Days and months have ticked past, since the last time I smelt for scope for understanding human behaviour at the loo…guess its time to take another leak….ermm I mean a “look” at the story – let’s cut the chase, and get to the topic!

Retailing as a business has been on the advent in India, with majors like Pantaloons, Marks & Spencers, Big Bazaar, taking up those huge mall-spaces to build what we call “Brand-share” and “Mind-share”.

We go down that swanky, spic-and-span oblivion of items we never knew existed, or were of even use to us – shampoos in myriad sizes, chocolates in heaps that`ll make every kid crave to be a store-boy, the best of the cereals and much more. Do we actually take a minute to think why we ever feel at ease at these stores? Why the new entries are placed in the immediate left of the counter? Why the doors are meant to open into the right?

Its been proved by some mad guy by me that, in a new environment (we aren’t talking of totally barren lands here) the human mind tends to notice the object placed/present in the immediate left of the entrance. A logical fallout is the reason why doors were planned to open into the right – to accentuate the process of looking to the left.

Do you ever realize that when you push the door open towards the right, you tend to look towards the other direction (the left) a bit more than on the right? The next time you visit that super-mall, remember to notice it!

The case of the Subconscious-Preference Map: Let’s get out of the super marts for a while and move into something from Part 1 – the red pack of Colgate.

Colors I believe have an integral part to play, in addition to a lot of other considerations, when it comes to creating that subconscious perceptual map – let’s say you never had jam after you were a kid, and we sent you in a super-mart full of them…would you go for the yellow mango ones, or the rainbow colored apple jam? Or what about navy blue colored Pineapple jam? No? You might be partially color blind for all reasons, but the truth is that you would buy a pink colored Mango jam! Did this color matter when you came into the store, that it should, now that you have to choose between the 2 bottles? Funny eh?

My explanation is simple – you might not have a preference mapping for certain things, but you mind subconsciously develops a preference pattern for things you have eaten, used, experienced, etc. since ages! You can feed an alien, blue mangoes, just because he never saw a normal one; his mind has absolutely no preference mapping for (a) its color (b) its taste (c) its shape.

That is the very reason why you would see Colgate launch Gel in blue, but never change the generic white paste branding to any color other than red! Coke would lose its essence if it were pink; Pepsi would go from fizz to fizzle without its blues! A classic case from the Indian scenario is when Pepsi launched a special blue colored edition to relate with our “Men in blue” – the blue colored cola bombed big time in the market. Well, it tasted just the same, but then every time you had a bottle, your mind said, “Hey wait, something seems wrong – I don’t feel at home with this bottle”

Back To Square One: Jerry Seinfeld puts it really well when he says that the best part of being “back to square one” is that we know exactly where we are – there is this sense of security about the term. Imagine someone saying “There! We’re back to Oval 29” – Well I think our “subconscious preference maps” are very much rooted here.

Familiarity is what, for me, forms the cornerstone, the keynote, and the bottom-line of why we tend to be finicky about certain things which we didn’t even thing would matter. Animals feel secured in their natural habitat – they fall ill in a zoo. Our human minds too feel at ease only when the so-called “natural habitat” is prevalent – I mean, there is this sense of security when things are just how they are expected to be. Looking for CDs, search the drawers near the computer; want some sugar? Check the shelf where the coffee is kept.

I tend to do that, since that’s where those things are kept in my house – so my mind guides me subconsciously to look for those things at those places at the neighbours’ (well, finding it there is a different story!).

The Benders: A question that comes to my mind, is whether this was such an impressionable thing to factor in that brands would never be able to change. What if Coke wants to change skins and turn green one day? Well then, Santa wore reds the first time Coke blended Christmas with the joy of celebrating with the cola. Will the kids be ok with a green or a pink Santa? Will habituated ‘Orange’ users feel odd with their Pink-ed new look?

Also, are there any products, brands, or facets of life where we never have a preference map? Imagine being given a choice in hell between boiling in oil, being poked with hot spikes or being bitten by vipers – it never crossed my mind, but I guess I`ll opt out of the oil since I still remember that Diwali celebration where some hot oiled poured on my hands. Did I really need to have a preference map for that? I don’t think so, but can we really stop our minds from creating one?

The Bottomline: Well now, is there supposed to be a bottomline and an end-note? Or are we just once again getting into the rut of expecting one, since every other article similar to this that we read, had one? Think…