7 Modes of the Mind: A better way to connect with consumers

It’s a new age in marketing communications and the digital revolution is fundamentally changing the way consumers interact with and consume content, information, and technology. New connection opportunities – e.g., social media, are emerging and quickly gaining critical mass. And many clients and agencies are asking “How can a brand win in the changing marketing communications environment of today – especially when the efficacy and relevancy of traditional advertising is being questioned?”

It’s a tough question that brand marketers are increasingly being confronted with it – because in today’s dynamic marketplace, the conventional methods of marketing communication are much less effective than they used to be. The sledgehammer approach of giving consumers a highly orchestrated whack around their collective mindsets doesn’t work anymore. Consumers are becoming immune to marketing – they’re zoning out the messaging and media blur that’s before them. They’re increasingly becoming advertising savvy and putting their marketing defense mechanisms on full alert. And they’re smarter because of how they’ve adapted to the new reality:

• Consumers know how to tune into the content they want – and how to filter out the messages they don’t want to receive.
• Consumers possess the technological aptitude and capability to pretty much do what they want, when they want.
• Consumers get to pick and choose how to interact with and transact with brands.
• Consumers seek out relationships with the brands that best demonstrate they understand them.
• Consumers fully engage brands that engage them and connect with them on their own terms.

What Brands Have to Recognize
Brands have to accept that the consumer is in total control. They’re in control of how they want to be communicated to – and they’re gaining control over the conversation about the brands. It means the rules of the marketing engagement have changed. Brands today can’t use the same old tricks to win in this brave new world of marketing communications.

There are new rules for brands to abide by – they need to recognize two important things:

1. Firstly, it’s not enough to develop an integrated strategy that’s just based on communicating the optimal message and using the optimal media delivery system – infiltrating the consumer’s mind requires an understanding of when they’re most open to receiving a communication
2. Secondly, the traditional approach to advertising is based on how to connect a brand with the consumer – whereas today the reverse is true; creating an opportunity for engagement takes an understanding of how to connect the consumer to the brand.

This Necessitates a New Mode of Marketing
Winning today requires a new way of thinking.  It takes a new approach to communications that puts the consumer at the center. It means understanding how a consumer interacts with content and media – and seeing the world from their perspective. It also means the brand has to find a way to connect with the consumer in a different way, by operating in the space where culture and technology converge. It boils down to understanding the aperture of receptivity:  when is the consumers most open to a message or encounter?

Today, brands have to recognize and identify the modal state of mind a consumer is in at the potential moment of connection – and gauge as to whether, when and how the consumer will invite the brand into their world or mind space.

At Mullen, we’ve discovered how to do that by making a major breakthrough in connections strategy. We’ve found a purpose driven and unbound way of shaping messaging and communications strategies that engage the consumer when they’re most receptive.  What we’ve developed is a new and innovative way of thinking about marketing communications – we call it the Modes Of The Mind™.

The Modes of the Mind™
Over the past several months Mullen has carefully observed cultural developments, conducted proprietary research and has tapped into the cognitive and behavioral sciences, to identify the seven modes that define a consumer’s mind state, receptivity and behavioral activity:

Through our studies we’ve found the seven Modes Of The Mind™ are linked to a derived satisfaction – that’s connected to how a consumer interacts with content and technology. Knowing what combination of light bulbs to turn on in the consumers’ minds eye is the key. Aligning an understanding of the potential for modal receptivity with the most relevant content and appropriate distribution engine, is how to a brand can infiltrate the consumer psyche.

Through our work and research learning, Mullen has discovered that The Modes of the Mind™ approach to marketing communications sparks powerful consumer connections and impacts behavior – by influencing how a consumer thinks, feels, and acts. It leads to a heightened potential for communications that penetrates the conscious and subconscious mind – to drive action.

A brand can achieve that by mining culture and understanding human nature – to identify the apertures of the mind that are most open and unlock the potential to create enhanced relationships. Through the Modes of The Mind™ approach – it’s possible to change the brand relationship paradigm from marketing monologue to conversational dialogue and to become part of the consumer’s world in a highly relevant way.

What a Brand Can Do

And so to answer the question: how can a brand win in the changing marketing communications environment of today?

The answer is – think modes, think content, and think distribution systems to create a sphere of influence that impacts the consumer mindset from the inside out.

Let the highest potential mode(s) of receptivity be the driver of messaging and connections strategy – and inform the best way to speak with and engage with the desired target audience constituents.  In making a modal connection, consumers will be more open to your brand and ultimately, more likely to buy into your brand.