Neuromarketing

The power of the brain in marketing

What is neuromarketing?

Neuromarketing is an emerging field that applies medical insights from neuroscience to marketing. The aim is to align products and services better with consumer needs and make marketing activities more effective. The use of neuroscientific knowledge and techniques in business sometimes raises ethical questions.

Within neuromarketing there are three key aspects:

Research into consumer choices. This type of research focuses on why consumers make certain choices and how brands influence those choices. The results of this research are often published in trade journals and offer marketers valuable insights. Commercial applications and research agencies Commercial applications of neuromarketing use medical knowledge and techniques, such as functional MRI, to study consumers' reactions to advertising campaigns. Research agencies play an important role here. Psychological techniques These techniques use psychological knowledge of emotions and brain processes, such as Facial Coding, to analyse consumers' facial expressions. This helps marketers understand better how people respond to marketing stimuli.

Applications of neuromarketing

Neuromarketing is used for various purposes, including:   Ad optimisation. Neuromarketing helps marketers optimise their advertising campaigns to trigger the desired reactions from consumers.   Concept testing Businesses can use neuromarketing to test and refine new product or service concepts before bringing them to market.   Brand optimisation Neuromarketing supports brands in designing messages and visual identities that resonate with consumers' deep-rooted emotions and preferences.   Pricing strategy optimisation By applying neuromarketing techniques, businesses can determine the ideal pricing for their products.   Optimising packaging The way a product is packaged has a big influence on how appealing it is to consumers. Neuromarketing can help design packaging that catches the eye.

How does neuromarketing work?

To understand how neuromarketing works, we need to go back to basics: our brains. Our brains consist of billions of nerve cells, called neurons, which send signals to each other via neurotransmitters. Neuromarketing is all about understanding these neural responses to sensory stimuli, such as images, sounds, colours, smells and language structures. The aim is to present the right stimuli at the right moment to activate pleasure areas in the brain and so increase consumers' preference for certain products, services or brands.

Research techniques in neuromarketing

To measure the brain's responses to marketing stimuli, neuromarketers use various techniques:

EEG (electroencephalography)

This technique measures brain waves to map brain activity and gives insight into overall brain activity in response to stimuli.

fMRI (functional MRI)

With fMRI, researchers can follow brain activity in real time while test subjects look at or listen to marketing stimuli, which gives detailed insight into which parts of the brain are activated.

Eye tracking

Eye tracking is used to record where people look when they view marketing materials, so marketers can understand and optimise the points of attention.

Biometric measurements

Measuring physiological responses such as heart rate and skin conductance can reveal unconscious emotional reactions to marketing stimuli.

Emotion recognition

By analysing facial expressions, researchers can recognise emotions in consumers and understand how they respond to marketing messages.

Brain measurements in neuromarketing

With neuromarketing, marketers can measure various kinds of brain data to assess the effectiveness of their campaigns. Some of these measurements are: Desire How much desire does your product or service arouse in consumers? Neuromarketing can measure this by analysing brain activity. Engagement How engaged are consumers with your marketing communication? An engaged consumer is often more likely to take action. Confusion Too much confusion in marketing materials can put consumers off. Neuromarketing can help identify confusing elements.

The ethics of neuromarketing

Although neuromarketing can offer valuable insights, it also raises ethical questions. Using medical techniques and insights to influence consumer behaviour raises questions about privacy, manipulation and transparency. It is important that marketers follow ethical guidelines and respect the limits of consumer respect.

Neuromarketing in practice

Example #1: Show what sets you apart

We start right away with perhaps the most important example of all. Namely, what do you have to offer people that your competitors do not?

So why would people choose the service or product from your business and not from your competitors? In other words, what is your USP (unique selling point)?

We understand this is not a question you can answer easily. So take the time to think it over.

To make it a bit easier for you, we have listed the USPs of Coolblue below

• ordered before 23:59 on Sunday, delivered free on Monday
• Free exchanges
• 14 real shops
• Our app
• Best webshop 2021

Below we have put together a few tips for formulating your own USPs.

1. Research which USPs your competitors show. Sometimes you do the same as a competitor, but the competitor does not show it to their website visitors. An example is sustainability. More and more businesses value sustainability, but then do not show it on their website.

2. Ask customers why they chose your business. By asking this question you discover motivations you would not have thought of yourself. That gives you more insight into your customers' needs and wishes.

Once you have a picture of your USPs, it is time for phase 2. Show everyone what sets you apart.

You can do this by putting them in the fixed header or by repeating them on your page. Here too we use the example of Coolblue.

They placed the USPs with ticks at the top of their header. Then they show their customer rating, likes and free home delivery. Finally, they show the USPs with ticks again in the footer (right at the bottom of the page).

 

Example #2: Use social proof

It is great when visitors land on your website or webshop, but you want those visitors to show the desired behaviour.

For that it is important that you can convince visitors why you are the right choice. In principle, it is important that you take away the visitor's ‘doubts’. Social proof plays a big role here.

Imagine the following: you are looking for a product on a webshop you have never heard of. Because you do not know the website, you wonder whether the webshop is reliable at all.

‘Do they deliver the right products?’ or ‘can the webshop be trusted?’ are questions that come to mind. You decide to read the reviews on the site.

You see that the webshop gets a high score from customers and you read many good reviews. Because others are satisfied, you notice your doubts fading.

This is exactly the power of social proof! All the doubts you had before have faded thanks to the positive customer reviews!

And there are more ways to tap into social proof. You can show your visitors how many people have already bought the product. Or you can label products as ‘most chosen’ or ‘others also bought’.

These are all tricks to take away visitors' doubts. Because when a visitor has no more doubts, the visitor goes with your business.

 

Example #3: Authority

The third technique involves authority. It is important that you have authority over the service or product you offer. That makes people more likely to buy the service or product from you.

We have an example of this too.

Imagine you are in a room with someone wearing a long white professor's coat. Chances are you think they are a professor with a lot of knowledge of their field. Just because they are wearing a professor's coat. Their coat gives them authority.

You can apply exactly this to your own website too. Show visitors that you are an authority in your field.

You can do this by:

1. Displaying quality marks and certificates
2. Sharing your experience, for example by showing case studies
3. Creating an about us page with photos of you and the company
4. Scoring high on Google
5. Writing blogs about your field

Curious about more ways to optimise your website? Then take a look at this blog: 6 ways to build a converting website: the ultimate guide.

The future of neuromarketing

Now that neuromarketing keeps growing as a field of marketing research and application, we can ask ourselves what the future holds. Will smaller organisations get access to neuromarketing techniques? Will new developments and technologies make neuromarketing even more powerful? Time will tell. In conclusion, neuromarketing is a fascinating field that uses the power of neuroscience and psychology to make marketing more effective. It offers deep insights into consumer behaviour, but also raises important ethical questions. The possibilities seem endless and we can’t wait to see how neuromarketing will go on to change the marketing world.

 

Neuromarketing is about understanding why people choose what they choose. On your website you can simply test that: we take it on as conversion optimisation. At a cosmetic surgery clinic it went from 0 to 20+ conversions a month this way, for €28 per Conversion.