Why marketing can cause brain "blindness"

By Tom Trush

How many times have you spent minutes scanning a supermarket shelf in search of a specific item?

Maybe you couldn't find Fruity Pebbles in the cereal aisle ... or saffron among the spices ... or, as was the case with me on Sunday, corn starch among a slew of baking supplies.

When this happens, you feel blind ... and, to a certain extent, you are.

A.K. Pradeep describes this condition in his book, The Buying Brain: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind, as "repetition blindness." The occurrence happens when the brain sees too many of the same objects. And, since it can't determine variations, everything gets blended together.

For example, let's go back to the cereal aisle at your local grocery store. The boxes have similar colors, shapes, phrases and graphics, right?

Well, it's this lack of differences that makes finding a specific brand a slow process.

Here's Pradeep's explanation on how your brain works in this situation :

"We're biologically programmed to seek differences. To seek out things that enable us to make sense out of the environment we find ourselves in and to navigate our world safely and productively. When the brain is presented with a series of repetitive images - even if there are some differences among them - repetition blindness sets in. The brain no longer "sees" each individual image as it would if that image stood alone, or with only a small number of similar/identical images."

Of course, the grocery store isn't the only place where repetition blindness occurs. It happens in all types of comparison situations.

And, obviously, marketing is not an exception.

As a consumer, you know this. Every day you subconsciously tune out most marketing messages, while giving your attention to a select few.

The messages you reward with interest have distinctive differences or target a desire you're actively thinking about, correct ?

Too many business owners and entrepreneurs ignore this fact when creating their marketing. They look to competitors for ideas and then try to match whatever they see.

When you take this approach, you create more repetitive images in your prospects' minds. You disregard the brain's biologically programmed preference for differences. And, as a result, your message drowns in a sea of sameness.