Introduction

This book reveals how two fundamental assumptions have led marketing onto a dead-end path: that customers are aware of what they are doing, and that they know why they do what they do. Using advanced technologies, neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists have recently discovered the counterintuitive fact that the unconscious mind controls up to 95% of behavior, so it is not surprising that the marketing theory taught for the past 50 years requires some serious updating. Managers and executives willing to revise their most cherished beliefs in light of this new understanding can gain the rarest kind of success, a sustainable competitive advantage.

Habit assists in this process by exploring the implications of the powerful but invisible habitual mind. By recognizing the influences of both executive and habitual mental processes, companies can develop products and services that are better for customers while simultaneously increasing customer retention and profitability. To accomplish this, companies must reassess not only their basic operating assumptions, but also their organizational structure.

Ultimately, Habit is about the limitations of marketing to perform its basic function: to help companies establish and maintain profitable relationships with customers. This failure does not occur because companies fail to follow the basic tenets of marketing—it occurs because they do follow them!

As a marketing professional, I must confess to having counseled my clients and taught my students the same rules of marketing that lead to such bleak results as an 80% new product failure rate and customers that defect even as they report being highly satisfied. Although I knew about these persistent failures, my sense was that companies were simply not doing a good job in execution, not that there was a problem with basic marketing principles. Because I passionately believed in a customer-centric focus, I accepted the articles of marketing on faith.

And as a true believer, I was unable to separate these dreadful results from the marketing models that created them. My faith in the underlying goals kept me from questioning marketing's most sacred cows even when evidence of their failures was pervasive.

From Publishers Weekly

In his first book, communications consultant-to-the-stars (Sprint, Nextel, Cisco, Nortel, TI, Motorola) and "expert in consumer behavior" Martin uses ideas from the worlds of science, technology, psychology, history, philosophy and business to demonstrate how a consumer's unconscious controls most of his or her behavior. As a result, Martin argues, companies large and small are wasting money and energy engaging the wrong part of the brain-rather than worrying over expected behavior or ultimate satisfaction, marketers should focus on how buying habits form through simple, time-tested methods like reward and repetition. How else would brands like Microsoft-infamously frustrating but ingrained in the culture-and Starbucks coffee-overpriced but ubiquitous (and literally addictive)-make it? In a reportorial style fit for both marketing executives and savvy consumers, Martin presents interviews with marketers, researchers and scientists that outline the principles supporting his method, delineating the executive mind from the habitual (unconscious) mind, exploring how an ideal product like the iPod targets both minds, and providing a blueprint for creating habitual buyers. Martin's argument requires readers to suspend some long-held beliefs about consumers, but rewards them with some eye-opening perspective.

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description

This is the eBook version of the printed book. If the print book includes a CD-ROM, this content is not included within the eBook version.

Habit begins with a revolutionary premise–95% of human behavior is controlled by the unconscious mind. This fact exposes the central flaw in marketing theory, market research, and a preponderance of business strategy–that customers are consciously aware of what they’re doing. Habit explains why 80% of new products fail, why billions of advertising dollars are wasted every year, and why even satisfied customers aren’t loyal.

In Habit, Dr. Neale Martin persuasively contends that recent research from the brain sciences reveals that our brain evolved two minds–and marketing is focused on the wrong one. By explaining how the mind actually works, Martin shows how 50 years of marketing theory is deeply flawed, and how your customers’ habits thwart even your costliest marketing campaigns.

Habit explains in practical terms how to work with both your customers’ executive and habitual minds to not only make sales but more importantly, create loyalty. You’ll discover how behavior actually rewires your customers' mind–and how to leverage this by refocusing on behavior, not on attitudes and beliefs.

Martin offers a complete process for working with customers’ unconscious and conscious minds together, to become your customer’s habit, not just their choice. Using these techniques, you can finally achieve the twin holy grails of marketing: higher customer retention, and greater long-term profitability.

Why focusing on customer satisfaction is a waste of time

Prioritizing customer satisfaction ignores a crucial reality: 85% of customers who defect report being satisfied!

