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mind is like a diamond—multifaceted, and so hard only itself or another like it can carve, cut, or change it.
Is it any wonder that swaying an audience toward something new is so challenging? Many of us, when shopping, love the adventure of what is new, but the inherent risk of unfamiliarity, or the burn of disliking something you did try, keeps us in our comfort zones.
Recently, I heard 210 Analytics President Anne-Marie Roerink evaluate innovations in fresh produce and ways to inspire consumers to partake in them. She mentioned cognitive distance and its potential to help shoppers make a detour from their typical habits so long as it doesn’t swing too wide from what they are familiar with.
Here is where the three “cogs” come into play: cognitive association, cognitive distance, and cognitive dissonance.
These were terms that rested dormant in the back of my mind—oh, the irony!—since studying them in college. Psychology glossaries and studies define cognitive association as a bond or connection between two images, thoughts, or ideas brought to mind, while cognitive distance is the space between those two connections, either temporally or spatially. Cognitive dissonance is what we all want to avoid: two conflicting or inconsistent thoughts which produce tension or discomfort, which the person is then motivated to reduce, often as easily and quickly as possible. You could even, more simply, call cognitive dissonance the inability to hold a paradox.
Minds, like diamonds, are more challenging than carving out a new roadway, and trying to do so could create those paradoxes that might be intolerable. Instead, using an existing route and familiar signage can become comforting guideposts leading consumers into unfamiliar territory. By labeling items “almond milk,” “cauliflower steak,” or, as Chandler James recently reported, “strawberry pepperoni,” we help reshape the diamond surface of the mind, opening an entirely new path to more fresh produce in the process.
Differentiation and uniqueness are highly valuable, but that value cannot reach its potential if the consumer doesn’t understand your offer enough to give it a try—a new SKU of jackfruit next to shredded pork and labeled the plant-forward alternative; a cut of cauliflower or Portobello mushroom under the menu’s steak section. While neither is a steak, which was previously defined exclusively as a cut of beef from the anatomy of a cow, it is closely associated enough to deliver what consumers need to know to give something a try, to understand how to use it, and to be open to even more after a positive experience.
Now, Merriam-Webster has expanded its definition of “steak” to include “a thick slice or piece of a non-meat food, especially when prepared or served in the manner of a beef steak.” By utilizing cognitive distance, we can navigate gaps between what we are trying to launch and what is familiar. And with cognitive association to bridge any gaps that may arise, we can avoid the third cog that makes trying anything new a challenge: dissonance.
Change can happen. Diamonds can be altered, and so can minds. 
