Free The Buying Brain: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind by A. K. Pradeep

they would be by the time we got to them. This same scanning, aiming, and projecting is evident every day, sometimes spectacularly.
    For example, on the football fields and hockey rinks, when a quarterback throws a missile right into the waiting hands of an open receiver who appears, magically, just where the ball is thrown, or a player zooms a puck before the stick of a teammate who appears in the nick of time.
    Our brain’s ability to scan an area, to locate an object in three dimensions, and to predict where that object will be over the course of seconds or minutes is hard-wired. So what? Keep this scanning and locating expertise in mind when laying out store designs and planograms. Be sure, for example, that nothing obscures your customer’s view of the object(s) s/he is scanning for. Overly tall shelves that obscure the landscapes behind them, signage with dense text and no visuals, and canyon-like narrow aisles all detract from this hard-won ability and frustrate the Buying Brain.
    All primates, including humans, have well-developed vision using two eyes, called binocular vision. Visual signals pass from each eye along the million or so fibers of the optic nerve to the optic chiasm, where some nerve fibers cross over, so both sides of the brain receive signals from both eyes. Consequently, the left halves of both retinas project to the left visual cortex and the right halves P1: OTA/XYZ
    P2: ABC
    c05
    JWBT296-Pradeep
    June 7, 2010
    6:38
    Printer Name: Courier Westford, Westford, MA
    44
    The Buying Brain
    project to the right visual cortex. This means that things on the observer’s left go to the right hemisphere and things on the observer’s right go to the left hemisphere.
    Predator Me
    Look at yourself in the mirror. Gaze at your spouse eye-to-eye over your morning coffee, have a staring contest with your children. In each case, you’re looking into the eyes of a dangerous predator. Using eyes set directly on the fronts of their heads, the eyes of humans are perfectly positioned to find and track prey. Front-focusing eyes also provide much better depth perception, a crucial element for keeping up with another animal’s movements. Human eyes have discrete mechanisms that gather light, focus on novel images, pinpoint them in space, follow them as they attempt to evade.
    Prey (deer, squirrels), on the other hand, have eyes on the sides of their heads for excellent peripheral vision. Side-facing eyes gain advantages in field of view, but lose advantages in depth perception. This configuration is great at letting them know when something is sneaking up on them.
    Not so great in helping them anticipate and “catch” something ahead of them, but then again, that is not their goal.
    Mirror, Mirror
    As an extremely visual species, it should come as no surprise that a person’s appearance, fair or unfair, has an effect on those s/he encounters. For instance:
    Men prefer women whose pupils are dilated, as happens naturally during sexual arousal. Women during the Renaissance took small quantities of the deadly belladonna plant to make their pupils dilate. They also painted their skin white with arsenic to be more attractive to potential mates, giving a new meaning to making sacrifices in the name of beauty.
    Attractive criminals receive shorter sentences.
    Prettier babies are treated better than their peers are by care providers in nurseries.
    Given the same resumes, people who are more attractive get the job.
    Attractive children get higher grades overall, possibly because all of the positive feedback they’ve been given provides confidence.

    P1: OTA/XYZ
    P2: ABC
    c05
    JWBT296-Pradeep
    June 7, 2010
    6:38
    Printer Name: Courier Westford, Westford, MA
    The Five Senses and the Buying Brain
    45
    Vision in the Marketplace
    The visual elements of your message or environment will have the most impact on your consumers.
    r To avoid being lost in the clutter, emphasize clean, clear lines delivered at eye-level.
    r Use the “