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60 Managing Customers Through Economic Cycles

decision and judge options quickly and efficiently.
Heuristics shorten decision-making time and allow con-
sumers to function without much cognitive processing
before buying (Figure 3.7). A majority of the consumers
choose the easiest cognitive processing path.

Also during a downturn, customers increase their propen-
sity toward fear-based buying. Therefore, the brand heuris-
tics should be optimized for this type of buying.

In addition, in times of tight money, money is on people’s
minds. As a result, there is a general language shift toward
monetary heuristics. These can either be in economic, finan-
cial, or accounting terms.

The desire code

In a broader sense, a business’s brand heuristics creates
a “desire code” consisting of simple, efficient rules con-
sumers use which are hard-wired by evolutionary proc-
esses or are learned from experience. At a brand level,
they explain how people make brand decisions, come to
judgments about other alternative products, and solve
problems. As the world is a complicated place, consumers
use brand heuristics when faced with a complex situation
or problem. They also use it when there is incomplete
information such as when to buy a particular product or
consider a service.

Heuristic rules work well in most circumstances but can
lead to systematic cognitive biases. These cognitive biases
are what brandings stand for. Therefore, it is important to
resist the temptation to lower prices in a downturn economy
because this telegraphs that the product or service is now
of a lesser quality.

In the 1899 book The Theory of the Leisure Class, eco-
nomic theorist Thorstein Veblen identified a propensity for