In 2011, Danish branding expert Martin Lindstrom published an article in The New York Times in which he compared how users treat their iPhones to romantic love. The marketer made such a loud statement following the results of fMRI research dedicated to people’s interaction with gadgets. Lindstrom’s discovery has drawn criticism from scientists. However, a few years later, a team from the University of Pennsylvania scientifically proved this seemingly contradictory idea. Thus, the human brain and its reactions to external stimuli have become a hot research topic for the marketing community. Let’s look closely at how neuromarketing affects consumer behavior and what universal neuromarketing techniques can be used to design content.
Neuromarketing: Are human actions a product of neural activity?
Neuromarketing originated from neuroscience which studies the brain and its influence on human behavior and cognition. Marketers use scientific data to create content to evoke specific emotional responses that motivate people to buy products or services. For example, they can play on fear to encourage consumers to purchase a fire alarm system or focus on the pleasure a user will get if they buy ice cream with a new flavor.
To understand what emotions and feelings users experience when interacting with a product, content, and advertising, organizations are trying to “scan” customers’ brains. Seven methods are used to track neural impulses: fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), EEG (electroencephalography), heart rate and respiratory rate, eye movement, pupillometry, and facial expression. They help capture emotional responses, establish user engagement, and understand what they like or dislike.
Previously, to understand the attitude of customers to a brand, it was necessary to conduct surveys and questionnaires. Neuromarketing allows you to “look” deeper into the brain of users to determine their attitude towards advertising, even if the respondent cannot articulate it clearly.
Examples of Neuromarketing campaigns
In 2017, neuroscience professor Moran Cerf predicted the success of movies from trailers using neuromarketing tools. The study involved 122 viewers. Before watching the videos, they were connected to EEG devices. Each trailer was assigned a level of neural similarity. The promotional video for X-Men: Days of Future Past received the highest rating and collected the largest box-office takings.
This kind of research can be used for various purposes. For example, gaze mapping helps determine what consumers most often look at when they open a company’s website or enter a store. Thus, you can understand whether buyers see valuable offers or are out of sight. Tracking facial expressions using sensors allows specialists to see what emotions an ad evokes and what needs to be changed in its content. Marketing indicators (attention, interest, memorization potential) help to conclude if a product (content, site) corresponds to a consumer’s request. Despite the vast information flow, they help to find material that will interest users and motivate them to buy products.
American chips maker Frito-Lay used the power of neuromarketing to redesign packaging. People were shown different packaging options, and their reactions were recorded. Thus, the optimal size and packaging material, suitable color, and text were established. During the study, it turned out that a shiny package with a picture of chips made customers feel guilty. But the matte packaging with an image of potatoes was more appealing.
Hyundai used EEG to understand how much customers liked the prototype of a new car. By tracking people’s reactions to certain vehicle parts, the company got an idea of what kind of car consumers want to see. Designers adjusted its appearance, and a more attractive car was produced.
Betty Crocker, a famous brand with a 70-year history, faced a problem: cake mixes that seemed to make life easier for homemakers didn’t sell. The company hired a team of neuroscientists to understand the reason for the failure. After talking with women, scientists found that they did not want to use the company’s products because it was too simple, and they felt guilty about being lazy. To “make it harder” for housewives and eliminate the sense of guilt, the firm added an ingredient to the recipe – an egg. Even though it contained dry egg powder, the fact that a cake took extra effort to bake made it even better in the eyes of housewives.
Thus, neuromarketing helps brands see how consumers perceive their products and improve their interaction with users.
Seven all-purpose Neuromarketing Techniques to use for content
Today, technology giants such as NBC, Time Warner, Microsoft, Andersen, Google, and Facebook are actively using the benefits of neuromarketing. Not all organizations can financially afford to order full-fledged neuromarketing research. But there are general principles, and you will achieve positive results by introducing them into marketing practice.
1. Ensure cognitive ease for content
The human brain tries to save resources. Think about how you behave when you search for information on the Internet. You do not scrutinize every resource but focus on those catchy sources with unique phrases, designs, or pictures that are easily perceived and overload you with information. That is simple and intuitive for sites and pages.
