Do you have any idea how powerful your unconscious mind is? It hoards all your thoughts, emotions and feelings that your conscious mind isn’t even aware of! And, this is exactly what drives your behavior and personality. Now, how the field of marketing has utilized this phenomenon for its benefit is incredibly interesting.
What is Neuromarketing?
Putting together the two great fields of “neuroscience” and “marketing”, a wonder came into being in 2002 named, neuromarketing. It’s a domain of marketing that utilizes the technology to measure brain activity and looks into people’s responses to marketing elements. These elements include particular products, presentation, advertising and more. Neuromarketing helps to understand the mind of a consumer and how it acts under specific conditions. This aids marketers to study the strategies they use and their effectiveness in bringing about a required action.
Technologies in Neuromarketing
A massive array of techniques and tools are used to research and comprehend the reactions of the human brain to various stimuli. The cognitive, emotional and behavioral information is collected and utilized in applying better marketing plans. Some of those techniques are briefly described below.
- EEG (Electroencephalogram)
EEG or Electroencephalogram is a widely used technique that records the electrical activity in the brain in response to any stimulus. It’s portable, economical and comes up with valuable information. EEG includes the use of a headgear having tiny sensors which is placed on the scalp while it analyzes the activity in the brain and the change in the electrical currents. For neuromarketing, an EEG records the attention, affective valence, engagement and how well a consumer memorizes the details from a given prompt.
- GSR (Galvanic Skin response)
A galvanometer measures Galvanic Skin Response. It includes evaluating the skin perspiration due to the changes happening in the skin electricity conductance. When a consumer is subjected to a stimulus that excites them, the endocrine glands in the skin work rapidly and increase the sweating. So, this technique helps professionals gain a better understanding of which products or strategies astound the customer.
- Eye Tracking
Eye-tracking in neuromarketing measures the movements of eyes in reaction to the given cue. It makes use of infrared light to identify the position of the pupil while a consumer is looking onto the cue. Besides, this technique notes the glaring pattern to understand the visual path and attention. It is done via stationary eye-tracker placed on the screen, eye-tracking glasses, and webcams.
- Virtual Reality
Virtual reality has proved to be an excellent tool to use in neuromarketing researches. It incorporates making virtual stores or outdoor setting that analyzes the consumer’s shopping experience. It tests the newly introduced designs of stores, setting of the products, packaging of things and more. Also, it determines what caught the attention of a customer as soon as he entered the store or what didn’t come in his notice at all. Virtual reality is an amazing tool that helps improve the designs and advertising before the production of goods or setting up the actual stores.
- Implicit Association Tests
Implicit Association Tests determine the unconscious beliefs of a consumer towards a product, concept or experience. This method counts in providing particular statements and asking the users to categorize them. This reveals the values connected to a concept, and the speed at which the consumer responds indicates how strong that value is.
Insights from Neuromarketing
All the excellent neuromarketing tools have indeed ushered in an enormous bundle of insights about customer behavior and how their brain reacts to the marketing strategies. Given below are few of them.
- Scarcity Inclines Faster Shopping
Scarcity can be a great way to make people buy instantly. Whenever a consumer comes to know that only limited pieces of a product are available, their brains react immediately and urge them to buy that product before it runs out of stock. So, the lines like “only a few pieces left” or “till stock lasts” can be really useful in convincing a customer to shop.
- FREE is Not Always the Best
When a consumer sees that something is given for free, their brain automatically links it with something being wrong with the product. However, when the lowest possible amount is mentioned in front of products such as $1, the customer tends to buy it with no second thoughts.
- The Color Game
Proper utilization of colors can be quite a game-changer in marketing. Colors induce certain emotions and convince the buyer to shop for the product. Besides, the use of neuromarketing has found out that the saturation levels in designs and ads grab more attention towards them by increasing the size of the objects. Another finding reports that cool blue colors can be fantastic in attracting professionals.
- More Makes it Difficult
Is it easier for you to choose from 5 variants than 50 of them? It’s true, and it’s absolutely natural! The wider variety there is to pick from, the more confusion it creates. Websites and stores rack up a massive collection of products and services for its consumers, which instead of delighting them, makes them more confuse and results in them leaving without buying anything. Neuromarketing revealed that providing fewer but good options make it easier for customers and compel them to buy.
Summing it up, neuromarketing is an astonishing specialty in the field of marketing which has brought unusual and fantastic facts in the limelight. It has made it easier for marketers and professionals to study the campaigns and improve the strategies they’re coming up with. Alongside, the advancement in technology has been a bounty to explore consumer experiences and brain activity.
