Neuromarketing is catching on as a way of analyzing brain activity to gain insights into consumer decision-making to develop more effective marketing strategies.
Read on to learn about neuromarketing and how you can apply this to your brand.
What Is Neuromarketing?
Neuromarketing is the use of neuroscience methods in marketing to better understand consumer behavior.
It’s a form of consumer research that intersects three significant areas: marketing, market research, and neural imaging, to learn about consumer reactions, emotions, and preferences. The insights gained from this process help brands to understand customer motivations and segment them accordingly.
How Does Neuromarketing Work?
Neuromarketing measures brain activity using two standard methods: brain scanning, which analyzes neural activity, and physiological tracking, which monitors optical movement.
The two primary techniques for brain scanning are electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). While EEG is ineffective in brain scanning, fMRI can be cumbersome and cost more.
The techniques for measuring physiological tracking are relatively cheap and easy to use. They include:
- Eye gaze tracking: This technique detects where a consumer directs their gaze for a specific time, indicating increased interest.
- Eye pupil tracking: Measures the dilation of a subject’s pupils to show what excites them.
- Biometrics: This tests a consumer’s skin conduction, heart rate, and other biometric functions to reveal what grabs their attention
- Facial coding: Focuses on facial expressions to show a subject’s emotional response
- Sensory marketing: Measures a customer’s response to a product via sensory stimuli like smell or touch.
- Implicit response tests: The approach measures a customer’s attitude to two competing stimuli based on the time elapsed.
Neuromarketing and consumer neuroscience help reveal thought patterns when exposed to stimuli. They show us how our brains respond when we view products. Lastly, they can show us how our brains react to buying patterns.
Neuromarketing research improves the performance of marketing tactics. Consumer neuroscience studies certain aspects of neural activity to understand how to build brand loyalty.
How Can You Use Neuromarketing for Your Brand?
Neuromarketing is about understanding a customer’s real needs and wants so that brands can develop innovative products and carry out efficient marketing campaigns.
Neuromarketing research can assist your brand in the following ways.
Advertising
Neuromarketing informs your brand which ads work better. Neuromarketing research has shown that ads are more effective when consumers are not paying close attention to them.
For instance, an ad that appears imperceptibly across your screen registers in your brain and consciously changes your perception of the product.
Entertainment
Neuromarketing explains the effectiveness of entertainment for your company’s marketing. Consumers may not fully understand how an entertainment ad is relevant to your product, but they can relate it to your brand anytime they encounter it.
For instance, after watching a fun commercial about a restaurant menu, a customer will always remember it when he wants to have a meal.
Brand Loyalty
Neuromarketing shows how strong impressions in long-term memory elevate certain brands for consumers. A solid brand is one a subject remembers when they come across their product. It is imprinted on their minds through indiscernible branding like subtle packaging.
Shopping
Neuromarketing helps you understand that situational factors can help override a customer’s conscious intent. Supermarkets are designed so shoppers are exposed to much information and sensory stimulation and spend little time making conscious choices.
For example, most supermarkets will place snacks close to the checkout counters for consumers to pick up after an exhausting shopping experience.
Product Design
Neuromarketing allows brands to determine what consumers want before launching a product. Brands can even go further and predict the success and failure of a current product before it is introduced to the market. Brands can organize consumer groups where facial and optical behavior is recorded to give them clues about a customer’s preferences.
Need Help With Content Marketing?
Neuromarketing can help brands improve and fine-tune their marketing strategies but consistently putting out trust-building content that covers the type of queries your (potential) customers are looking for is what will help you drive customer acquisition and sales.
Contact us if you need help designing and executing a content marketing strategy for your brand!
