Human impulse in action: an ad exec reveals the joys of shopper-watching

On these visits I like to spend a lot of time walking around the store observing shoppers when they stand in front of a shelf deciding which brand to choose.

It's good fun (honestly), and sometimes the reason is obvious why the consumer chooses one brand over another, while at other times it's not easy to figure out but great to see anyway.

Some shoppers clearly know what they want and can pick out the item quite quickly, but some dawdle in front of the shelf and often this is because of the word "sale".

Many times it happened to me that the word "sale" did draw me in, but sometimes it didn't work for me, and this leads me to try to analyse why and how.

My conclusion at the moment is that the way to win the consumer over has to be through making the consumer feeling good about the experience of engaging with the brand, and getting fair value all at the same time.

Just the word "sale" is not enough anymore, because almost everyone uses the same discounting tactics.

But if you capture the hearts and minds of consumers and usher them into the story of the brand, they can't stand to leave your product on the shelf.

Actually I'm a hardcore

consumer who loves to try and compare new products (usually

at any time at least two types

of toothpaste, several different brands of soap, a couple of

deodorants and several shampoos), and many times I ask myself how

I feel about the new brand I bought and how it's different

from the one I used before.

Yes, sometimes I can feel the difference in terms of physical benefits, which is easy to rationalise.

But sometimes I can't feel any physical advantage, yet still feel much better about one brand in particular, and this is nearly always the result of brand preference that the advertiser has tried to instil in me as a consumer.

And this is also what I do

in every campaign that I'm involved in - where, above all,

we try to create a brand narrative and brand language based on merits.

But the importance of brand structure and the details that this contains cannot be overemphasised, and you can also never underestimate your audience,

who are so clever and well-informed with many options open to them.

So keeping your brand on track requires constant attention. As with a love affair, if you start to ignore some fundamental detail and put less into the relationship than your partner, you can easily lose the game.

It's fun to be in the game - tough but fun.

Back in the supermarket, I have to admit I love it when I see people buy the product I did the advertising campaign for.

And I like to check what the key impulse was for them, which sometimes is so different from what we dreamt up in the meeting room, but good to know and usually a useful pointer for the next round.

The cycle of maintaining brand relationship is never-ending. Keep going, observing, improving, building the relationship, make it stronger every day, and just like a love relationship you get back more than you put in.

Kanaporn Hutcheson 

Managing director of NUDE communication Co