“Our measure of how "good" a story is—how confident we are in its accuracy—is not
an evaluation of the reliability of the evidence and its quality,
it's a measure of the coherence of the story.”

Daniel Kahneman, ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’

In marketing, this makes every word and the quality of the story you tell vital if you want your potential customer's super quick first impression of your product to be good instead of bad. More widely known as What You See Is All There Is (WYSIATI), a term first coined by Daniel Kahneman in his international bestseller Thinking, Fast and Slow, our inbuilt bias in how we perceive what’s in front us means we can miss obvious signs of missing information.

It comes from a basic need to be told a good story.

If we enjoy what we’re reading, we’re more likely to ignore arguments against it and believe what it tells us.

An interesting study in the US in 1988 served identical minced beef to university students in two batches, each with a different label: ‘75% lean’ or ‘25% fat’. The results showed a significant difference in quality rating for the ‘75% lean’ batch even though it was identical to the ‘25% fat’ batch and both labels mean the same thing.

What you draw peoples’ attention to needs to be carefully crafted
to trigger the emotional response you want.

Getting it right is often about exactly that - emotion, rather than information.

Kellogg’s could have given us columns of text explaining in great detail what’s so great about Rice Bubbles, but instead they simply told us they go snap, crackle and pop! That’s a lot more fun. It excites the child within and will have you reaching for their product faster than all the science behind it.

Another reason it works is because they’ve used sensory words relating to sound. A different area of our brain lights up when we read text that has words for things we can see, hear, smell, taste, or feel as opposed to when we read factual information. This was reinforced in Kellogg’s advertising that constantly showed smiling people leaning their ear towards a bowl of Rice Bubbles and their delight when they heard those sounds. Such things make us happy, so we’re more likely to respond favourably.

This bias is also evident in the rhyme-as-reason effect, also known as the Eaton-Rosen phenomenon, where people are more likely to believe slogans that have a rhyming element. One example of this is ‘Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning’. You’ve no doubt heard that saying and may have even said it yourself, but do you know if it’s true or not?

The theory is that we’re more likely to believe something if it sounds pleasing
and is easier to process and remember.

Phrases like this tend to be repeated more often too. The more we hear it, the more we’re likely to find it credible.

There’s a skill to crafting words and stories, just like there’s a skill to graphic design and professional printing. Experts give you an edge your competitors don’t have. It pays to go with the best. They’re the people who have spent their careers learning the craft of their profession and know what works better than others.

Glide Print. We’re your personal print expert.

All our knowledge and skill come at no extra cost to you so you know
you're getting the best quality for your budget and the process will be an easy one for you.

We're here to help.

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