How to establish a beachhead in your potential customer’s unconscious

Teach new buying habits through cause and effect, reward and repetition

Why you should keep your regular customers from thinking about you

Learn how to keep repurchase behavior on permanent autopilot

www.nealemartin.com

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

From the Back Cover

“The Samsung Instinct was designed to be habit forming. Inspired by pioneering work by Dr. Neale Martin, Sprint and Samsung created the Instinct interface from the bottom up to work the way your brain works.”

–Doug Rossier, Sprint Instinct Marketing Lead

“In Habit, Neale Martin provides what seems to be a simple observation–that human behavior is largely managed through subconscious process. In startling fashion, Martin makes this point and then proceeds to undermine much of what marketers have come to believe as absolute truths. This is a worthwhile read, with significant implications to anyone who hopes to build brands and sell products.”

–John Stratton, Sr. Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Verizon

“Neale provides some of the most comprehensive insights into marketing I have ever read. His understanding of today’s market complexity is simply brilliant.”

–Derek Broes, Sr. Vice President, Paramount

“At last someone has approached marketing with the clarity and precision of a brain surgeon.”

–George Ford, Marketing Director, Petrafoods

“Habit reveals why traditional approaches to acquiring and keeping customers don’t work anymore. Dr. Martin shows that by focusing on behavior instead of attitudes and intentions, companies can radically improve not only how many customers they win, but how many they keep.”

–S. Somasegar, Microsoft Senior Vice President, Developer Division

“Habit is an essential read for all marketers, managers and executives. Dr. Martin has elevated the seemingly boring concept of habits to a science with implications for every business in every market. This excellent book not only explains why consumers behave the way they do, but what companies should do in light of these startling insights!”

–Jagdish N. Sheth, Ph.D, Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing, Goizueta Business School, Emory University

Habit begins with a revolutionary premise–95% of human behavior is controlled by the unconscious mind. This fact exposes the central flaw in marketing theory, market research, and a preponderance of business strategy–that customers are consciously aware of what they’re doing. Habit explains why 80% of new products fail, why billions of advertising dollars are wasted every year, and why even satisfied customers aren’t loyal.

In Habit, Dr. Neale Martin persuasively contends that recent research from the brain sciences reveals that our brain evolved two minds–and marketing is focused on the wrong one. By explaining how the mind actually works, Martin shows how 50 years of marketing theory is deeply flawed, and how your customers’ habits thwart even your costliest marketing campaigns.

Habit explains in practical terms how to work with both your customers’ executive and habitual minds to not only make sales but more importantly, create loyalty. You’ll discover how behavior actually rewires your customers' mind–and how to leverage this by refocusing on behavior, not on attitudes and beliefs.

Martin offers a complete process for working with customers’ unconscious and conscious minds together, to become your customer’s habit, not just their choice. Using these techniques, you can finally achieve the twin holy grails of marketing: higher customer retention, and greater long-term profitability.

Why focusing on customer satisfaction is a waste of time

Prioritizing customer satisfaction ignores a crucial reality: 85% of customers who defect report being satisfied!

How to establish a beachhead in your potential customer’s unconscious

Teach new buying habits through cause and effect, reward and repetition

Why you should keep your regular customers from thinking about you

Learn how to keep repurchase behavior on permanent autopilot

www.nealemartin.com

About the Author

Neale Martin is the founder and CEO of Ntelec, Inc., a marketing, consulting, and education company. He has helped companies adjust their strategic marketing in the face of rapid technological change since 1995. For the past several years, he has worked on updating the principles of marketing in light of research from cognitive psychology and neuroscience that suggests that most of human behavior is under the sway of unconscious habits. Neale developed early insights into the power of habits as a counselor and program director for alcohol and drug addiction programs. After spending a year as a hospital administrator in Texas, he returned to school to earn his Ph.D. in marketing from the College of Management, Georgia Institute of Technology. Neale’s insatiable curiosity across diverse subjects illuminates his work as he connects ideas and insights from science, technology, psychology, history, philosophy, and dog training. He lives in Marietta, Georgia, with his wife, Diana, his daughter, Miranda, and three border collies.