How to push the brains buy button - The Marketer magazine

http://www.themarketer.co.uk/articles/how-to/how-to-push-the-brains-...

How to...

push the brains buy button

Subliminal marketing messages have long caused moral unease, but there are plenty of legitimate motivational methods for marketers to explore Related articles
Gender psychology Mood maker The perfect touch

Picture Billie Jean

What motivations lie behind the choices consumers make? Which subconscious factors drive decision making? Marketers have often pondered such questions in a determined effort to better understand how to influence their target audiences. In 1920s New York, Edward Bernays sometimes described as the father of PR drew heavily on the theories of the unconscious mind, pioneered by his psychoanalyst uncle Sigmund Freud, when developing campaigns, a process he referred to as engineering consent. The 1940s saw the publication of psychologist Abraham Maslows A Theory of Human Motivation, which included his famous hierarchy of needs, much studied by marketers. By the 1950s, when post-war austerity had turned to prosperity, marketers looked with unprecedented vigour at new techniques for identifying and utilising subconscious triggers. Vance Packards seminal book The Hidden Persuaders, published in 1957, lifted the lid on these practices. It explored the use by advertisers of consumer motivational research and other psychological techniques, including depth psychology and subliminal tactics, to manipulate expectations and induce desire for products. The book, which questioned the morality of using some of these techniques, sold a million copies and fostered consumer unease. Fast-forward more than half a century to today, and marketers are keener than ever to understand and influence consumer behaviour. The desire to identify and implement hidden persuaders that deliver results is undimmed. Of course, some techniques have been outlawed but there are plenty of legitimate avenues to explore. There are several, sometimes conflicting, theories about what causes people to make decisions. According to academics James Prochaska and Carlo DiClementes transtheoretical model, there are five stages in behaviour change: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. Yet this does not fully take into account the way many people can make snap decisions, often subconsciously. Neuromarketing In an effort to get to grips with the workings of the human mind, a number of marketers have turned to neuromarketing a term coined by Professor Ale

"Eighty per cent of persuation is done on an emotional basis, with only 20 per cent of a decision made in a left-brain, logical way"

1 of 4

15/7/2009 1:15

How to push the brains buy button - The Marketer magazine

http://www.themarketer.co.uk/articles/how-to/how-to-push-the-brains-...

Smidts in 2002 to cover the use of brain-scanning techniques to see how the brain responds to marketing stimuli. It has been used in comparing rival brands, to evaluate TV advertising and to study decision making among shoppers. Companies such as Procter & Gamble are investing millions in their own neuroscience divisions, says MindLab International director Dr David Lewis, an expert in brain research. Weve been doing work for clients looking at the role of colour and mood and weve also looked at how to trigger different emotional responses, he says. But one thing with neuromarketing is that a lot of snake oil salesmen are jumping on the bandwagon and making preposterous claims, given how little we know about the brain. Care to avoid the charlatans certainly needs to be taken when assessing neuromarketing, but it does offer some intriguing possibilities for connecting with consumers at a subconscious level and generating insight into what appeals to them. Car giant Daimler, for example, showed images of different cars to consumers while studying their brains with scanners. When the subjects saw an image of a Mini Cooper the part of the brain that responds to faces became active. While consumers may make many rational decisions when purchasing cars, the brain scan revealed a core element of the Minis attraction its resemblance to a likeable human face. Unconscious motivations As many decisions are based on what people feel rather than what they consciously reason, tapping into what Rob Ellis calls consumers unconscious leanings can provide understanding of motivation and help marketers press the right buy buttons in the brain. Ellis, managing director of research business Prism and its specialist sister company COG Research, is the Market Research Societys spokesman on neuromarketing. COG has worked with clients including WCRS, Weetabix, the British Medical Association, HM Revenue & Customs and Thinkbox to conduct implicit association tests. These are structured to provide insight into peoples deeper feelings, which are often at odds with the findings of traditional research. By using these techniques marketers can identify people who, while they may superficially have little affinity with a brand, when probed more deeply have latent positivities that can be exploited through segmented marketing activity. One of the UKs major players in neuromarketing, Neuroco, was acquired this spring by US rival NeuroFocus, in which research company Nielsen has a stake. NeuroFocus clients include Google, Microsoft, PayPal, CBS, Citigroup, Fox and Sky. Neurological testing helps companies understand how consumers genuinely respond to their products and marketing messages at the subconscious level, which is where neuroscience teaches us that purchase interest, purchase intent, brand loyalty, and repeat-purchase intent are formed, says NeuroFocus European head Thom Noble. Better understanding of how to improve product packaging, marketing and retail environments will in turn lead to better appeal to consumers, companies and their customers, he says. Increasingly, NeuroFocus is undertaking work for marketers to identify what it calls the neurological iconic signature (NIS): the components or attributes of a product that have the most appeal, neurologically speaking, to consumers. Nobel argues that the NIS is invaluable to a client because it can form the core idea around which all forms of marketing can be built. Another growing area of business is neurological compression, where audiovisual marketing material is shown to an audience to establish which elements are neurologically effective. Less effective segments can be cut to save on media spend.

