Primed for preference: why some brands win before the buyer journey begins

Do you ever order a Coke without checking the drinks menu? Head straight to the Dove section of the store? Start a new car search by browsing Ford’s models first? You’re not alone.

A common marketing belief is that highly effective ads instantly convert viewers into buyers. But in reality, most customers have already made up their minds about certain brands, long before they're even actively looking to buy. 

WPP Media’s How Humans Decide study shows that 84% of purchases involve people picking brands they’re already biased towards. In other words, brand preferences and purchase decisions are created much earlier than we might expect. 

These findings run counter to the pay-for-performance mindset many modern marketers follow. And as a result, they raise some crucial questions: why do some products become the preferred choice for consumers? Which stages of the funnel should marketers reallocate budget to? And, most importantly, how can brands better prime their customers to achieve this unconscious preference?  

The purchase journey features two parts; one brands can see, and one they often overlook. 

• The priming stage: Daily life, in which people are not actively considering a purchase but are exposed to numerous experiences of a brand and category. These experiences shape their perceptions of, and feelings towards, the brand: ‘priming’ them to behave a certain way once they start shopping. 

• The active stage: Once someone is triggered by a need or want, they enter a period where they are actively considering, and moving towards, a purchase. This stage can last anywhere between seconds and months, depending on the category of product.  

Brand priming means that most consumers already know which brand they will buy because of their accumulated brand experiences. Over time, these experiences have created a measurable bias that leads them to favour one brand over another. Think of it as invisible brand gravity, where people feel pulled towards certain brands.  

Effective priming is the key to driving purchase decisions. In fact, WPP Media’s How Humans Decide research finds that in each product category, customers:  

1. Typically know which brands they’re going to consider in advance 

2. Select from fewer than three brands 

3. End up choosing the one they’re strongly biased towards 

But do some types of products and services tend to earn more affinity than others?

WPP Media’s study reveals more than eight in ten purchases involve people choosing brands they’re already biased towards. Categories with some of the strongest rates of priming bias include:  

• Home entertainment (93% of purchases are based on predetermined bias) 

• Soft drinks (88%) 

• Fast Food restaurants (85%) 

But whether for infrequent, high-value purchases like cars, or regular everyday shopping like toothpaste, the proportion of primed shoppers never falls below 70% in any category.  

Put simply, constant exposure builds strong mental shortcuts. Memory, not recency, drives almost all purchase decisions.

The importance of being in that ‘top three’ list of brands that each consumer considers cannot be overstated. After all, it’s very rare for a brand to enter this consideration set once a customer starts browsing or shopping. Customers are 10x more likely to consider a brand for which they have a strong bias than one they’ve no bias towards (and are 14x as likely to then buy it). 

Our research also highlights that the well-known 60:40 investment rule (where 60% of media budget is allocated to longer-term brand building efforts, and 40% on short-term activation) may in fact underestimate the importance of building gradual influence while people appear ‘out of market’. Brands should recognise the hugely influential role of the brand in decision-making and subsequently budget for brand-building communication accordingly, to ensure the most effective allocations.  

As psychologist Barry Schwartz noted, the more options you give people, the harder they find it to make a choice. The brands that win aren’t those that shout the loudest on the shelf, they’re the ones that quietly shape expectations long before it. 

Everything we do at WPP Media is driven by the growth ambition of our clients. With the insights from this research, we are uniting strategy, media, data and technology to help deliver intelligent growth and success for the brands we work with. 

To learn more about How Humans Decide, download the whitepaper here ↗