Why Do Little Things Matter?
You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again: little things matter in the world of business. Seemingly insignificant details can make all the difference in the world for your brand and everything you do is as important as anything you do–but why?
The answer to why little things really matter is rooted in psychology. From the first moment someone interacts with you, you’ve begun to set their expectations of what might happen next. Much of this results from evolution (people naturally make associations for survival and success), but another word for it is ‘priming’.
Priming is how you can change interactions by subtly suggesting things that nudge people in the direction that you want them to go. For example, before Starbucks came along, we were primed to pay very little for a cup of coffee. But, from day one at Starbucks, they primed us to think coffee was far more expensive and, over time, we adapted to expect coffee to cost quite a bit more than it used to. If Starbucks suddenly raised their prices substantially, we’d have a conflict and most of us would probably cut back on our lattes. If they suddenly cut their prices in half, however, we’d go considerably more often, but they’d make less money with each passing cup.
None of this is ground shattering. It’s the law of demand, the cornerstone of fundamental economics. People buy more if it’s less expensive to do so and they tend to buy less as it becomes more expensive to do so.
So, where does priming come in? There are a lot of things out there that cost far more than they’re intrinsically worth. Some of this is due to marketing, but a lot of it is due to priming. For example, if I were to ask you how much a very nice suit would cost, you’d materialize a number in your head that was the sum of all the priming you’ve been through before to guide your expectation of what a suit might cost. Now, what if I were to say an Armani suit instead of just a suit. Unless that’s all you have in your closet, that number probably just nudged up a little bit.
Why? Because Armani makes expensive things, we’re primed to expect that something with that name on it should cost more than something without it.
Dan Ariely has done a number of experiments with priming (some of which can be found in his latest book, Predictably Irrational). In one experiment, he primed subjects with the Ten Commandments before giving them a test and then an opportunity to cheat. Those who weren’t primed with the ten commandments were far more likely to cheat than those who were. It even worked for atheists.
Here’s what this means for you: everything you do is priming someone. While you may not be able to influence everything that helps set people’s expectations about you, there are quite a few of them that you certainly can. How do you answer the phone? What does it say on your business card? How do you dress when you meet someone? What kind of box does your product come in? Is whatever you make or do an exciting experience for anyone it touches?
We recently changed our name to Blend: Human Driven Design. These are the questions we help brands ask and these are the very same questions that we use design to answer.
Let’s prime together. Let’s Blend It Better.
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