Neuromarketing: New Research Into Why Customers Buy
Saturday, November 29th, 2008Top Internet marketers, direct response marketers and copywriters have long believed that people buy on emotion and rationalize with logic. They’ve further identified various emotions, such as ‘fear’ and ‘greed’, as being the emotional drivers behind many buying decisions.
But the new field of neuromarketing suggests that emotionally-driven purchase behavior actually goes much deeper than that. Customers may not even be aware of what emotions are governing their purchases!
Which, as you can imagine, has major implications for Internet marketing, and marketing in general!
‘Neuromarketing’ aims to identify the thought processes behind people’s responses the INSTANT they are presented with marketing information.
It does NOT involve asking people what they think or feel. As you’ll see below… whatever they say could be VERY misleading. Instead, neuroimaging equipment is used to monitor brain activity and where and how it changes when the subject is presented with stimuli. Based on an understanding of the kinds of thinking associated with different parts of the brain, researchers are able to identify the thought processes driving a particular decision.
Here’s an example of the powerful implications of neuromarketing research…
A few years ago neuromarketing researchers studied peoples’ neural reactions during a Coca-Cola/Pepsi taste test.
Interestingly, when the subjects were given non-branded versions of each drink, the taste triggered that region of their brains associated with preferences based on sensory information. The greater the taste, the more this region of the brain lit up.
If you’re familiar with the famous Pepsi Challenge, which Pepsi began in 1975, you’ll know that Pepsi has traditionally outperformed Coke on blind taste tests. Well, Pepsi beat Coke in these blind neuromarketing tests as well.
Interestingly, however, when the subjects were given branded versions of each drink, different parts of their brains lit up.
When the subjects tasted Pepsi, the area of their brains associated with sensory stimulation was again triggered. However, when they were given Coke, an entirely different area of their brains was activated: that associated with LONG TERM MEMORY.
In other words, the brand image of Coke activated thoughts stored in long-term memory. And memory, as it happens, is strongly associated with other regions of the brain that store BIAS PREFERENCES.
Moreover, this time, the subjects tended to prefer Coca-Cola over Pepsi. Which led the researchers to conclude that associations between memory and biases influenced the subjects’ perception of taste.
Other studies by neuromarketing researchers confirm the idea that people make buying decisions based on both a rational or logical analysis of purchase factors AND an emotional chain which biases their decision-making.
But here’s the key distinction - the emotional chain is deeply rooted in the consumer’s previous experiences:
- Past experience with the product in question;
- Past experience with marketing communications associated with the product e.g. advertising; and
- Other past experiences which may, in fact, be rooted in anything from personal upbringing to cultural background.
For example, another study by neuromarketing researchers found that wine shoppers were THREE TIMES more likely to buy wine of the same nationality as the background music playing at the time of purchase.
And here’s another insight from the same research: more than 75 percent of the wine shoppers specifically said that the background music had NO effect on their choice of wine. Further, only ONE of the 44 shoppers interviewed said that the background music influenced their buying
decision.
This study, as well as others, suggests that people MAY NOT EVEN BE AWARE of the key emotional drivers behind their buying decisions!
So what does this mean for Internet marketers and copywriters?
Firstly, it reaffirms the need to understand as much about our target market as possible.
But we can’t rely on what our prospects and customers tell us. And although most of us are unlikely to have access to neural imaging equipment (!)… we CAN use tools available on the Internet to monitor what people do on our websites and in response to our emails.
Over time, we can get a picture of how our prospects and customers behave in response to the different stimuli we provide. This, in turn, can help us gain a better understanding of our customers’ true emotional drivers (as opposed to what we ASSUME to be the drivers).
Secondly, it indicates that everything we do i.e. our products, services, customer service, marketing activities, etc all impact on our prospects and customers on a deep, emotional level. Not only do they develop emotional responses to our marketing but they STORE these responses in their long-term memories.
So while we can’t influence our prospects’ and customers’ emotional responses based on their personal experiences, cultural background, etc, we CAN help influence their emotional responses based on dealing with our product, service, marketing, etc.
In practical terms this really means aiming to create a positive experience (and memory) for as many of our prospects and customers as possible. While that’s nothing new, now at least, we have a greater appreciation of how crucial this is, given the power those long-held associations are likely to have on whether or not someone does business with us.
Source: Phil Harris, “Neuromarketing - marketing insights from neurimaging research”, Insights: Melbourne Economics and Commerce, Vol. 4, November 2008, p. 69-72
