Consumer Neuroscience: The Science of Marketing

Have you ever wondered why you buy things you don't want?

What makes you more likely to grab the most useless product in a shopping mall?

Are we spied on, controlled, or persuaded?

The answer to these and all the related questions is- Neuromarketing. The field of neuromarketing, sometimes called consumer neuroscience, studies the brain to predict and potentially manipulate consumer behavior and decision-making. Over the past five years, several ground-breaking studies have demonstrated its potential to create value for marketers. But those who want to use its tools must decide whether it's worth the investment and how to do it well. The standard approach to neuromarketing is physiological tracking, which measures eye movements, heart rate, and skin conductance. These measures track consumer response to various marketing stimuli.

Neuromarketing is a relatively new field. However, it can be a powerful tool for companies looking to understand and influence consumer behavior. Let's understand how it works.

Neuromarketing Techniques: An Overview

Neuromarketing requires specialized equipment and skills that are beyond most companies’ reach. When executives are looking to engage one of the many suppliers of neuromarketing services, they should understand the most important features and differentiators of the techniques available.

Here are some additional details about the benefits and drawbacks of neuromarketing:

Benefits

• Understand customer behavior:?Neuromarketing can help businesses understand what motivates customers and what drives their decisions. This information can be used to create more effective marketing campaigns that resonate with the target audience.
• Create effective marketing campaigns:?Neuromarketing can help businesses identify the most effective marketing messages, images, and colors to use in their campaigns. This can help businesses increase brand awareness, generate leads, and drive sales.
• Improve product development:?Neuromarketing can help businesses identify the features and benefits that are most important to customers. This information can be used to improve product development and make products that are more likely to be successful.
• Optimize pricing strategy:?Neuromarketing can help businesses understand how consumers perceive the value of their products and services. This information can be used to optimize pricing strategy and make sure that products are priced competitively.

Ethical concerns

There are some ethical concerns about neuromarketing. One concern is that it could be used to manipulate people into making decisions that are not in their best interests. For example, a company could use neuromarketing to target vulnerable populations, such as teenagers, with marketing messages that are designed to encourage them to buy unhealthy products.

Another concern is that neuromarketing could be used to invade people's privacy. When people participate in neuromarketing studies, they are often asked to wear electrodes that measure their brain activity. This data could be used to track people's thoughts and emotions, which some people might consider to be a violation of their privacy.

Real-Life Case Studies

Popcorn Subliminal Advertising

In the past, they did an astonishing experiment where they played a message on a movie screen about drinking Coca-Cola and eating popcorn, and when they noticed it made people rush to the counter and join Fill Up on Coca-Cola and Popcorn. It was shocking.

Luckily, we don't have any crazy shopping addiction, but we do make a lot of decisions and that's where marketing comes in. Companies are trying to better understand how the brain works, and they're controlling us. They're trying to make us shopaholic zombies.

We think we are our own decision-makers and think very rationally, but research shows that we are totally irrational and mostly buy products we don't want. We don't even know that we use several technologies to understand what is going on in our brains. Functional magnetic resonance imaging and electronic measurements of brain eye-tracking activity reveal where our attention is focused. Using neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics, they have a good understanding of what a stick is, and they use that knowledge to get us to buy more of their products.

I'll give you a few examples that you may have seen in your daily life: A system (a large shopping complex) that wears you out. Let's understand it in detail. You will get the answer to this question instantly if I ask the color of the rose (your mind has already answered that) this is system 1 of your mind but if you ask yourself a question that is 23*48=? you will have to switch to system 2 which takes effort and time. Imagine you are going to the supermarket to buy something. In fact, seeing the crowd and so many options you become tired, so system 2 goes out, which is very resource-intensive and requires a lot of metabolic resources, resulting in our fatigue. Markets offer treats you might only buy at the last minute, taking advantage of confusing customers when they're frankly exhausted, making you more proud to spend your money. At this point, you're probably not even thinking about the actual price of something you're buying. Other times people are usually not very clear about prices because they don't really know how much juice should cost or what the right price for juice is and the store will be happy to trick your brain into selling two bottles of juice kept, one of them $15 and $50 more, so you'll probably buy a bottle for $15. Another point is that you are constantly looking for pleasure and if you get the same thing over and over again over a period of time, you will keep buying things over and over again.

As you may have noticed, in almost every advertisement for a luxury watch, the clock is set to 10:10 because the watch looks like it's smiling at you - that kind of subtle cue is called a first.

Coca-Cola ads also advertise open cans in a way that makes it look like it's smiling and spreading joy.

https://squeezegrowth.com/neuromarketing-examples/

https://builtin.com/marketing/neuromarketing

Neuromarketing is a rapidly growing field that is still in its early stages. However, it has the potential to revolutionize marketing by providing businesses with a deeper understanding of how the brain responds to marketing stimuli. This information can be used to create more effective marketing campaigns that resonate with consumers and drive sales.

Now the question is how can consumers protect themselves from the potential negative effects of neuromarketing?