Our brains are incredibly sophisticated, but they’re also lazy. Evolutionarily speaking, this is a good thing: For the brain, “lazy” means efficient and economical use of its limited energy.
Why does this matter for marketers and business owners? “People don’t want to think,” says Rembrant Van der Mijnsbrugge, CEO and lead software engineer at Shopify Partner Mote. “If you can do the thinking for them, you’re making your customer’s life easier.”
This phenomenon is known as cognitive ease, and understanding it can help improve customer experience. Here’s how.
What is cognitive ease?
Cognitive ease (aka cognitive fluency) is the mental effort, or lack thereof, that a person spends while processing information presented to them. The ease with which they are able to understand that information has the power to define how they perceive a situation and influence any subsequent actions they may take. Over time, cognitive ease can develop into cognitive biases, where a person is less likely to challenge their existing beliefs.
This isn’t necessarily bad: You don’t need to challenge your assumption about which way to turn a doorknob, for instance. Good design can result in cognitive ease by reducing the need for mental action and providing that pleasant feeling associated with intuitive processes. Why spend more effort on a task than you need to?
Psychologist and Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman, author of the 2011 book Thinking, Fast and Slow, popularized the term. Kahneman’s research introduced a wider audience to the concept of cognitive ease by illustrating its role in everyday life, from reading traffic signs to solving math problems. According to Kahneman, the human brain relies on two systems for decision-making: instinct-driven System 1 and reasoning-based System 2. Decisions you can make via System 1 feel easier and don’t require the effort of a System 2 decision.
6 tips for fostering customers’ cognitive ease
- Use simple language
- Curate your offerings
- Balance design with simplicity
- Invest in educational content
- Create a good mood
- Be consistent
When customers have expectations about a process and their expectations are met, this creates a level of comfort and confidence that makes decision-making easier. This lowering of cognitive effortcan be as simple as expecting a cart icon to be at the uppermost right of your site’s homepage, or as complex as building familiarity with a brand through their social media and finding a cohesive brand identity on its website, or vice versa.
Here are a few techniques for encouraging cognitive ease and increasing sales:
1. Use simple language
The easier it is for a customer to understand your messaging, the more likely they are to remember it, creating the familiarity and repetition that is key to cognitive ease. Use short sentences in plain language wherever possible in your marketing communication; research has shown that when a sentence is between eight and 14 words long, readers can understand 90% to 100% of it. Anything longer than that and comprehension drops to somewhere around 10%.
2. Curate your offerings
For consumers, too many choices can often lead to paralysis, rather than faster or more informed decisions. Just like you’ve probably gotten stuck scrolling through infinite options on a streaming platform, customers can get lost in an overwhelming product portfolio or succumb to decision fatigue before making it to checkout.
The solution to this, Rembrant says, is curation. “As designers and store owners, we have a lot of power in our choice architecture,” he says, referencing Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein’s 2008 book, Nudge. In Nudge, choice architecture is the idea that the way options are arranged can influence the decision-making process. For example, grocery stores will often place more expensive items at eye level.
The digital equivalent to this is how you design your online store: “Which section goes where? What’s the content? What’s the image? What’s the text? It all comes down to understanding your customer and trying to make good choices for them,” Rembrant says.
A fashion store owner, for example, might take advantage of a customer’s interest in a certain t-shirt by recommending complementary products, like a pair of pants or a jacket, on the same page. Rembrant suggests using recommendations to build consumer trust in your brand’s curation abilities. “It has the added benefit of likely increasing your average order value,” he says.
3. Balance design with simplicity
You might be tempted to build an eye-catching, design-forward website to stand out from competitors. But it’s important not to sacrifice usability for design.
“When you’re designing a website, the most important thing is to establish a solid baseline,” Rembrant says. “That means a simple website that focuses on performance and cognitive ease while making sure that we establish some branding.”
If you’re not sure where to begin in the Shopify Theme store, the Mote team swears by the minimalist Dawn theme.
4. Invest in educational content
One of the most influential factors on cognitive ease is priming, and it has to do with helping a customer into the right mindset before they buy. Some brands rely on priming language, like using words related to actions you want someone to take (think: using words related to speed or movement alongside running shoes, or sleepy, calming words alongside bedding collections) while others prime potential customers on a conceptual level.
The best example of this conceptual priming is educational content, like a skin care brand that posts how-to videos and product explainers on social media, empowering viewers with information, and then presenting their product as the most logical step or solution (e.g., “What you wear on your skin is important, so wear us!”). If a customer has already engaged with your educational content, their thought process at the point of purchase is likely to be shorter.
5. Create a good mood
There’s increasing evidence that a positive mood makes you more likely to experience cognitive ease, mostly by lowering neurological defenses and leaving you more receptive to System 1 thinking. So, while a clever, feel-good ad or campaign may not mean automatic brand buy-in, it can nudge an individual’s decision-making process or general impression in your favor.
Legacy English clothing brand Sunspel accomplishes this by including a postcard in every package. “The postcard doesn’t tell you, ‘Post to Instagram. Here’s a discount code for your next order.’ It’s a picture of nature,” Rembrant says. “It puts me in a good mood. This is behavioral priming: I’m trying on my clothes in a good mood, and I’m usually much more likely to keep them.”
6. Be consistent
Above all, seek consistency and cohesion in your brand experience. Weaving your brand presence together across different platforms or channels through visual aesthetics, brand voice, and imagery is known as cross-channel harmonization.
“Cross-channel harmonization is a really great way to keep cognitive ease in mind,” Rembrant says. If your brand looks wildly different on different platforms, it can be discombobulating for the customer.
An example of cognitive ease in marketing
Cognitive ease drives many of the elements of olive oil brand Graza’s splashy, vibrant online store. Simple, punchy verbs provide the first call to action in the header, priming the viewer for an energetic, upbeat kitchen and an immediate understanding of what Graza is offering: “Single-origin EVOO that’s made to be used.”
Immediately below, Graza employs curation—a starter kit to introduce new customers to the product line, and a serving dish set that exemplifies one way you might put their squeezable oil into action.
As a site visitor, you could stop there, but if you’re inclined to keep scrolling, Graza then uses three evenly spaced, straightforward sentences to distill a complex subject: the production and distribution of olive oil in the US.
By the end of the homepage, potential customers are left with an understanding of why they might need to refresh their pantry, how Graza would help them do so, and what they might do with the olive oil product as soon as it’s delivered. The color schemes, bold fonts, and high-contrast imagery all contribute to a sense of excitement and urgency.
Cognitive ease FAQ
What is cognitive ease in marketing?
In marketing, cognitive ease is used as a guiding principle to increase impressions, engagement, and sales. This means choosing simple wording over more complex phrasing; crafting clear, mood-boosting campaigns; and relying on behavioral priming to make the decision to purchase as instinctive as possible.
What is an example of cognitive ease?
An example of cognitive ease is your ability to read a web article from start to finish with minimal effort. The visual formatting can be the biggest contributor: the use of bold headings, body copy, and key points broken out into numbered lists and bullet points allows your brain to approach and organize the information into a logical, familiar hierarchy—without relying on convoluted thought processes.
What is the opposite of cognitive ease?
Cognitive strain is the opposite of cognitive ease. Any time someone has to spend a lot of brain power understanding what’s in front of them, be it a tricky math problem or a convoluted checkout process, this increased cognitive effort is considered the opposite of cognitive ease.
