cup holders, adjusting the seats, and talking to children or others in the car.

Acknowledge that she’s integrating many goals with every purchase or shopping experience. By getting that meal, she’s also saving money and spending more time with her family. She’s a multitasker and likes being acknowledged for her abilities.

P1: OTA/XYZ

P2: ABC

c07

JWBT296-Pradeep

June 7, 2010

6:39

Printer Name: Courier Westford, Westford, MA

The Female Brain Is Buying

73

More interhemispheric connections also contribute to the female brain’s superior big picture thinking—her ability to see situations and resolve them at the 30,000-foot level. As an executive thinker, then, the female brain will appreciate having all of the features and benefits required for her to make a decision laid out for her consideration. Let her know why a product or service makes sense for her and her family. Give her “big picture” reasons to choose you over your competitors, including, when appropriate, the message that your product or service is kinder to the earth or donates to a worthy charity.

With men, the idea is to get to the point. And the point is, generally: “What’s in it for me?”

It’s easy and natural for the female brain to move from home to work, from clothes shopping to contract signing—even to combine these activities. Men compartmentalize and tend to focus on one thing—with one hemisphere—at a time. Consider all of these environments and her ability to move seamlessly among them when designing marketing campaigns for women. Reach her in every aspect of her life, not just in the kitchen.

The female brain is also programmed for more uneasiness and to do more planning than the male brain. That’s because primitive and modern women needed to stay a step ahead in arranging for food, shelter, and care for vulnerable children. Today’s female is equally adept and has an innate gift of remembering where the best deals are and how to find them. Use some caution before you rearrange her shopping world by moving things around in-store or online.