"A lot of snake oil salesmen are now jumping on the bandwagon making absurd claims"

2 of 4

15/7/2009 1:15

How to push the brains buy button - The Marketer magazine

http://www.themarketer.co.uk/articles/how-to/how-to-push-the-brains-...

Power of appeal James Borg, author of the best-selling book Persuasion, argues that all too often marketers do not choose words and images carefully enough, failing to take into account the powerful associations they can trigger. Language, after all, influences thought and creates strong mental images. Id agree with the oft-quoted statement that 80 per cent of persuasion, or mass persuasion, is done on an emotional basis, with only 20 per cent of a decision being made in a left-brain, logical way, says Borg. According to Borg, one of the best advertising examples of using words to make strong associations was the classic 1962 advertising campaign for car hire firm Avis by Doyle Dayne Bernbach. This took the companys market share from 11 per cent to 35 per cent in a single year. It made a virtue of a supposed deficiency its number two spot behind Hertz. Without mentioning its competitor by name, its Were number two. We try harder campaign connected with consumers by cementing the idea that because Avis wasnt the biggest player in the market it simply had to put in more effort. It also evoked strong images of friendliness and shorter queues, hugely appealing to consumers who wanted to be well looked after. However, its equally important to be mindful that consumers can make subconsciously negative associations. Branding guru Martin Lindstrom recalls being called to Germany recently to help a struggling perfume manufacturer regain market share. When he glanced at the fragrance bottle, Lindstrom noticed that the label showed the product was made in Dsseldorf and Oberkochen places not immediately associated with glamour, style and the sensual qualities people seek in a fragrance. Lindstrom persuaded the company to replace the German locations with cities where people dream of taking bewitching breaks no dishonesty was necessary because the company did have offices in Paris, London, New York and Rome and sales shot up almost immediately. Does sex sell? That a sensual association should help sell a product is nothing new. Trying to make brands sexier is a marketing staple. In the 2005 book Sex in Advertising: Perspectives on the Erotic Appeal, edited by Tom Reichert and Jacqueline Lambiase, it is suggested that almost onefifth of all advertising uses overt sexual content. However, it seems that subtlety is the key. Research by US company MediaAnalyzer has found that, in some cases, sexual stimuli interfere with advertising effectiveness, distracting target audiences too much from the brand and messages. How rhyme can chime Less contentiously, there is also subconscious power in the fluency of words. Earlier this year, Heinz reinstated its classic Beanz Meanz Heinz slogan that was first used in 1967. There is no doubt that it is catchy but what does this rhyme have to do with hidden persuasion? Plenty, according to Noah Goldstein, Steve Martin and Robert Cialdinis book Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion. Research has shown that rhymes are easier for people to process and therefore, claim the authors, because people tend to base accuracy evaluations, at least partly, on the perceived fluency of the incoming information, the rhyming statements are judged as more accurate. No wonder the Heinz tagline still resonates more than four decades after it was first written. Another way for brands to connect with people is to build more human relationships with them. This has been one of the driving forces behind the rise of interactive brand experiences. In Experiential Marketing, Shaz Smilansky writes of the importance of emotional connection, citing several research studies in support of her argument that emotional events are likely to be recalled in more

3 of 4

15/7/2009 1:15

How to push the brains buy button - The Marketer magazine

http://www.themarketer.co.uk/articles/how-to/how-to-push-the-brains-...

detail, and more often, than emotionally neutral events. To make experiential marketing as persuasive as possible, Smilansky believes, marketers should incorporate multisensory elements allowing consumers to touch, taste, smell, hear and see as long as they are relevant to the product. In achieving a multisensory and immersive live brand experience, we are triggering emotions that traditional marketing and advertising approaches will struggle to reach. Experiences that engage the senses affect the right brain hemisphere and create lasting impressions, she says. Understanding emotions and subconscious behaviour triggers can give marketers a real edge. Yet this is an area that some find disconcerting and that is potentially open to abuse. Packards Hidden Persuaders book advanced ethical questions that are still relevant today. Marketers have an obligation to understand which factors, hidden or otherwise, influence the decision making of their target audiences, but this must always be done in a manner that is not underhand or deceitful.

Case study: The power of now

Buy-now-pay-later incentives really do work and an experiment from Princeton University tells us why Martin Lindstroms book Buyology cites an illuminating neuromarketing experiment conducted by psychologists at Princeton University. A group of random students was asked to choose between two Amazon gift vouchers. If they picked the first, worth $15, they would receive it immediately. If they chose the second, worth $20, they would have to wait two weeks to receive it. The brain scans revealed that both gift options triggered activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that generates emotion. But the possibility of getting the $15 gift certificate straightaway caused an unusual flurry of stimulation in the limbic areas of most students brains a whole grouping of brain structures primarily responsible for emotions, as well as for the formation of memory. Of course, their rational minds knew that $20 was logically a better deal, but guess what their emotions won out, says Lindstrom.

Robert Gray is a freelance writer for marketing titles including Campaign

4 of 4

15/7/2009 1:15