Neuromarketing in action: How to get inside the customer's brain
Original title: The Brain Sell: When Science Meets Shopping
Author: David Lewis
Publisher: Mann, Ivanov & Ferber, 2015.
ISBN 978-5-00057-332-7
Pages: 304 pp.
Format: 70×100/16 (170×240 mm)
Circulation: 2,000 copies.
Weight: 304 g
Binding: Hardcover
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A book about what attracts us to shopping and how to shop properly
Книга «Нейромаркетинг в действии» расскажет, что и как заставляет нас покупать больше — даже если мы этого не хотим. Из лабораторий наука пришла в супермаркет по соседству с вами — и оказывает серьезное влияние на вас. В условиях серьезной конкуренции компании используют науку о мозге, чтобы анализировать то, как мы делаем покупки и какие скрытые факторы побуждают нас покупать.
David Lewis, the founder of neuromarketing, reveals the technologies and methods that stimulate us and make us buy more - even if we are not aware of their impact. In the course of his research, the author asked such curious questions:
- How does a certain font in a soup description make it taste better?
- Why do some merchants actively offer their customers to haggle?
- How do a variety of tools and techniques influence consumer behavior and what should a marketer or salesperson do about it?
This is a book for those who are interested in a scientific approach to the shopping process and want to know how companies affect their emotions and decisions.
Цитаты из книги «Нейромаркетинг в действии»
Shopper Bliss
The opportunity to buy a coveted item at a low price gives the brain the same rush as winning the lottery or snorting cocaine. At the same time, researchers observe, the heart rate can rise from 70 beats per minute to more than 120.
How much does it cost to advertise
Only the United Kingdom and the United States spend twice as much on advertising as they do on education ($313 billion vs. $132 billion). When it comes to developing new products that you can't do without, companies involve thousands of scientists and researchers.
A clever trick
In the 1930s, General Mills stopped using egg powder in the mixes so that housewives would add their own egg to the diluted dough. This ploy worked well. Women were given a role in making the pie and were made to feel that the result depended on them, so they came to appreciate it more.
We like to bargain.
In some shops, the buyer receives a discount only after bargaining. By letting him believe that he fooled the seller by buying the chosen item for a better price, the seller pleases his ego and makes him want his purchase even more.
The role of the font
The brain uses energy very sparingly, applying a wide range of thinking strategies to conserve it. A complicated font not only creates the feeling that there is something incomprehensible about the product, but also subconsciously makes the buyer think that there is something dishonest about it.
Artificial scarcity
When a wish is hard to fulfill, customers are willing to bleed just to make it happen. Knowing this, manufacturers deliberately increase tension by limiting store deliveries. If customers know they are running out of product, a line begins to gather at the door of the store.
Interested? Then some more.
How neurobiology is used in advertising and marketing to influence our subconscious
Today there are many methods that can be used to manipulate the buyer's subconscious mind. You would be surprised, but most of your purchases are not made willingly.
By subtly influencing the mood of the customer with words, sounds, fragrance, color and other means, they induce a desire to buy a product, leaving almost no chance for a rational choice. Manufacturers have borrowed all of these cunning psychological techniques from neurobiologists in order to better promote their products. As a result, a new science has emerged. neuromarketing.
What is neuromarketing?
Whereas fifty years ago persuasive methods of influencing the subconscious might have seemed unreliable, and the reasoning of the researchers vague, now it is no longer distrusted. Neuromarketing has become an exact science, figuring out how to use the findings of neuroscientists for commercial purposes.
Neuromarketers face two challenges. The first is to understand how different marketing techniques affect the customer; the second is to study the reactions of the human brain in order to make marketing methods more effective. Sophisticated technical devices allow us to see what is going on in the consumer's head. Neuromarketers can measure the brain's electrical activity and observe changes in blood flow to different parts of the brain.
There are other ways to understand what a customer likes: oculography; the use of devices that record changes in breathing, heartbeat, muscle tension, body temperature and skin conductivity; sociological methods (surveys, experiments); GPS devices installed in stores.
Convincing "Atmospheres"
Research by neuromarketers has shown how you can influence the customer while shopping. Everything that surrounds you in a store is a well-designed mechanism designed to lift your spirits, attract attention, and make you buy more. The elements of this mechanism are called "atmospheres". It's music, scents, lighting in combination with the color of the walls, and even the actions of the staff.
For example, in the discount department, there should be bright light to show things off, and in the department where quality cosmetics are sold, soft lighting is more often used to hide the flaws of the customer's appearance. An atmosphere of luxury and sophistication is easily created by beautifully dressed staff, muted pastel colors, classical music and specially selected exquisite fragrances - all this sets the customer up for an unreasonably expensive purchase.
It turns out that sound can make a customer walk faster or slower through a store, take more or less time looking at an item. Fragrances relax casino players and make them sit at the roulette table longer. And some grocery stores use different smells for each department to whet a customer's appetite.
We like the nines.
