Reilly Newman | Salience in marketing is key to being top of mind. It’s not a matter of being the loudest, biggest, or brightest in your market to be noticed, but your ideal customer seeing you as important for some reason that matters to them. This is salience.
Businesses and marketers confuse attention with salience. Your brain determines its attention based on a prioritization of importance. Yes, a loud noise or a quick scare can derail this, but that attention is quickly brought back into alignment based on what your brain’s chemically-driven wiring defines as important.
Attention and Brand
Attention is based on importance. This importance can be unconsciously determined like when you’re hungry and your brain goes “look for food” or when you hear a baby cry or need to use the restroom. It can also be a conscious decision when you make yourself focus when working, writing, reading, etc. — in this case you are declaring what is important. In both scenarios, “importance” is determined by the individual, not the things around them. For example, a plate of food can’t convince someone of its importance on this level if the person is simply not hungry, feeling nauseous, or very occupied with a different priority. Importance is then both fleeting and subjective. This is why humans are driven by what matters to them. By what they value. We are driven by salience.
Back to the plate of food analogy, we all know a foodie who can admire a plate of food. Even if they aren’t hungry. The salience they personally cast upon the craft, the taste, the visual, etc of food is a top priority. Although this is subjective to that single individual, the food can still signal importance to resonate even more with the foodie and acknowledge them. It’s a signal of “Hey, I know you appreciate this. So do we.” This can be done through the ingredients, techniques, plating of the food, etc. This works two-fold as the attentional effort of signaling may get the attention of some non-foodies where they take unconscious note of “that looks important” and leans into the ideal audience of the foodies who appreciate it and want to pay more for that appreciation, take photos of it, share it, and savor it.
The Fallacy of Attention
Attention isn’t just about being the loudest or brightest, it’s about deliberate signaling of specific importance. Importance in the subjective sense of what your desired audience finds salient. Why do you wear the brands you do? Why do you eat at the places you do? The salience you project on these businesses most likely align with your inner narrative that the business has reciprocated through its brand experience. Once again, the perception of yourself and these businesses determines your behavior.
From the business perspective, it’s prudent to understand human behavior and the role your brand plays in it. For a business to gain the impactful attention of its desired audience, it must understand what its audience finds salient. Then, just like our plate of food example, it must deliberately signal these elements to them. By aligning your brand with the values and priorities of your target audience, you create a sense of trust and loyalty with them. They will see your brand as important and relevant to their lives and will be more likely to engage with your brand, make a purchase, and recommend it to others. This leads to increased brand awareness and customer engagement, ultimately resulting in more sales and revenue.
Human brains play by certain rules. Shouldn’t your brand play by the same rules?
