The Gestalt Effect

 

Gestalt Effect

Last week, designer Yana Makarevich, caused a stir by with her remarkable take on the World Wildlife Fund logo – transforming the familiar Panda into three other endagered species, using the exact same shapes.

The WWF logo (including Yana’s new interpretations) are an example of The Gestalt Effect – the ability for our brains to form a ‘whole’ even when only provided with the ‘parts’.

The Gestalt Effect doesn’t just apply to logos. Humans can’t stand experiencing incompleteness or things being unresolved, and so our brain is wired to ‘fill in the gaps’ and simplify to make sense of unresolved, complex situations – visual or otherwise.

What does this have to do with marketing?

There was a time when Brands had to interrupt, to shout out in a crowded room, in order to be noticed. In such a context, Brands have one shot to get their message across – so Brands must be loud, clear and obvious.

However, now that Brands are in relationship with followers over time, we can’t keep beating that same (sale?) drum over and over, nor should we resort to being Captain Obvious (the world already has enough ‘How to’ instructions).

[bctt tweet=”Instead of giving followers the answers, Brands can be the most interesting giver of questions”]

Instead of serving everything on a silver platter, we can facilitate what they’re wired to do, what they would go crazy to do… give them a platform to make sense of your world for themselves, bring resolution to tension, attempt to make complex things simple and solve baffling mysteries.

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