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Marketing Practice
MIND GAMES MARKETERS PLAY
We’re all consumers. Nearly everyone has made an impulse buy, yet few are aware of the hundreds of subconscious macro-decisions our brains make before we decide on something.
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By Martin Lindstrom
Author and Marketing Expert
I’ve spent my career wondering why we decide to buy what we do. What happens in our brains in the 2.5 seconds before we open our wallets?
We’re inundated with media: TV, the Internet, magazines, newspapers, cell phones and radio. Our minds are overwhelmed, clearing the way for subconscious, sometimes irrational decision processes.
In Project Buyology, a team of neuroscientists scanned and measured the brains of 2,081 volunteers from the US, UK, Germany, Japan and China using fRMI and SST. The fMRI technology measures the magnetic properties of hemoglobin, the component of red blood cells that carries oxygen. High oxygen levels indicate increased brain activity. SST is an advanced form of the electroencephalogram technology that measures brain waves in milliseconds and determines in real time whether an image is appealing enough to penetrate our long-term memory.
Three years later the results were published and, not surprisingly, drew some criticism. A group called Commercial Alert petitioned Congress to prohibit neuromarketing, claiming that brain-scanning is a form of mind control. I disagree: neuromarketing is the future of advertising and ultimately will raise consumer awareness of marketing tactics and help them make good buying decisions.
Following are a few important marketing techniques.
Realm of the senses
Our senses deceive us daily. Buyers of technology products, for instance, typically equate weight with quality. Consumers handling lightweight TV remote controls have been found to perceive them as flimsy. Bang & Olufsen and other manufacturers often make remote controls heavier by stuffing them with wads of aluminum. The breathy gasp a Nescafé instant coffee lid makes when opened is manufactured. So is the snap, crackle, pop of Rice Krispies cereal.
Smell is the most primal sense. Nasal odor receptors make a beeline to the limbic system, which controls emotions, memory and sense of well-being. Samsung uses a honeydew melon fragrance at its flagship store in New York City to relax shoppers; that familiar “new car” smell comes from a can. Even the subtlest of aromas can have a potent effect on shoppers. In one study, researchers placed two pairs of identical Nike running shoes in separate rooms, identical except for a floral scent in one of the rooms. Volunteers examined the shoes, and 84 percent preferred the ones in the scented room. Moreover, they believed the scented-room shoes cost about $10 more.
Don’t know why
Why pick a particular TV from the many similar brands available? Purchase choices often are based on a lifetime of associations of which we are unaware. Brains summon and scan memories, facts and emotions, and squeeze them into a rapid response – a shortcut, or bookmark of sorts, known as a somatic marker.
Why buy a German car over other comparable brands? It might have be the company’s slogan, such as “Vorsprung durch Technik.” It hardly matters what it means. The point is that the brain equates “automobile” with “Germany” and a lifetime of input about Teutonic car manufacturing. High standards. Precision. Consistency. Rigor. Trustworthiness.
Just as over the course of your lifetime, you may subconsciously associate “Japan” with technological excellence and craftsmanship. Maybe that’s why you own a Japanese brand LCD television.
You and me against the world
Ever wondered why you pump your fist in the air after a goal by your favorite football team? From a neuroscience perspective, mirror neurons are to blame. When humans observe human action, our brains react as if we were performing the activities ourselves.
Imagine shopping in the video game section of an electronics store, where shoppers can try strapping a model guitar around their necks and playing along to their favorite rock ’n’ roll bands. You’ve always dreamed of being a rock star and buy the game. Mirror neurons overcame rational thoughts, such as it’s expensive or a children’s game.
Mirror neurons often work with dopamine, one of the brain’s pleasure chemicals. When you see a desirable object, dopamine subtly flushes the brain with pleasure and the promise of reward. Before you know it, you’ve put the item on your credit card. A few minutes later, the euphoria subsides and you feel unaccountably low. Sound familiar?
Something cool
The rush of pleasure we experience in anticipation of buying may help enhance reproductive success and prepare for survival. Consciously or not, men and women calculate purchases based on social status – and status is linked with reproductive success.
Scientists have found that an area in the frontal cortex of the brain known as Brodmann area 10 is activated when we see products we think of as cool. Brodmann area 10 is associated with self-perception and social emotions. Whether we know it or not, we assess snazzy stuff largely in terms of its capacity to enhance social prestige. That Alfa Romeo might be just what we need to attract a mate who could carry on our genetic line.
Won’t get fooled again
Marketers know that the more rituals a brand has, the “stickier” – more stable, familiar and reassuring – consumers perceive it to be. The Corona beer and lime slice, for instance, is a pairing devised by a bartender in the early 1990s to make the brand fun, sporty and memorable. Heinz ketchup and Guinness beer have managed to turn the slow pour into an art. Heinz boasts that its ketchup comes out of the bottle at .028 miles per hour, while Guinness declares “it takes 119.53 seconds to pour the perfect pint.” Both ads appeal to the instinct that equates slow with high quality.
Further, once we become accustomed to the navigational keys of a particular mobile, most of us are loathe to change brands. Subconsciously, few wish to tamper with our “implicit” memory, which encompasses everything we know how to do without thinking about it, from riding a bike to parallel parking.
Real good for free
Huge markdowns, or even the anticipation of upcoming sales, spark a primal urge in consumers’ brains. The prospect of a bargain activates our centuries-old hoarding instinct. We want, need, have to buy, often in outrageous quantities, because who knows what the future will bring? Recently, my team and I carried out fMRI scans on consumers shown various “going out of business” banners. Their brains were firing up like Chinese lanterns. A second neuroscience study also revealed that consumers quickly become addicted to discounts. Securing the lowest price often becomes the chief catalyst of behavior. As far as the brain is concerned, it’s all about winning the game.
Don’t look now
Does subliminal advertising work? Tobacco companies say “yes.” Ever since tobacco advertising was banned, marketers have invested heavily in rugged clothing, gloves, watches, caps, scarves, boots, vests, jackets, jeans and even bars and restaurants that convey the essence of the brand without mentioning the brand name or showing a logo.
Tobacco companies have been forced to develop a new set of skills that include sports sponsorship – NASCAR and Formula 1 racing, for instance. What better way to convey feelings of risk, youth, dynamism and living on the edge?
We put longtime smokers to the subliminal test under fMRI. As they viewed slides – from a red Ferrari to a good-looking cowboy to a NASCAR mechanic, to a lone camel in the Middle East – the scans revealed significant activity in the subjects’ nucleus accumbens, the brain’s region for craving. The activity was even greater than when the smokers viewed direct advertising imagery. Despite worldwide advertising bans, outspoken and frequent health warnings from the medical community, and anti-smoking campaigns, the US Food & Drug Administration estimates that a whopping 5.7 trillion cigarettes are bought annually worldwide.
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