Therefore, you should not embed all kinds of elements on one page. Focus on one thought instead and try to express it simply and aesthetically. Don’t try to surprise clients with a variety of information. As Michelangelo Buonarroti once said: “I take a stone and cut off everything superfluous.” The process of creation should be as simple and straightforward.
Keep this principle for UX design: remove unnecessary elements from pages. A page should convey one message that leads a user to one target action.
2. Narrow the semantics of a message
Marketers who love and cherish their product often try to cover all its features in one advertising message. It is a mistake because users should not be overloaded with all the USPs simultaneously. All people buy products for 1-2 reasons, no more. They do it:
- To avoid pain or loss;
- Take pleasure from this product or service.
The fact that marketers try to throw a cognitive “bomb” at users in the form of vast and complex advertising messages will not increase sales. It is better to “wrap” each USP in an attractive way and arrange it as separate landing pages, advertising posts, blocks, pages for the site, and so on. It will be easier for a person to perceive information and form an attitude to it.
3. Make an action evident to a person
Pure information without a call to action will not lead to a conversion. Users must understand what they need to do after reading an advertising message. Thus, it will be natural for them to complete the interaction with a site with a purchase. Therefore, use incentive verbs in such messages (with a call to learn something, buy, register, go, do, and so on).
If there are no such incentives in the advertising content, a person will have to decide what to do next. And if you give the consumer a hint, it will be easier for them to complete the target action.
4. Make proper emphasis
It is challenging for a person to focus on many elements. According to some studies, the maximum number of objects a person can keep in memory is three or four. Following this rule, marketers should not overload an advertising text or product card with numerous elements.
Modern trends in world data visualization prove that marketers need to emphasize ideas properly. It is better to stress 1-3 elements, that is, choose the ones that will convey the advertising message and attract users’ attention. Place 1-3 bright “spots” on a page: for example, a product, its name, and an “Add to cart” button. You can highlight them using color, size, and shape (font).
5. Create a sense of loss
As mentioned above, users are driven by the fear of loss. Numerous studies have shown that it is stronger than the value of gain. Marketers know this natural quality of people and actively use it in framing. Let’s take an example. People are more likely to respond to “Buy our slow cooker so you don’t lose $200 in electricity bills per year” than “Buy a slow cooker, and you will save up to $200 a year on electricity.” Feel the difference?
Therefore, you should build advertising texts not regarding benefits from the acquisition but regarding what your clients will lose if they don’t buy a product.
6. Motivate people with trust
In the epoch of a large information flow, people don’t just blindly believe the Internet but check information. When reading an advertising message, they begin to doubt whether the seller is telling the truth, assuring them that this is a high-quality product. Therefore, it is essential to earn trust to make consumers willingly purchase a product and not to compare it with analogs on the market.
How to earn trust? Involve a niche expert or a star in your advertising content. A blogger with credibility with consumers can win customers over to their point of view. You can use the social proof model – the friends’ accounts who subscribe to a brand on social networks. Or use the crowd effect by placing products in the “Top 10 Autumn Products” section.
7. Show your product in detail
Consumers tend to be less motivated due to anxiety and uncertainty. On the one hand, this is natural. When we buy a product in a store, we can touch and examine it and evaluate its quality. Unfortunately, this is not possible on the Internet. One way to dispel fears and increase motivation to buy something is to show a product in detail. So, the clients may see what they get buying it.
For example, you can take a photo of a product from different angles, record a video review, demonstrate the contents of a package, show examples of the implementation of services, and so on.
Conclusion
One might say, neuromarketing is a marketing add-on that uses knowledge about the functioning of the human nervous system and the brain to develop a marketing strategy. It pursues the same goals as classical marketing but guarantees greater results. It allows marketers to look at a product as a consumer. Thanks to neuromarketing techniques, copywriting, brand design, and organic SEO are more successful and scientifically substantiated.
