CONSUMERS ARE SMART
Hidden Marketing Law #5
Marketing is not more complicated, but more complex than quantum physics. That is why there are no laws, just a few “law like” rules available in Marketing. With Causal AI we can match complexity of marketing and find causal mechanisms that have not been discovered yet. Over 15 years of practical research we found five law-like patterns that you can use to your favor.
This is law #5:
We tested “Mere Exposure” for a electronics brand by exposing the brand in a 3D game via an A/B testing design. Even gamers who had been exposed to the brand could barely remember. But they attested greater trust into the brand in an implicit measurement.
When running a touchpoint study for an insurance, we measured touchpoint contacts implicitly. That way we could sense touchpoint contacts even if they were unaware. With Causal AI we could reveal the impact of the touchpoints. It turned out that some touchpoints have significant negative impacts. Customers find certain ads or certain contexts annoying. Sports-Sponsoring instead turn out as the strongest channel. A channel that barely reach awareness.
We tested hundreds of ads for a retailer. We measured recognition, emotion and ad perceptions. Further categorized what’s actually happening objectively in the ad. It turned out that recognition had little relevant impact.
What did show impact where certain properties of the ad: Surprise is only working when embedded in a meaningful (emotional) storyline. Same for humor. Attention grabbing details turned out to be negative when not meaningful for the story or message of the ad. Logo exposure was positive in the beginning to give the audience a frame to understand the story. It was negative throughout the spot as it was clearly marking the asset as “just advertising”.
Law #5: Customers are smarter than you think. You don’t need to create awareness to have them process vast amounts information. You may trick them if they don’t care. But you better respect customers as implicitly intelligent and “street smart” and being able to unconsciously sensing things that try to manipulate them.
Customers are like sniffer dogs – they can smell manipulation even when they don’t see it. Advertising is like a wave - it carries you when it flows with the current but pushes you away when it fights against it. Marketing isn’t a magic trick - it’s a chess game with a player who already unconsciously knows the rules.
Marketing in the 20th century followed the scientific zeitgeist – trying to deconstruct the customer like a machine – developing playbooks that persuade and seduce. Awareness-Interest, Desire, Action – AIDA was the name of the “magic” funnel. But this legacy framework is hitting a wall – mostly creating low ROI’s.
Instead, neuroscience shows that most of this is missing the mark. Attention is not even needed as most relevant cognitive processes run unconsciously. Desire might be a desirable outcome but let’s be honest – it will not matter much if I choose a Snicker over Twix. A simple gentle push is enough. No desire needed.
In the end, marketing isn’t about tricking the mind - it’s about touching it. Customers don’t live inside funnels; they live in stories, intuition and emotions. They don’t need to “wake up” to process what we say — their brains are already listening in the background. The smartest brands aren’t the loudest. They’re the ones that whisper with truth, connect with meaning, and earn trust without forcing it. Because when you respect your audience’s intelligence, you don’t have to manipulate - you get to build something real.
That’s the power of the Hidden Marketing Law #5.
This is how you 10x impact.