The Power of Instinct: The New Rules of Persuasion in Business and Life  
Leslie Zane
Public Affairs (June 2024)

How and why 95% of decisions are made by the unconscious mind

The mind is what the brain does. According to Leslie Zane,  “We cannot convince anyone of anything, no matter how hard we try. People’s choices are not based on conscious thought. They don’t make decisions because of facts or even perceived need. They don’t buy products or services on loyalty or emotion. The vast majority of decisions come from the center of instinctive choice that resides in the unconscious mind, from our preferred brand of bottled water to the presidential candidate we vote for.”

She goes on to explain, “To simplify the complexity of human decision-making, I refer to the brain’s two distinct mechanisms as the conscious and unconscious mind. While of course there is only one brain that operates holistically, it’s the unconscious mind that exerts the most influence on our everyday decisions.”

One of this book’s primary objectives is to prepare those who read it to gain what Zane characterizes as “the Instinctive Advantage™ over competition” by “targeting the area of the mind that’s responsible for decision-making.” She provides the definitive understanding of and the rules for the hidden forces that shape our world. I agree with her that “a scientific way to use the power of instinct has profound implications for anyone who wants to scale businesses or movements faster, using fewer resources while making a greater impact.”

Zane has formulated ten “Instinct Rules” that serve as chapter head notes and she devotes a separate chapter to explaining each:

1. Traditional persuasion is an uphill battle, which is why younneed to tak the backdoor route.
2. You do’t control your choices, Your Brand Connectdom does.
3. You can’t force people to buy your brand, but you can change their instinctive behavior.
4. Market conditions aren’t holding your brands back; negative associations are.
5. Familiarity is more powerful than uniqueness, but distinctiveness is strongest of all.
6. A single brand message stifles growth; multiple messages fuel it.
7. People say they want reality but they instinctively choose fantasy every tine.
8. Relying on existing customers is a trap. You get more growth out of people who don’t buy your brand.
9. Break free from the funnel, and build your brand overnight.
10. There is no such thing as finite brand life cycle. If you care for your brand properly, it can live forever.

These are among the passages that were of greatest interest and value to me in Chapters 1-7, also listed to indicate the nature and scope of Zane’s coverage:

o Behavioral Science Comes of Age (Pages 5-9)
o The Conscious Marketing Model Is Dead (13-17)
o The Fallacy of Persuasion (17-20)
o The Path of Greatest Resistance (20-24)
o The Brand Connecthome (30-41)

o Brain Branching (47-52)
o The Shortcut to Instinctive Choice (53-57)
o Growth Triggers, and, How to Find Growsh Triggers (57-62 and 62-66)
o Overwhelm the  Negatives with Positives (85-89)
o Brand Preference Is Actually a Bias 89-94)

o Leverage Familiar Concepts and Images (98-104)
o The Power of Instinctiveness (104-117)
o Multiple Touchpoints Lead to Relevance (130-133)
o Applying Multiple Messages (133-138)
o Your Brain on Fantasy (143-149)
o The Madoff Effect and the Negative Use of Fantasy (157-160)

These are among Leslie Zane’s concluding thoughts: “By supercharging your content with Growth Triggers, you can convert people faster and create customers for life. While the rest of the world is attacking the conscious mind, trying to cajole, bombard, and argue, hoping to influence the mere 5 percent of the conscious mind, you can step back and focus on the 95 percent of decisions that come from the unconscious mind.”

That’s where you’ll achieve self-sustaining growth for your organization, yes, but also for yourself.

What are you waiting for?

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Here are two additional suggestions while you are reading The Power of Instinct: First, highlight key passages Also,  perhaps in a lined notebook kept near-at- hand, record your comments, questions, action steps (preferably with deadlines), page references, and lessons you have learned as well as your responses to head notes and key points posed within the narrative. Also record your responses to specific or major issues or questions addressed, especially the comments at  the conclusion of chapters.

These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent reviews of key material later.