How Humans Decide: Primed for preference

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, which draws on our database of 1.2 million purchase journeys, shows that 84% of purchases involve people picking brands they’re already biased towards. This leaves just 16% of sales open to influence through lower-funnel marketing, making long-term brand building more crucial than ever.  

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?  

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.