Shrewd like a goldfish: Myths about attention span and ways to craft appeal in a busy world
There's a common misconception about goldfish and their 9 second memory. In fact, goldfish are smart and can learn things.
But to get a goldfish to understand something, like a human, you need to appeal to them - not an easy task in either case!
There is a similar misconception in branding and online experiences, that humans have a shrinking attention span, some say it is now smaller than a goldfish at 8 seconds.
The truth according to Dr Gemma Briggs, a psychology lecturer at Open University is, "It's very much task-dependent. How much attention we apply to a task will vary depending on what the task demand is."
This makes perfect sense, and how much attention we apply depends on how motivated we are to endure that demand. Therein lies the challenge for your brand if you are trying to gain someone's attention.
In the modern era we are bombarded with information, but we are keeping up with it with an increasing sophistication in sorting through that information to find what is important to us. The human mind unconsciously processes it, a skill that has kept us alive over millennia, interpreting colours, shapes, symbols, sounds and words. These are still the same things that people interpret today, and are the basic building blocks at our disposal for design and copywriting as we vie for attention.
Brand touchpoints, written like a movie script
The moment when your brand catches someone's attention is known as a brand touchpoint. This can occur as a social media post or a logo on the side of a passing vehicle or even word-of-mouth between friends, to name just a few. The person passes judgement, usually subconsciously, and then something happens.
Most brand touchpoints are measured in seconds. I call it the Goldfish Zone, not because there's a running timer of 8 seconds like the myth suggests, rather it is an opportunity to pique someone's interest and hold their attention to teach them something.
I can think of nothing that an audience won't understand. The only problem is to interest them; once they are interested, they understand anything in the world.
- Orson Welles, filmmaker
It's been said that we are all in the entertainment business. Indeed, entertaining or compelling tasks hold our attention.
But let's face it, your audience isn't sitting down to watch a movie with your name on it. Nor are we crafting fiction, but there is a lesson in how they do it.
Crafting a brand touchpoint
A filmmaker uses a range of tools to support the story such as lighting techniques, camera angles, music and dialogue.
In the same way, brands have a toolkit of colours, symbols, images and other things unique to that brand to craft touchpoints.
With clear aims you can refine the story to its most necessary parts. In a typical touchpoint your aims will be:
- gain attention
- be compelling
- earn trust
- inspire an action of some kind.
How you to that will be unique to your brand. Choosing the right place and message depends on your strategies for your business, marketing and brand. We cover these topics and more in our blog.
When crafted well, your touchpoints will be immediately appealing to the right people, be compelling enough to hold their attention, help them understand something and make a lasting impression.
The most common mistakes are to dehumanise the message or sink into fiction. Your customers are beautiful, wild goldfish. They are not stuck in a fishbowl. They are smart and independent thinkers who deserve respect.
Likewise, behind all brands are people. You. Carry out an honest conversation with your customers using all of the tools at your disposal and you will hold their attention, and have a healthy brand and business.
Key to all of this is understanding your customers. We were recently inspired by outdoor guides and how they provide the best example of understanding a client and their needs. Check it out.