What is neuromarketing?
Neuromarketing examines the intersection of consumer behavior and neuroscience to determine how consumers may respond to an ad, brand or campaign.
Neuromarketing is a commercial marketing communication field that applies neuropsychology to marketing research, studying consumers’ sensorimotor, cognitive, and effective response to marketing stimuli.
Neuromarketing can help weed out ineffective ads, but marketers should ask themselves if the product or service they’re advertising is good for consumers.
The purpose of neuromarketing is to figure out whether customers might pay attention to an ad. If consumers pay attention, will all your efforts to catch their attention hit the point? Will you affect them emotionally?
Neuromarketing seeks to understand the rationale behind how consumers make purchasing decisions and their responses to marketing stimuli in order to apply those learning in the marketing realm.
What are the benefits of neuromarketing?
Using neuromarketing, you can rethink your strategies and create smarter marketing that will boost the effectiveness of your efforts. The goal of it is to understand how your customer’s brain works and what affects your marketing will have on the population of consumers.
The potential benefits to marketers include more efficient and effective marketing campaigns and strategies, fewer product and campaign failures, and ultimately align the real needs and wants of the consumers with marketing strategies.
General principles and ethical guidelines surrounding best practices for researchers to adhere to such as:
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- Don‘t bring any kind of prejudice in research methods, results, and participants
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- Do not take advantage of participants lack of awareness in the field
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- Communicate what participants should expect during research (methodologies)
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- Be honest with results
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- Participant data should remain confidential
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- Reveal data collection techniques to participants
- Do not coerce participants to join a research and allow them to leave when they want
Neuromarketing provides insights into the implicit decisions of a consumer, but it is still important to know the explicit decisions and attractions of consumers.
Neuromarketing isn’t a replacement of traditional marketing methods but, rather, a field to be used alongside traditional methods to gain a clearer picture of a consumer’s profile.
How Does it Work?
There are two basic methods of tracking prospects’ brain activity each with their own pros and cons: functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI), and electroencephalography (EEG).
Using FMRI involves using a powerful magnet to track the brain’s blood flow as subjects respond to audio and visual cues. This allows examiners to access a deep part of the brain known as the “pleasure center” and lets marketers know how people are really responding to their work.
Electroencephalography EEG measures electrical waves produced by the brain and allow researchers to track instinctual emotions such as anger, excitement, sorrow, and lust through fluctuations of activity.
How can I use it today?
Basically, there are five common ways how you can use neuromarketing.
1. Use simple fonts to encourage action
Marketers conducted experiments regarding fonts, length, and even weight of documents.
For years, we hear the same advice “keep it simple”. Hyunjin Song and Norbert Schwarz held a series of experiments at the University of Michigan and the results show that simple vs. complex fonts truly can affect consumers.
“If you need to convince a customer, client, or donor to perform some kind of task, you should describe that task in a simple, easy-to-read font,” Roger Dooley tells us in his chapter “Brainfluence in Print.”
This goes without saying for all website related content, including forms. Instructions for the form fill should be in an easy to read font and simplified as much as possible. The harder something is to do, the more friction it creates, and the less likely people will be to take an action.
2. Complex Fonts will make consumers remember your message
While simplifying and easy to read fonts can help consumers take an action with instructions, a complex font will boost memory recall.
Though be careful! This doesn’t mean you should use a complex font for your logo, phone number, or tagline. Use this tactic for important information throughout your web copy only. A complex font will not only be more memorable but grab more attention visually.
3. Use gaze to direct attention
If you are using an image of a person or even an animal, look at their eyes. There is a saying the eyes are the mirrors of the soul. Truly, some people speak more with their eyes than with their words.
James Breeze, an Australian usability specialist studied how people view ads with babies.
In his research, he found that people will look at what the person in the ad is looking at. So, be sure to direct the face in your ad to look at what you’d like the viewer to focus on.
4. Show trust. Gain trust.
Trust is very important when it comes to getting referrals and building a credible business.
If you really want your customers to trust you they have to feel that you trust them. Here are several quick tips on how you can show trust with your customers:
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- Establish credit without long forms or a lengthy screening process
- Provide confidential information without making a prospect or customer sign an NDA
5. A Smile Goes a Long Way
Many marketers rely on stock photography in order to “personalize” their website.
This is a quick way to show personality and “humanize” the brand but what are the items you need to consider when selecting the best option?
Choose the smiling photo over the serious businessman. Studies show from marketing research that a “mood-boosting” image can affect customers’ willingness to spend.
You can influence. Your target audience is there waiting for your message. Use any detail to interest, to educate, to inform and attract. Simple neuromarketing tips will bring changes. Only consider applying something new and different.
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