A field called NeuroMarketing – a combination of neuroscience, marketing and technology – has emerged and is gaining traction in many industries and businesses. The latest research on this particular marketing trend can help you turn prospects into paying customers, and build lifelong loyalty with your most raving customers.
Neuromarketing: The Key to Unlocking Your Customer's Brain!
In traditional marketing, we are told that… “follow the proven formula of engaging headlines, benefits, and guarantees, and then a call to action, and your sales will skyrocket.” Indeed, even top marketers can attest that successful campaigns rely on those elements to some extent. But not all campaigns are created equal.
And until now…
Neuroscience and behavioral science – such as NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) – all confirm that:
“Our subconscious mind – not our conscious mind – drives how we respond to ads, brands, products, and ultimately all of our purchasing decisions. Customers don’t really know why they buy what they buy, which is why traditional marketing research often doesn’t work.”
The structure of the brain itself will be the clearest answer to this question that many marketers are interested in.
The brain and purchasing decisions
According to neuroscientists, the brain has three main components, each with a separate function. These “baby brains” – hidden inside the big brain – include:
The “Human” (“New”, or Outermost) Brain: The most evolved part of the brain is known as the cerebral cortex. Responsible for logical thought, consciousness, language, learning, and human personality.
The “Animal” Brain (Middle): Known as the human response system. Responsible for emotions, moods, memory, and hormones.
The “Reptilian” (Old) Brain: Known as the natural control over basic human survival functions such as hunger, breathing, reflexes, or the instinct to avoid danger.
While Neuromarketing is still a very new field with many unanswered questions, one thing is pretty clear and well-documented: The “Reptilian” Brain (aka the “Old” Brain) drives consumer purchasing decisions.
According to author Erik du Plessis in his book The Advertised Mind, the “Reptilian” brain governs all rapid decision-making. And Clotaire Rapaille – president and marketing researcher of Archetype Discoveries Worldwide affirmed in a television interview: “The reptilian always wins. I don’t care what you intellectually tell me. Why? Because the reptilian always wins.” To increase sales, loyalty and brand, you must understand the “reptilian hot spots” of customers. A “cortical” message such as “Buy my product because it’s cheaper than 20%” will not buy consumer loyalty. The company that evokes the first “reptilian” reactions will win. That is why Coke continues to lead the soft drink market after many years.
The Reptilian Brain and Profits: 7 Unignorable Factors About How and Why Consumers Buy
Our “old” brain often overrides logical thinking and guides all purchasing decisions for reasons beyond rational awareness. To influence consumer purchasing decisions, businesses must understand how the “reptilian” brain operates and speak its language. And there are 7 important issues about this brain that need to be thoroughly addressed to help add business value to the enterprise.
1. The “reptilian” brain is driven by emotions
Our “reptilian” brain operates on autopilot, like a stimulus-response machine. Emotions arise naturally in response to sensory stimuli. The smell of the store, the sounds around us, the landscape of the area… all trigger unconscious emotional responses.
Emotions play a big role in our purchasing decisions. Business experts remind us that in today's economy of excess, consumer sentiment will drive purchasing decisions and profit numbers.
The new imperative for businesses is to reach out and engage the emotions of consumers.
Welcome to the “Emotional Economy”.
Lesson learned: The more emotions you stir up around your product or service, the more likely you are to win customers' hearts and influence their buying behavior.
2. The “reptilian” brain determines the fundamental balance between gains and losses.
The two basic factors that drive all human behavior and decisions are the search for pleasure and the avoidance of pain or loss. According to Kevin Hogan, author of The Science of Influence, most people respond to the fear of loss and the threat of pain in a more specific way than they do to the acquisition of something.
Consumers are more focused on avoiding pain or loss than on feeling good about a decision. The 2.5:1 difference between avoiding loss and feeling good shows the importance of loss in the consumer brain. How to win and strike a balance on the pain, loss & gain gap?
