Let us take some time to concentrate on what neuromarketing is, how it is utilized by organizations, and the impact it has on the field of marketing. Neuromarketing as a term was first introduced in the year 2002, but interest in the human brain for marketing purposes was already present in the year 1900 martech.
It was around this time that researchers working for companies like Coca Cola investigated the neural activity and analyzed brain scans when customers viewed ads or interacted with products.
The promise of viewing inside the minds of people to see what makes them purchase was, and still is, a highly desired prospect for researchers and marketing professionals alike. But what is neuromarketing?
How Neuromarketing Works?
As it’s a broad field of science, neuromarketing does not ‘work’ in one certain way. Instead, it’s about both understanding how the mind of a customer works and learning to act on that. The field of neuromarketing targets to bring the field of neuroscience, psychology and marketing together. It stands at the cutting edge where science meets marketing.
Yet, the minds of customers work in complicated methods, and how they work is often not a matter of ‘how’ however ‘under what particular conditions’. Basically, there is science behind what individuals do and think and neuromarketing professionals aim to know how to utilize this to their benefits.
In any case, to do utilize neuromarketing effectively, marketing professionals require either knowledge about these things or the capability to collect this knowledge themselves. Fortunately for most neuromarketing experts, they don’t need to be completely attached to the latter option.
How Companies utilize Neuromarketing?
Neuromarketing insights can be applied to a wide range of contexts. Either in stores or online; in restaurants and in TV ads. In the purest sense, ‘doing’ neuromarketing would mean conducting research into how the neurological system of customers responds to marketing stimuli.
In a broader sense, it implies applying evidence-based insights from all branches of research relevant to consumer behaviour.
Other than conducting some research of their own, as mentioned earlier, companies using neuromarketing insights as a strategy can do so in many other ways.
For example, a retail store might take advantage of previous research on consumer behaviour by not making use of vertical signage; since it has shown to be displeasing for shopping consumers.
A restaurant might choose to promote healthy items on the left side of its menu since research has shown that people choose these items more easily when they are on the left. Or maybe they decide to use smells to trigger certain memory effects within their guests.
In addition to the utilization of sensory marketing, for example, sounds, touch, scent, and colour, that are more biological factors, there are other applications of neuromarketing that concentrates more on psychological factors. For example, the strategic utilization of relatable models in commercials rather than famous celebrities is in some contexts a smart thing to do.
How Neuromarketing has changed marketing arena
The impression that neuromarketing has left on the arena of marketing as a whole is undeniable. As many stories of success have sprouted from the strategic use of neuromarketing, more and more businesses are starting to see the benefits of using neuromarketing techniques. But there are those that are more dubious.
This criticism isn’t new. Since the early years of neuromarketing, people were afraid of corporate power and control of consumers without their consent. Of course, having a look inside the brain of customers to see how marketers can make you buy until you’re broke seems quite scary.
And while it’s true that neuromarketing could potentially cause unwanted and unethical influence on consumers, it actually influences consumers in a way no different than regular marketing.
Many types of traditional advertising and marketing have been utilized with the purpose of bypassing rational decision processes and hitting the ‘purchasing buttons’ of the brain. Generally, they are unquestionably meant to be just as persuasive as neuromarketing techniques.
While neuromarketing makes this procedure more accurate and reliable, it does not transform customers into mindless zombies purchasing everything they come across.
Nonetheless, it has made people realize there are certain ethical aspects that should be considered. Issues with the moral aspect of neuromarketing should be just as much applied to conventional types of marketing. The question what makes marketing ethical should get as much attention as what makes it effective.
