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Using Neuromarketing to Sell Products
Cyan Peppa writes "Marketplace on CBC, that's a Canadian station for you Americans, had an interesting story on neuromarketing tonight. '...Neuromarketing uses traditional neuroscientific methods to determine the drivers behind consumer choices. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), researchers map brain patterns of participants, to reveal how they respond to a particular advertisement or product. This information can be used as the basis for new advertising campaigns and branding techniques...'
Now, I'm no genius, but isn't something like this wrong? Personally, I don't like advertisements tapdancing on the chest of my own free will...What do you think?"
Of course not. It's just another step in marketeers (They wear hats with ears) self justification of what they do. They can't force you to buy a product any more than they can force you to vote Democrat.
What they are really trying to do is figure out WHY people respond they way they do, and come up with advertisements that highlight their best selling points.
Associating beer with fun is stupid. Associating beer with a PARTY is very good. What they want isn't for you to say, I'm having fun lets have a beer, instead they'd like you to think, hmmm big group of people coming over for football, I should get Budweiser. They want situational association with their product (Nasty stain? Tide works good for that, but wouldn't you rather put some Shout on that?)
The best marketing plays into those associations, then society advertises for them:
Stain removal gel that prevents stains from setting? No, Shout.
Adhesive gauze strip?
Acetametaphine?
Chlorine Bleach?
Pressed Chicken Strips?
Facial Tissue?
Visual associations are better than word associations though, even with their name. They've done studies that show when ask to name a battery, more than 50% of their study will say Energizer, most likely because it keeps going and going and going and going. When asked to DRAW a battery or describe one, (Do it yourself real quick) most of them draw a black round cylinder with a golden cap at the positive end. The Coppertop, Duracel. When people 'think' battery they think Energizer, but when they REACH for a battery, they picture a Duracel.
That is what the scientists want to tap into.
Never confuse volume with power.
Advertising is just a way to make something seem like it is worth more than it is. It sucks.
I grew up with a lot of respect for advertizing, and as an art, I still do respect it. However, I've learned that like all profitable art, the field is mostly clogged with hacks.
Advertising need not be aimed at making a product look better than it is. In fact, some advertising does just the oposite (remember the "time to make the donuts" commercials? they actually tried to make donuts look as un-glamarous as possible, it was about service and dedication to the customer).
There are several kinds of ad:
1. The promise of return on investment (you will make money, or you will get babes, or your hair will grow back, peer aproval, etc). Tangible rewards promised. These are sometimes true and accurate, but often spurious.
2. The promise of instant gratification (mmm.... look at the tasty burger... do you really want to WAIT for someone to cook a non-fast-food burger?) These are often quite accurate, but far more manipulative than any other form of advertizing. It's also easy to combine this with the previous catagory.
3. The promise of quality. It's been said that you can sell a man his own shit as long as you tell him he's buying the highest quality shit. The best of this sort of ad, IMHO, was the razor ads where the guy talked about how the razor was so good he bought the company. Testimonials are one way you promise quality. Comparisons and tests are another (take the Pepsi Challenge, which was one of the most strikingly honest campaigns I've ever seen... people really did like the taste of Pepsi better when sampled fairly).
There are others, but that's most of them in a nutshell. Now, here's a little trick you can do. Watch the ads. PAY ATTENTION. Think to yourself, "why are you using this particular tactic?" For example, if you're promising me babes, why AREN'T you promising me quality? What other competing products CAN offer quality?
If you promise me quality, have you honestly compared yourself to the competition? Do you have to resort to tricks like "leading brand" (one of my favorites. you compare yourself to "leading brand" by picking your competition's bargain product that you and they both know is crap, while ignoring their "premium product"). If so, why? Is there a competitor that's actually higher quality?
These tricks force your perspective out of the hole that the commercial tries to channel you into. Once you do that, you can start to actually benefit from commercials!
The next trick is harder, and involves some actuall hard questions. You need to start asking yourself: "do I even want this class of product in the first place?"
I have no problem with ads for tampons, pads, etc. because I think most women will agree they are a good and necessary product. Imrpovements in that product are often a good thing and improve quality of life for many women. Since it's a stable market, the products actually do have to compete on improvements to the product, so everyone wins.
On the other hand, extruded cheese snack #147 is *not* something that you need in your life. The ad is still successful even if you end up buying the competition because it has convinced you that you need to to buy extruded cheese snacks at all, ever. The ad has essentially created a new market space, and just as Linux vendors don't much care which Linux you go with as long as you stop running Windows (it all serves to expand and validate the Linux market) the cheese snack vendors just want you to avoid asking "why do I need a cheese snack?"