TWO SELVES

In his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman described his findings about research conducted with 154 patients undergoing a painful colonoscopy. (The procedure was carried it out in the early 1990s, with neither anaesthetic nor amnesic drugs administered, since the use of these was not as widespread as today.) The patients were prompted every 60 seconds to indicate the level of pain they were experiencing on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 representing 'No pain' and 10 representing 'Intolerable pain'. The shortest procedure lasted 4 minutes, the longest 69.

Summarized briefly, what Kahneman found was that the duration of the treatment didn't affect the patient's perception of the pain endured. Even when there was a similar perceived pain intensity by all patients, if the treatment ended with a high pain rating, the patient with even the shortest treatment time retained a much worse memory of the event than patients whose procedures lasted longer but were less painful. 

He observed that: 

1. People only really remember the peak moment of an experience and its end. (He calls this the Peak-end rule.)

2. The duration of the event has no effect on the memory of the experience. (He calls this Duration neglect.)

What this all means is that even though the remembering self may recall the event incorrectly, it remains the self that selects, memorizes and makes decisions about the experience. The experiencing self has no influence on this decision-making process.

According to Kahneman, ‘Memories are all we get to keep from our experience of living, and the only perspective that we can adapt as we think about our lives is therefore that of the remembering self.’

Pinpointing the end-phase

To fully understanding the brand experience you want to offer, it’s very important to define four aspects - people, activity, location and time. In the case of the colonoscopy Kahneman studied, the experience consisted of patients (people), the colonoscopy itself (activity), the examination room in a hospital (location), and the duration of the procedure (time). And to be able to apply the theory of ‘two selves' effectively, you need to clearly understand the end-phase of your particular brand experience.

When I worked at Philips, one of most influential factors - positive and negative - on an NPS score was ease-of-use. To take just one example - any product that requires frequent cleaning (such as a kitchen appliance) - the ease with which it can be cleaned becomes critical to how often it is used. It's not hard to imagine how any such appliance that's hard to clean ends up being used infrequently, or just pushed to the back of a cupboard and forgotten. If that happens, then the product's end-phase will conclude negatively.

In retail – be it in a store or online – the end-phase for most customers is usually the transaction: paying for the product. In Japan, the standard procedure in a store is that the assistant carries your purchased items as they escort you to the door. They then express their appreciation and bow to you. Although I know many Japanese feel this procedure is unnecessary and uncomfortable, it does at least change the end-phase from ‘paying money’ ‘being treated with courtesy for your purchase’. In Europe, I have experienced something similar (admittedly only on a few occasions) with a couple of brands. The assistants who served me sent me an email after purchase. It wasn’t a standard email, but one that referred to our conversation at the point of purchase. In both cases, such contact made my ‘shopping memory’ not about the transaction, but about the pleasure I derived from reading the email. It left me with a very positive feeling about both brands.

As a brand, we not only have to look good, we also have to provide a positive experience for the customer. We have to leave them with a positive memory of us when the end-phase arrives.

Happy memories

For me the 'two selves' theory is more than just useful when improving and refining a brand experience. Applied correctly, it ensures that customers enjoy the experience you offer not just while they experience it, but also afterwards when they recall it.

So if your aim is to increase the long-term growth in your brand value and equity by maximizing your brand experience, it will be the end-phase that exerts the most influence. It will be the customer's remembering self that wields the most power. Because what people feel when they 'leave' your brand is what they'll remember and, more than likely, pass on to their friends. That will be their experience of your brand.