Neuromarketing
Six proven Neuromarketing strategies to engage your audience
Neuroscience is the study of the brain, how the nervous system develops, its structure, and what it does. Neuroscientists focus on the brain and its impact on behaviour and cognitive functions. Marketing is fundamentally the action or business of promoting and selling products or services. Merge these fields and Neuromarketing is born. It can encompass many techniques and areas but in short it is the utilisation of neuroscience, psychology and research to maximise and alter buying behaviours.
We often think that we make decisions based on our logical mind, but if you start to dig a bit deeper you will see that we are more often driven by our primal brain, the oldest part of our complex brain and furthermore we are usually unaware that this primitive part of us is driving or making a decision.
Research from within neuroscience has shown about 95 percent of decisions are made unconsciously. Emotion also plays a crucial role in decision making. To such a degree that when individuals have damaged the part of the brain responsible for emotional processes, even very simple decisions become almost impossible to take.
“Our buying decisions are importantly governed by unconscious decision making processes and emotional reactions”
Imagine you walk on a crowded pedestrian street, the sky is blue and you feel the hot temperature of the summer’s day. Ahead you witness a group of 5 people all staring at the ground …. The chances are you can’t help but look as well to try and see what caught the group’s attention? The group and social pressure of the situation compels you to follow the crowd and all gaze in the same direction. Humans are evolutionarily group creatures so many of these responses are hardwired in.
Imagine a different scenario: You are in a computer store and you want to buy the newest Mac. Andrew the nice, and friendly salesman with his hipster beard explained to you very patiently all the different features the new flagship laptop has to offer. He even goes back into the stockroom to get you the colour you prefer and offers you a special discount, just for you.
How difficult will you find it to reject his offer? Even if you don’t part with the cash a small part of you will likely be left feeling a bit ‘guilty’.
If you are like the majority of people you will have a hard time overcoming the social pressures of this situation, even though the rational part of your brain tells you that Andrew is just doing his job, he gets paid to show you products.
Even if you don’t part with the cash in that moment a small part of you will likely be left feeling a bit ‘guilty’. Often people find or invent a reason to not purchase simply in order to not hurt poor Andrews’ feelings.
Our buying decisions are importantly governed by unconscious decision making processes and emotional reactions, so in order to make your message convincing consider using one or more of the following:
Let’s take the example that you are a small start up and selling T-shirt inorder to provide some specific scenarios how you can leverage the principles of persuasion for your startup?
1 Reciprocity
Give away something for free. This is a very good way to start a positive relationship with new potential customers or maintain an existing one. If you have a local store you could offer a free repair service for your items, if you exclusively sell online you could give away free prints to download. This is often seen in the form of free branded merchandise. Large companies may print branded nick nacks from pens to stress balls, but today’s digital age leaves room for far more creative, customer specific and targeted freebies. Reciprocity is a powerful social tool, it can be used and is used very effectively at all levels and sizes of organisation.
2 Commitment & Consistency
You are sitting in the park. The sun shines on your skin and you smell the scent sunscreen. All of the sudden you see a guy snatching the radio from a neighboring blanket, the owners of which are playing volleyball in the not so far distance. How are you going to react? Maybe you get up and yell or even move closer or run a few meters, but the chances are the effort you make is not very huge. Same scenario, different set of rules, the person who leaves the blanket unattended asks you to watch his belongings while he is sweating in the distance. Now again someone comes to try and steal the radio. Chances are that you turn into a superhero of sorts. not willing to let the bad guy run away with the radio given your verbal commitment to looking after it.
This experiment done by a famous behavioral psychologist shows that people are highly motivated when they commit to a cause.
How to use it? Let them design their own T-Shirt or get them involved in designing a new line of T-Shirt ranges, put design choices to a poll on social media. Gain potential or current customer ‘buy in’ by committing in some capacity to you, your company or message.
3 Social Proof
You are sightseeing in Barcelona all of the sudden you feel your stomach rumbling, you haven’t had anything for lunch yet and it is almost 5pm. How do you decide which restaurant you choose? Especially if you have many eating possibilities to choose from.
One restaurant is empty but on the other side of the street you see at least 5 people waiting in line to be seated, which one do you choose? If you are not dying of hunger you will get in line and wait with the other hungry folks to get some of the delicious food which is apparently worth waiting for.
Here comes social media into play. Instagram and Facebook can give you the social proof you need, the online equivalent to the line of hungry dinners. Customer reviews, people ‘checking in’ and marking location and photos are powerful tools to use.
4 Authority
We see this principle a lot in marketing, “recommended by your doctor” or ‘’scientifically proven’’ to justify the effects of a supplement. ‘’endorsed by XYZ professional athlete’’ for the latest workout equipment. In the fashion industry and on a smaller scale you could consider contacting someone who functions as an authority figure for your target group to launch influencer marketing campaigns. If you have a small budget go for the micro influencer with less than 20K followers but a very active community.
5 Liking
The more we like someone the more we trust them, the same stands true for businesses. I think this principle is especially easy for smaller businesses because you can position yourself as a friend via messaging and focus on providing personal interaction with great customer service. Focus on being nice, likable and friendly.
6 Scarcity
I don’t know anyone who hasn’t fallen for this last but very powerful tool of pushing people over the buying line. ‘’This offer is only valid for 3 days’’ or ‘’only 10 items left for this discounted price’’. More recently the global shortage of toilet paper triggered by panic buying in light of a perceived scarcity which in fact did not exist. Scarcity evokes negative emotions, the fear of losing out which is often a stronger drive than the positive emotion of getting a great deal kicks in. and this negative emotion can be the final push needed to complete a sale. It is however very important to be consistent with this type of messaging. If you state “Discounted price for this month only’’ and extent or repeat the offer quickly you will lose integrity and credibility.