Lesson learned: Renowned marketing expert Seth Godin explains through his Joy/Cash Curve that high-value purchases often create more purchase pain/loss.
Seth Godin’s solution is for businesses to add more benefits, joy, and satisfaction to the shopping process. According to Godin, when businesses create joy in shopping, they actually reset the customer’s “value metric.” Looking for ways to add joy to your shopping process?
3. The “reptilian” brain is heavily influenced by beginnings and endings.
Studies have shown that the beginning and end of an event or experience change our perception of the entire experience. Our initial impressions serve as filters for how we perceive what to do next. Recent experiences carry greater weight in our final impressions.
Lesson learned: In marketing, for a business's message to be accepted, it is important to create a strong first impression – it could be a compelling story, a friendly smile, etc.
Likewise, whether a customer has a pleasant or unpleasant experience with a product or business, the most recent experience will have a greater influence on future purchasing decisions than all previous experiences combined.
What impressions can businesses leave on customers in the first few minutes of meeting or in the first few sentences? How does the most recent customer contact boost or destroy a customer's repeat purchase?
4. The “reptilian” brain is visually oriented and responds quickly to images.
From the moment we are born, we can see images and associate their meaning. In communication, we are taught that the 65% of the way our messages are received is through our natural physiological factors (or through the visual organ.
Many studies have also shown that someone’s first impression of us is based largely on our physical appearance. In each case, it is our “reptilian” brain that responds quickly to the visual system, not the auditory system. Language is the domain of the cerebral cortex (the “human” brain) and comes second in the purchasing decision process.
Lesson learned: Push and deliver your key marketing messages visually, such as product designs, advertising imagery, packaging, etc. Where can you push the visual aspect of your brand and emotional connections with customers?
5. The “reptilian” brain perceives “shopping pain” in relational terms, not in exact terms.
Neuroscience tells us that “pain” in the “reptilian” brain is activated primarily by price, not in clear-cut terms but in relative terms, such as fairness & injustice, or alternative uses of money.
So how businesses interpret or frame prices can drive customers away. How can businesses minimize the activation of price-related pain points in customers' brains?
Lessons Learned: From various articles and comments by experts on the site http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/, key strategies include:
Stay away from the price factor as much as possible (which triggers pain in the “reptilian” brain).
Use “bundle” pricing versus individual component pricing (because individual component pricing is more painful in the “reptilian” brain).
A series of small, incremental “bite-size” investments instead of one large Netflix-style investment.
6. The “reptilian” brain only understands what is tangible, physical and concrete.
According to Patrick Renvoise, the “reptilian” brain constantly registers what is familiar and tangible. It does not understand numbers or abstract terms such as “holistic solutions” or “integrated approaches.”
Lesson learned: To speak to the “reptilian” brain, businesses must use tangible benefits, which are what a customer will see, hear, feel, smell, and touch.
For example, a promise of “greater happiness” is a gibberish to the reptilian brain. Instead, tell customers how they’ll wake up every morning with a smile on their face. Or use metaphors (like your service as a “Cadillac” offering) to make the benefits more tangible.
7. The reptilian brain's control over purchasing decisions varies by culture.
According to market researcher Clotaire Rapaille, some cultures are very “reptilian,” such as American culture. Americans want instant payoff and instant gratification.
Meanwhile, many other cultures, such as France or Germany, are more “cortical” and control-oriented. Their tendency is to think about what they are doing.
Lesson learned: Businesses need to adapt their marketing communications to each culture and the part of their brain that guides purchasing decisions. Use emotional appeals with Americans and logical reasoning with European cultures.
While Neuromarketing is still in its infancy, it has the potential to revolutionize the way we market our products and services. The key is to use it for the right reasons. And from there, Neuromarketing is seen as a way to better understand your customers and ultimately serve them better. When used correctly, it can have a huge impact on your business’s revenue and profits.
Source: Administration
