We’ve been talking about the value of market (i.e., donor) research lately, and how/when to listen to it.

So my curiosity was peaked when this article by Karl Greenberg, Market Research Must Get Real, Not ideal, popped up. The article cites Nathan Berg, a professor of economics at the University of Texas, who asserts current market research frequently assumes an impossible degree of analysis by consumers, and that people who know less frequently make a better-informed choice. He says: "There is a faulty idea that more information is better. Most people don’t consider all options. In fact, being smart means making fast decisions before you consider everything." In effect, faced with complex choices, people eliminate options rather than select among them.

OK, I’m interested. As a marketer, I’m fascinated by trying to figure out what’s going on in people’s heads when they make decisions … keeping in mind that the brain processes facts and emotions.

The article introduced me to the fascinating work of Dr. Robert Deutsch, a cognitive anthropologist. You can learn about Dr. Deutsch and his work here at Brain Sells.

His bio says: "Dr. Deutsch has created a unique approach to uncovering what he calls ‘the primal, macro-structures that people live in today.’ This approach … encompasses procedures for discovering the primal symbols, images, metaphors, and stories that reside in the public mind when imagining a particular product, person, or notion … Dr. Deutsch is one of the leading strategists on how the mind creates beliefs and how beliefs can be influenced. As he is known for saying, ‘Data or attributes are not the issue. The mind evolved to act, not to think.’"

This is my kind of guy!

Deutsch has applied this methodology for such varied clients as the Foreign Ministry of Japan, Dunkin’ Donuts, American Express, Apple and National Geographic.

As quoted in the Greenberg article, Deutsch says some, well, heady stuff (stay with me here):

"The primal mind makes patterns; branding predates marketing by 3.5 million years. What contemporary marketers call ‘brand’ is actually a primal and primary mechanism of the mind: it is attachment, a metaphoric merging between a person’s ‘self story’ and a person’s story of you, the product, the company … People have a sense — perhaps not fully formed — of who they are and what’s latent in them."

Deutsch says, in fact, that brand loyalty is self-loyalty. "There is no such thing as product loyalty; that’s commodity-based. Attachment leads to self-loyalty. It looks like product loyalty, but it’s not; it’s ‘through you I become more of me."

Doubt all this mumbo-jumbo? Consider: therein lies all the undeniable power of liquor and cigarette advertising … to say nothing of the Mac, iPod and iPhone!

In effect, a brand works — your cause will appeal — when the individual feels empowered and responds: "I can become more of myself."

In short, fundraisers, forget the facts. Well, don’t exactly forget them. Just remember they are mere props for creating a feeling state. Focus on helping your donor feel that he or she can realize their potential through you — through what your nonprofit means to and affirms about that individual.

If you have to try to change their mind about something, you lose!

Any arguments?

Tom

P.S. Perhaps this is all a glorified way of saying: "It’s the list, stupid!"