System one and system two work together, as we have seen above. It is impossible to completely isolate one and appeal directly to the other.
So how can you use dual process theory to your advantage in marketing?
First, ask yourself: Are your products the most rational purchasing decisions? We hate to admit it, but more often than not, the answer is no. There can only be one “most logical” purchasing decision. In ecommerce , it’s even harder because the odds of each of your products being the best of the best are close to zero.
Even if you are one of the few exceptions and all your products are the most rational purchasing decisions, you must remember that system two is easily exhausted. Your visitors can become incapable of making logical decisions.
If you've only focused on logic and system two, you've got a problem and lost a sale. The best approach is to start by covering your bases with system one. Make sure your site appeals to the automatic and unconscious minds.
If one of your products is the most rational purchase decision, add appropriate triggers on your page that “wake up” system two. That is, if it is not already sold out.
How to appeal to system one of decision making
Exhausts the capacity of system two
Use lots of visuals
Keep it simple as much as possible
Play with familiarity
1. Exhausts the capacity of the system two
System two gets more drained the more it's used, and we canada whatsapp group already know it has a small capacity. If you want to force a decision from system one, the best way to do that is to present simple options during the checkout process. Every decision system two makes drains it a little more.
For example, Death Wish Coffee presents buyers with a few different options:
Death Wish Coffee
Do you want ground coffee, coffee beans or coffee pods? Do you want a one-time purchase of 15.99 or would you rather subscribe and save 20%? If you want to subscribe, do you want your coffee delivered every 7, 14, 30 or 60 days?
This degree of customization means options. These options tire out system two, helping to exhaust its small capacity.
As you can see, even though there are options in the example above, there is nothing difficult or confusing about the checkout process. Although adding options does mean adding a little friction.
Sometimes friction can be a good thing, such as increasing the number of fields on a lead generation form to improve lead quality.
But be careful not to overdo it. Making the checkout process difficult or confusing will exhaust system two, but it will also disorient system one, which strives for simplicity. Encouraging decision-making is a very delicate balancing act.
2. Use lots of visuals
You may be familiar with statistics like “visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text” and “65% of people are visual learners.”
The appearance of infographics and videos is no coincidence.
System one is more visual than system two, perhaps because it is evolutionarily older. For survival reasons, it has always been important for our brains to process visual stimuli quickly.
To appeal to system one, make sure your visuals meet the following criteria:
They are simple and clear. Remember, system one is automatic and unconscious. If the visuals are not clear, relevant and direct, the meaning (and impact) will be lost.
Show the benefit. You've heard of the idea that you should sell benefits, not features, right? Use images to show the benefits of your products.
For example, Harris Farm Markets uses nature imagery to reinforce the fact that they are focused on “reconnecting people to the natural joy of food”:
Harris Farm Markets
Nature is at the heart of the Harris Farm Markets brand. Prices, products and offerings are supported by nature. Images of bees and blueberries convey that message immediately, much faster than reading text.
Keep in mind that you need to visually appeal to system one at important points during the checkout process – before the add to cart step, for example. Think carefully about how to do this because you need to visually persuade without distracting, which can be a difficult balance to strike.