The problem with miscommunication in the world isn't differing points of view -- it's differing points of thinking. That's according to John Furey, the founder and CEO of MindTime, a social science company that builds a framework for predicting individual differences in people based on the three fundamental drivers of human cognition.
Sounds pretty heavy, right? It’s actually a lot simpler. Furey and MindTime have created a test that shows where people are on a thinking map in relation to three separate pillars of human thought: possibility, probability and certainty. Once you understand where someone lands on the map, it’s a lot easier to communicate and understand them.
MindTime appears to be a great way of figuring out how to work with other people in an organization, but it also has some excellent marketing implementations, specifically in the field of cognitive marketing.
Behavioral marketing is already a big business online, but that’s not the best system. “Behaviors happened, and you can’t do prediction once something’s already happened,” Furey said during his lunch-time keynote at ad:tech New York. “Everything we do begins with a thought.”
Essentially, using cognitive marketing to target creative messaging based on a consumer’s MindTime profile can maximize effectiveness and minimize waster.
Past thinkers – the consumers who rely on certainty – want hard facts. If you’re serving them a toothpaste ad, you’ll get maximum performance from an ad with doctors’ recommendations and official facts. Want to appeal to present thinkers? Then use creative that speaks to the world around them – sell them toothpaste with a photo of a family and advertise the low price. The third group, future thinkers (the possibility group) doesn’t need much prompting at all. Serve them a picture of a guy and a girl smiling at each other with pearly white teeth, and you’re set. “It doesn’t matter what you say, but that there’s the opportunity and you’re going to get together,” Furey said.
Cognitive marketing isn’t meant to replace behavioral targeting, but improve it. “It’s the next mile,” Furey said. “It shows you things you didn’t know you already had.”
Look at the MindTime test as a filter for behavioral data – it makes sense of the data you already have, and simplifies it.
In the end, MindTime and cognitive data can help you do what all behavioral marketing is aiming for: delivering the right kind of message to a consumer in a way they want to receive it.
