🧠 There's a backdoor in your brain

Heyo 👋

Welcome back to the second edition of Brandish

Your guide to crafting an iconic brand

I hope you’re having a kick-ass weekend and are ready to spend the next 2 and 50 minutes with me.

This week, I have two things I want to teach you.

A) How companies like Amazon are playing mind games with you when you’re trying to cancel that subscription for the 800th time (and how they’re making big bucks off it)

B) Why this guy called Hicks is confusing you every time you’re about to order something at a restaurant, and why his laws are important for your DTC brand

As always…

Kick your feet up, crack open your Brez, and let’s get into it

There’s a backdoor in your brain.

If I told you to stop reading this email right now

You wouldn’t do it

Why?

Because you’ve already spent 40 seconds of your life reading it

So you’d rather read along in hopes of learning something interesting than LOSE the 40 seconds of your life.

How do I know?

Because EVERY TIME I try to cancel some of my useless subscriptions (there are many, btw) - I always get caught off guard…

“We’ve saved you $287 dollars this month.”

“We’ve saved you 184 hours this year.”

Aaaaaah… F*ck

My brain catapults

And I keep those goddamn subscriptions.

This is a psychological bias in your brain called “Loss Aversion.”

In normal-person language, it basically means that it hurts 2x more to LOSE something as it does to gain something.

And therefore…

Your brain is more focused on not losing something than it is on gaining something new.

“Okay, Mr Psychologist. But how can I use it to make more $$$.”

I’m glad you asked…

First, there is the pre-purchase period, where your customers are afraid of losing their money.

Even if your product is the best in the world, they’ll fear losing it.

That’s just how it is

So to combat this, you can do the following:

• Give them a guarantee

• Give them a sample pack, so they can test your product (If goods)

• Give them a free trial (if services or SaaS)

Now, let’s talk about the post-purchase period.

This is especially relevant for those of you with a subscription product.

If a customer wants to cancel a subscription, then you need to use this psychological weapon against them.

You do this by reminding them what they stand to lose in terms of:

• Money

• Time

• Community Access

• Status

That’s basically it

That’s how you can use the “Loss Aversion” principle to:

A) Sell more

B) Keep customers longer (if subscription-based)

Thank you, next, please

“Hicks, what ya doing”

Okay, enough with being funny.

There’s this guy called Hicks. He has a law.

It states that the more choices a consumer has, the longer it will take them to make a decision (because the decision is harder to make)

Some people also call it The paradox of choice.

Anyway, what it means for you is rather simple:

• Don’t show your customer too many different choices

• If you have a large product selection, then only show them the few ones that are most relevant to them

Here are some stats to back it up

In an experiment by Sheena Lyengar, a supermarket set up 2 stands selling jam.

One had 24 different types of jams.

Another had only six types of jams.

The first one attracted 60% of the total shoppers - but only 3% bought.

The second one attracted only 40% of the total shoppers, but 30% bought.

So, what does this prove?

Yes, narrowing your product selections means you won’t appeal to everybody (which is quite good btw)

And yes, making your customers think less to make a decision pays off.

“Ankit, it’s time to wrap up”

By brain is telling me that I shouldn’t keep on writing…

…Merely for the sake of writing

…Because that’s rude.

To you and to me

So I won’t keep you any longer.

Thanks for reading along

I appreciate you

And I look forward to seeing you again next week (I’ll see you again next week, right ?!?!)

Have a kick-ass week

Be productive

Go get it

All the best

Ankit