Hey 👋 The Crew here.
Ah, Thursday. Or how we like to call it: the “you got this” of weekdays.
Not quite the finish line. But close enough to start fantasizing about sleeping in, binge-watching something dumb, or finally washing that coffee mug that’s become a science experiment.
But before that, some marketing psychology…
New to Psychology of Marketing? Join us for free 🤝
This smart tactic can grow your revenue by 13x in as little as 2 months
Here’s a key stat for you to know: 75% of shoppers don’t go past the first page of Amazon.
So, how can you get the #1 position?
We have one answer… Sending free products to micro-influencers using Stack Influence, a platform that uses AI to automate social media collabs at scale… We’re talking thousands of collabs per month.
This has helped top Amazon brands like Thrasio, Unilever, and Magic Spoon get to that elusive #1 page positioning and increase their monthly revenue as high as 13X in as little as 2 months.
Functional Fixedness
Imagine this: You’re trying to prop up your phone so you can watch a cool video.
There’s a pair of sunglasses on the table, but you don’t think to use them as a stand because they’re “for the face.”
Meanwhile, someone more flexible grabs them, flips them upside down, and bam—instant phone stand. And now you’re wondering, “why didn’t I think of that?”
Well, you maybe did. But a lot of people wouldn’t have.
Seeing a certain object as solving just one, conventional problem is super common. Experts call it Functional Fixedness.
In 1945, Karl Duncker introduced this bias in his thesis with the famous “Candle problem.”
He asked participants to attach a candle to a wall using a candle, matches, and a box of thumbtacks, without candle dripping wax on the table. Most failed.
Why? They saw the thumbtacks box as a container only. But the solution was simply to use the box to create a candle holder by tacking it to the wall. Most didn’t see it.
Now, most creative people work to overcome this bias. But it’s not easy.
And we marketers often need a little “nudge, too.” Because there are multiple ways to use this fixation in your marketing efforts…
Three ways to leverage functional fixedness
1) Exploit it
Ever picked up a product because it “looks like what it is supposed to?”
That’s because we often choose familiarity when we need to make quick decisions.
This is closely related to another cognitive bias—Paradox of Choice.
By “fixing” the visuals, shoppers don’t have to “figure out” what the product is. Instead, they can readily imagine how it fits in their life.
For example, a big part of Oatly’s success comes from their “milk-in-a-carton” design, which looks just like dairy milk. This makes our brain instantly place oat milk in the milk category.
Consumers recognize it instantly without thinking, which makes it easy for them to find a new purpose for oats in their day-to-day life.
2) Break it
The great thing about functional fixedness is that it can be loose.
In other words, you can challenge it by revealing unexpected uses for your product or service.
This can make the product feel more valuable, lead to an “a-ha” moment, and even tickle your shoppers’ imagination. And it can work in any industry.
A few years ago, Typeform—an online form builder—launched VideoAsk. It was an asynchronous video interaction tool that you could use to prompt users various questions.
To promote it, Typeform broke expectations by using it to create an interactive film.
This helped reframe the product from a form tool to a dynamic platform for storytelling, recruitment, and audience engagement.
What? Surveys can be motion pictures? You can just feel the fixedness losing its grip…
3) Rebrand it
This is the hardest part, because you’re essentially declaring war against cognitive bias.
But if you win that battle, you’re positioning yourself as a pioneer. You’re flipping the script and causing a paradigm shift in the industry.
You probably know that Netflix started out as a DVD rental-by-mail. But then, it broke Functional Fixedness by transforming from a DVD rental company into a streaming platform.
The pivot challenged consumer assumptions about how movies and shows should be delivered, watched, or produced.
But it also broke the wheel. It established itself as the new “fixed” name for a new industry.
There’s no Apple TV and chill, right?
AI EDUCATION: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Midjourney… So many names, but what’s actually useful for you in your work? There’s a newsletter called The Deep View that exists to sift through all the noise and get you up to speed on what’s actionable with AI products, and it’s free. Join 452,000+ subscribers with one click and let AI empower you.*
AI TACTICS: Struggling to find a practical use for AI in your marketing work? No worries. Every Saturday, we will send you a free newsletter to sharpen your marketing skills and get more wins for yourself and your clients, including the latest AI use cases with actual examples and prompts you can just swipe. Subscribe for free.*
CONTENT MARKETING: Did you know your customer support team is a secret marketing weapon? Having a good “defensive front line” can boost your retention, increase word-to-mouth, and allow you to uncover pain points you can use for campaigns. That’s what this report shows.
AI MARKETING: Phew. OpenAI has officially blocked Google from indexing shared ChatGPT conversations by adding a “noindex” tag. If you were using public chats as a quirky content source, you’ll need a new plan, as they are no longer discoverable. Thankfully.
TIKTOK: Still think your audience is just watching videos? New data reveals the platform is a major shopping destination, with nearly half of all users expected to make a purchase this year. Better start thinking about how to turn TikTok into an acquisition channel. If you didn’t already…
PINTEREST: Bros need boards, too. Pinterest is seeing a surge in Gen Z male users, who now make up over a third of its active user base. And no, they’re not just browsing cars and video games, but are genuinely leaning into topics like skincare, Pilates, and parenting. Wholesome!
*This is a sponsored post.
ICYMI, last time we looked at Haptic Marketing.
The “Fixed” Crew
Interested in advertising in one of our newsletters?
Connect with over 100,000 of the world’s best marketers who read a newsletter by Stacked Marketer.
