Ever wondered why Coca Cola uses the “Red” colour to advertise its famous Coke? Or how McDonald’s started and grew successfully by emphasizing their fast serving time or why does your nearest Starbucks give you an amazing sensory experience once you step in and feel so cozy?.
The answer lies in one major marketing tool which not only focuses on promoting the product but also helps the brand win over consumers. This marketing concept is a combined result of neuropsychology and marketing. Neuromarketing helps to strategize and carry out marketing campaigns that are destined to produce great results. In simple words, Neuromarketing is the application of neuroscience to marketing.
How does the brain work?
You must have heard of MRI scans and how those big machines help examine your body. But have you ever heard of FMRI? and how it helps examine how your brain reacts to certain situations and ultimately helps marketers to analyse the reactions of the person and plan their marketing strategy accordingly.
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging measures the changes of neural activity in the brain indirectly. It is widely used to study the decision-making process. There are some advantages of this method and the most prominent one is calculating how a person responds to an ad, packaging, logo, brand, etc. and it helps them navigate their responses and even create tactics to manipulate them.
According to a study of a course offered by
CXL Institute, our brain is divided into four parts, old brain, little brain, midbrain and new brain. The old brain is responsible for carrying out basic tasks such as breathing, moving, etc. When it comes to marketing, the old brain helps assimilate whether a person should buy or avail of any goods and services instantly and calculates whether that product or service carries any risks for them or not. The old brain decides whatever you notice first in that product. This is why, many brands use tools such as appealing colours, an immaculate sensory experience, etc to create disruption in their potential customer’s minds and increase their chances to buy the product.
Are we in control of our minds, when it comes to marketing?
Whenever we come across a newly launched iPhone or a new pair of Nike sneakers, we can’t help ourselves but try to buy them even if they are out of our budget. Without thinking about our budget, we get attracted to such products. Why is that? The answer to this conundrum can also be found in Neuromarketing. When it comes to Apple products, people don’t have a lot of options. If Apple launches iPhone 11, they will aggressively promote that phone and there won’t be any other iPhone that will get even a pinch of promotion during that time. This engenders a lack of options and when you have a lack of options from a specific brand, chances are you will be drawn to it.
Still, wondering whether you are in control of your mind or not?
Companies manipulate their customers into thinking they are the only option available in the market that can cater to their needs. They use colours that attract the customer and give them offers they can’t say no to. We have been a part of this cycle for a long time now and many brands have had a hold on our decision-making process through sturdy and confident Neuromarketing research.
The greatest example of Neuromarketing
In the pool full of millions of brands and companies around different niches, a few give you just the right feel. There are certain brands which give you a sense of freshness and a feeling of being important. If you think this is not a part of their strategy and they are just being nice, you may have to rethink. Every single thing which you experience when you see a product or even its packaging is a result of Neuromarketing research done by the company beforehand. Let’s look at such brands that have used this brilliant marketing tactic to promote their brand and product.
Starbucks:- Ever felt a sense of superiority whenever you catch a cup of coffee at Starbucks because of the aroma of coffee in the air, the lavish interior and the environment that screams money? That is all a part of a sensory experience technique that Starbucks has been following for a long time now. The whole idea behind it is to give their customers a feeling of being smarter than the average. This tactic has made everybody overlook their exorbitant rates.
Why should Neuromarketing be a part of the core business model?
After acquiring this interesting information on Neuromarketing, you must be thinking about whether this approach should be implemented more by companies going forward or not. Neuromarketing enables the company to know their potential customer’s decision-making behaviour and their reaction to their products. Investing more in Neuromarketing and following it for promoting the products will help brands understand their target audience’s buying process on a greater level. It allows a company to strategize accordingly to produce great results. The brain is responsible for the consumer’s buying or investing actions and if companies like Coca-Cola or Nestle can get inside their target audience’s mind, they will be able to bank on this advantage and increase their business at an unprecedented rate.
The image of a brand holds great significance when it comes to increasing the sales, if somehow brands can uplift their image in their target audience’s mind by knowing exactly what will appeal to them, it will not only increase their sales but will also improve their brand image in front of the general audience.
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