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Metaphorical Shortcut

New or complex ideas are easier understood through existing ones

If you’re launching something new that’s very different to what’s already out there, a story told through existing knowledge will help bridge the gap.

Chang & Yen (2013). Missing ingredients in metaphor advertising. Journal of Advertising

The study

Setup

408 people were shown one of three versions of a shampoo advert. The control just had the words “Say bye-bye to your dandruff” with an image of a couple. The two metaphor versions both had “You may erase anything unwanted” with either an eraser (implicit) or the bottle of shampoo (explicit) rubbing out words on a blackboard.

What’s a Rich Text element?

The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.

Static and dynamic content editing

A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!

How to customize formatting for each rich text

Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.

Results

Results showed greater purchase intentions for the product with either metaphorical ad.

Chang & Yen (2013). Missing ingredients in metaphor advertising. Journal of Advertising

Key Takeaways

Leverage our existing understanding of the world for new ideas or concepts. Complicated ideas are best understood through existing ones. What analogies can you draw that your customers can relate to?

Easy metaphors aren’t always best. Research has found that metaphors with a little complexity are fun and act as a mild problem to solve. Use with Curiosity and Humor.

Reserve this for known brands or products; for new or abstract technology, keep metaphor complexity low.

Metaphors come in different flavors:

Juxtapositions: two images next to one another;

‍Fusions: mixing two concepts into a single one; or

‍Replacements: switching one thing for another.

Just make sure that you harness real world understanding to help ground your new idea.

Metaphorical Shortcut

New or complex ideas are easier understood through existing ones

If you’re launching something new that’s very different to what’s already out there, a story told through existing knowledge will help bridge the gap.

Chang & Yen (2013). Missing ingredients in metaphor advertising. Journal of Advertising

The study

Setup

Results

Results showed greater purchase intentions for the product with either metaphorical ad.

Key Takeaways

Easy metaphors aren’t always best. Research has found that metaphors with a little complexity are fun and act as a mild problem to solve. Use with Curiosity and Humor.

Reserve this for known brands or products; for new or abstract technology, keep metaphor complexity low.

Metaphors come in different flavors:

Juxtapositions: two images next to one another;

‍Fusions: mixing two concepts into a single one; or

‍Replacements: switching one thing for another.

Just make sure that you harness real world understanding to help ground your new idea.

Metaphorical Shortcut

New or complex ideas are easier understood through existing ones

If you’re launching something new that’s very different to what’s already out there, a story told through existing knowledge will help bridge the gap.

The study

Setup

Results

Results showed greater purchase intentions for the product with either metaphorical ad.

In detail

Pairings

Learning

Make unfamiliar concepts easy to understand and connect to

New technologies often come with many benefits, but can be confusing. Metaphors provide a great way to overcome confusion...

Risk Aversion

Metaphorical Shortcut

Related "Wilds"

Product Development

Your introduction to Nuggets In The Wild

A new part of Coglode where you can read stories about how combinations of behavioural insights are used to make new and better experiences in the real world.

Metaphorical Shortcut

Setup

What’s a Rich Text element?

Static and dynamic content editing

How to customize formatting for each rich text

Results

Metaphorical Shortcut

Setup

Results

Metaphorical Shortcut

Setup

Results

Pairings

Make unfamiliar concepts easy to understand and connect to

Related "Wilds"

Your introduction to Nuggets In The Wild

Connected to

Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1981). The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. Science, 211, 453–458.

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Box One

We make very different decisions based on how a fact is presented

The same core information can be dramatically reframed through words, numbers and imagery to greatly influence decision-making.

Paivio & Csapo (1973). Picture superiority in free recall: Imagery or dual coding? Cognitive Psychology, 5(2), 176-206.

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Box One

We remember images far better than words

We’re visual creatures, optimized to process imagery much faster than words. We have a better recall of things learned with a visual aid than just with text.

Novemsky et al. (2003). Preference fluency and its effects on no-choice, compromise and attraction effects. Association for Consumer Research.

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Box One

Statements that are easier to understand are more believable

Easy-to-repeat messages, such as the 2016 “Build a wall” political slogan feel more familiar and are likely to be spread by others.

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