Why we like what we like
Research shows us that “new” is the most commonly-used word in marketing. We’re regularly pitched new cars. New experiences. A new razor with 49 blades.
If, like me, you’ve ever landed on a Wikipedia page and wondered how you got there, it can be hard to deny our natural curiosity towards new things.
But do we really want what’s new? One look at the box office rankings gives us reason for pause. From Top Gun to Black Panther to Jurassic World to Sonic the Hedgehog, every movie in the top 10 highest-grossing films of 2022 was a sequel or part of a franchise.
It can be hard to reconcile this desire for the new and the familiar. In the book Hit Makers: How to Succeed in an Age of Distraction, author Derek Thompson dives into the question.
Among other things, the book covers the career of French-born American industrial designer Raymond Loewy, who could certainly claim a keen understanding of the public consciousness — designing the Greyhound bus, the Air Force One livery, iconic cars and trains, logos for companies like Shell and TWA, and the Coca-Cola bottle.
Loewy was fascinated with this dichotomy, and fundamentally believed that people are “torn between a curiosity about new things and a fear of anything too new.”
He had a governing theory which he called MAYA, which stood for “Most Advanced Yet Acceptable.” He believed that there are limits to both newness and nostalgia, and designers should look to present the most advanced solution possible — while offering a reassuring amount of familiarity to help people along their journey.
This is how Spotify Discover Weekly playlists work, for example. While testing out the feature, Spotify realized that we really do want to hear what’s new. But in order to create a sense of familiarity and trust, we also want our playlists to have a few songs we’ve heard before. Without these signposts, things felt too intimidating. But with them, we are happy to dive into the unknown.
There’s a sweet spot here. Thompson refers to it as a “familiar surprise.” By acknowledging both our innate desire to experience new stuff, and a natural inclination towards what’s familiar, we can make more stuff that people love — without it being another tired remake.