It's no secret that a price tag that says 99.99 seems much more attractive to us than a price tag with the number 100. But here's an interesting observation by scientists: we look at the left figure and don't pay attention to the right one, not only on price tags. Analysis of purchases in the used car market showed that as soon as the mileage crosses the threshold of the next 10,000 miles, the price of the car drops sharply. That is, we are willing to shell out a much more round sum for a car whose speedometer reads 9,990 miles than for a car with 10,000 miles on it.
This peculiarity of our perception is an effective tool for various manipulations. For example, it is enough to place information about the cost of delivery on the right side of the site so that people pay less attention to it or do not notice it at all.
Why we buy less product for the same price
Neuromarketers know that we look at prices and notice when they change. But buyers almost never pay attention to the other obvious thing: Companies reduce the amount of a product to sell it for the same money.
A few examples of this manipulation. When Kellogg's started using slightly narrower packaging for breakfast cereals, customers didn't realize anything and the company's profits increased significantly. Toilet paper manufacturer Quilted Northern made the paper roll a half-inch narrower - and that trick worked, too. For Skippy's peanut butter, they came up with a new plastic jar. The company simply replaced the flat bottom with a concave one. As a result, consumers began buying 16.3 ounces of butter for the same price instead of 18 ounces.
When did it turn out that people didn't notice this kind of change? About 50 years ago, a visitor came to a toothpaste company claiming to know how to easily increase profits on a 40%. For a big reward, he said only three words to the manufacturer: "Make the hole bigger." The company increased the diameter of the hole in the tube by one millimeter, and consumers had to squeeze out much more toothpaste. They ran out of toothpaste faster, so sales increased. As you may have guessed, none of the customers paid any attention to it.
The impact of the 25th Frame is not exaggerated?
One reporter said that subliminal advertising (that's the infamous 25th Frame) was "the most frightening and outrageous discovery since Mr. Gatling created his machine gun," and Newsday called it "the scariest invention since the atomic bomb."
Later, James Vickery, who discovered subliminal advertising, admitted that it was all a hoax and that the results of the alleged experiments were just fiction. The method was met with skepticism and many criticized it, but modern brain research has demonstrated that the critics were mistaken.
One could argue for a long time about the effectiveness of this method of influencing the subconscious mind, but its power is demonstrated by real experiments. In one study, a message that urged participants to drink a certain kind of tea appeared on screens for such a small fraction of a second that they didn't even notice it. Even though consumers didn't realize they had seen the message, it persuaded them to order that particular tea when they were offered several options to choose from.
Body Language Programming
There are different ways to create a positive psychological mood in the consumer. Including the imperceptible control of his body. Sir Francis Galton was the first psychologist to suggest that a person's psychological attitude depends on posture, and vice versa.
Many studies have proved him right. But how is it used in neuromarketing? Here are just a few examples:
- The consumer, settled in a soft chair, the seller will be much easier to persuade to his side than the buyer sitting on an uncomfortable hard chair.
- If the customer has to nod his head, for example, to look at a vertically positioned product, his desire to buy something will become much stronger. The opposite effect will occur if the customer starts to turn his head to the sides for whatever reason.
- Someone who is holding a basket and bending his arms is more likely to make a purchase than someone pushing a cart with straightened arms. The point is that these are gestures of attraction and repulsion that evoke certain emotions, even though we are not aware of it.
Sexual connotations rob us of our will
How do you get a male shopper to make a rash purchase? Neuromarketers know the answer: show him a half-naked woman. It is not for nothing that sexual images are so often used in advertising. And sometimes in a disguised form. Psychologist Wilson Kaye observed that messages related to sexual actions appear in a variety of different, even perfectly innocent, advertising images. In his opinion, they are imposed on us for the sole purpose of causing us to lose self-control and buy things we don't need.
Kay's concern is justified. Researchers say: men are unable to resist even minimal exposure to sexual images. A little excitement shuts down the ability to think rationally and make informed decisions. One experiment showed that a flirty girl could buy a car from a male salesman for about $1,080, while a serious girl could buy a car for $1,280.
How they play on our values
Quaker Oats breakfast cereal manufacturers have used the Quaker logo since the late 19th century. What could possibly link this image to the product? Nothing. But the creators of the logo knew that consumers would associate the image of a member of a religious society with values such as strong morals, honesty, and respect for tradition. This is an example of a brand that hits the mark, appealing to people's beliefs and attitudes.
There are other examples. An actress can appear before a female audience as a good mother and wife, the keeper of the home. If the image evokes confidence, women will want to be like this ideal hostess, and they are very likely to buy the flour she recommended. You think you're not easily fooled? But this is a real-life example. In 1921, millions of American female shoppers listened to the advice of Betty Crocker, a character invented by the flour company.
Well, a person who wants to achieve success in his career can be shown a photo of a famous entrepreneur with a watch of a certain brand on his hand. Subconsciously the buyer will be sure that his dreams will come true with this watch.
We are surrounded by a myriad of different marketing techniques, but the goal is the same: to stealthily control our behavior. Don't give in to them. The more you know about these techniques, the better you can protect yourself and your freedom.
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