Neuromarketing is a sales technique used by the world's largest organizations such as Yahoo, Pepsi, HP and PayPal. Neuromarketing is a sales technique that measures the neurophysiological signs of consumers by influencing their motivation, preferences and decisions.
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"Predicting the impact of an advertisement or a product, based on neurological predispositions and real-time brain activity, is the goal of "consumer neuroscience" or, in simpler terms, "neuromarketing".
Where does neuromarketing come from?
To understand how neuromarketing works, it is essential to know where this concept comes from.
In 1960, Paul MacLean, an American neuroscientist first presented the concept of the "triune brain" based on the division of the human brain into three distinct parts.
The ancestral or reptilian brain
This part of the brain would be used to manage basic behaviors such as eating, drinking and reproduction.
The limbic brain
According to MacLean, this part would give access to emotions and social skills. Together, the limbic brain and the ancestral brain form the primitive part of the brain, responding to the most basic needs.
The cortex
Finally, this part of the brain would allow abstract thinking. It would allow a more logical and advanced thinking of the brain.
This theory and understanding how information enters the consumer's brain helps marketers create basic brain-friendly messages through their content, advertising, website and even their interactions with consumers.
When rational and emotional thinking come together
Neuromarketing is a new concept in the field of marketing and it allows marketers to study consumer behavior in order to improve applied marketing methods, especially in the field of sales and advertising.
Neuromarketing uses effective methods to penetrate minds directly without requiring any participation from the consumer. Today, marketing professionals spend a lot of money in the field of advertising to understand the behavior of customers and to know the events that manifest themselves in their subconscious. Therefore, with the help of neuroscience, it becomes possible to innovate in the cognitive, sensory-motor and affective domains in terms of how a customer chooses a product or service using different marketing strategies.
The concept of neuromarketing implies that emotional thinking and rational thinking are one and the same. Therefore, we find several mechanisms related to neuroscience such as decision making, reasoning and memory before buying a product.
A controversial step forward
For too long, marketers and advertisers have relied on old-fashioned methods to build effective advertising campaigns. Millions of dollars are invested each year in developing products that will never see the light of day. Countless campaigns fail to capture the attention of consumers. Setting aside legitimate ethical concerns, there is no doubt that neuromarketing provides us with a powerful insight through which we can observe and understand the mind of a consumer.
The example of Yahoo
Yahoo used neuromarketing when launching a $100 million branding campaign. Part of its strategy included an ad showing happy people dancing around the world.
Before airing the ad, the company measured consumers' brain activity using an electroencephalogram (EEG).
Integrating neuromarketing into a growth strategy
By tracking consumers' reactions to various stimuli (usually visuals, and sounds), companies can know when the stimuli have aroused the consumer. Using an MRI system, companies can estimate the level of interest in a particular advertisement and even estimate which emotions are generated by the advertisement.
Here are some contexts in which neuromarketing can be used:
- Ad testing - increasingly, neuromarketing is being used by advertisers to test alternative ads.
- Cinema - tests can be used to evaluate the interest of actors, to choose between several movie endings or to select sequences to be included in the movie trailer.
- Brand testing - neuromarketing can help select brand names that resonate with consumers.
If you're looking to incorporate neuromarketing strategies into your business, start with your website redesign and social media presence. Before even contacting a vendor, a consumer will likely check online to see what products are available and how reliable the company is. It has been shown that visitors to your website will be more likely to buy or contact you via your site if it is modern and pleasing to the eye. Indeed, this generates trust in the eyes of consumers, who will be more inclined to interact with your website.
If you want to take your neuromarketing strategy a step further, try running contests or offering free products or discounts. By offering "call to actions", such as a prize for a contest, customers are more likely to interact with your business, but also to become loyal.
A powerful tool
In conclusion, it can be seen that the development of Neuromarketing as a research tool has captured the attention of not only the largest multinationals but also scientists. With the increase in the number of studies on neuromarketing, it is possible that more companies will join the efforts of neuromarketing to create better designed products and more effective advertising.
Therefore, a neuromarketing strategy can help understand many types of complex buying behaviors. For example, it is not fully understood what types of "triggers" lead individuals to use their intuition in some situations, but not in others. A better understanding of the brain's cognitive mechanisms through new technologies could explain many of the major questions marketers have been seeking answers to for decades.
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