Marketing research that studies consumers’ cognitive, sensorimotor, and affective response to marketing stimuli is called Neuromarketing. It is all about understanding how the brain works and employing that understanding to improve both products and marketing regardless of the science used behind it. This field of marketing uses technologies such as electroencephalography (EEG), Steady state topography (SST) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to learn why customers make the decisions they do and what part of the brain is telling them to do so. Frito-Lay, CBS and Google are a few of the companies that have used neuromarketing research services to measure customer thoughts on their products or advertisements by investing in their own science personnel and laboratories to reach their important goals. Neuromarketing is a technique used to serve and understand consumers better. Ten years ago Ale Smith coined the word “neuromarketing.”
According to author and Harvard marketing professor Gerald Zaltman, ninety-five percent of our emotions, thoughts and learning occur without our conscious awareness. Many neuroscientists today use the 95 percent rule to estimate subconscious brain activity. Understanding how people think in sales and marketing is not a new concept. Advertising psychology and sales psychology have been around for decades. However, modern neuroscience has given us the necessary tools to help us “see” inside our brains. We can now measure in parts of the brain the changes in activity by using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans as well as electroencephalograms (EEG).
Today, selling is tougher than it ever has been, reason being that customers are more sophisticated and flooded with information, increased resistance to traditional closing techniques, more intense competition, and sales cycles are longer. Fortunately, learning about neuromarketing will help you by enabling you to push your customers “buy buttons” and increase your selling efficiency. You will be able to profoundly improve your ability to influence others, deliver convincing sales presentations, close more deals, create effective marketing strategies, boost profits and revenue and shorten your sales cycle.
Neuromarketing will help you learn how to create captivating messages on your website and marketing materials that will bring you a constant flow of new prospects. These techniques can even be used to gain new jobs or promotions and to raise money for your business. We all like to think that we make rational and conscious decisions, but according to neuroscientist we only use 5 percent of our conscious brain. Consumers can’t always accurately explain or understand why they make choices in the marketplace. For that reason asking them questions and getting customer statements/self reports always result in failed data. This is why neuromarketing has become more effective and better at explaining customers’ decisions. Marketers need to focus on appealing to customers unconscious and emotional needs to be more effective.
According to Roger Dooley, “One of the key insights neuroeconomics and neuromarketing research have provided us is that buying something can cause the pain center in our brain to light up.” This pain center is also known as our reptilian brain or survival brain (“fight or flight” brain). In order to be more effective on the web you need to spend more time focusing on your potential buyers needs and less time talking about yourself. You want to relieve the “pain” of your customers. Instead of talking about yourself spend more time talking about how you can benefit your customers. The reptilian brain also known as the old brain according to Christophe Morin “is responsive to anything pertaining to self.” If you want to be heard then tell people what you can do for them!
We are bombarded with information all day long so the quicker you get your point across the better. Figure out what your customers are in need of and then tell them how you have the answers to their problems. Keep statements short and sweet. Think of ways that will make your customers lives better without long over explained blocks of information. “Researchers have demonstrated that human beings make decisions in an emotional manner and then justify them rationally,” according to Christophe Morin.
Make visuals. Our eyes are directly connected to our unconscious parts of our brains and it is this part of the brain that marketers want to reach. Don’t just tell your customers about your services or products show them! Our reptilian brain doesn’t even understand words, it is visual.
Have a clear beginning and end. The brain remembers things that happen in the beginning of an event and the end, but rarely remembers the middle. Make sure your content on your site has a great attention-getter and a great ending.
Create memories! Without emotion we are less likely to remember messages throughout the day. Emotion creates disruptions in our brain and causes us to remember events better. Don’t just state facts, make your customers feel! Messages will be more memorable and you will less likely be forgotten. Make them smile!
Neuromarketing not only helps you understand, but it also helps reach the parts of the brain that make decisions! Help your customers make the right decisions and learn to speak to their unconscious brain and you will become more effective in your sales.
