The Grey Matters of Neuromarketing
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the grey matters of neuromarketing: what is it & why does it work? marketing with your prospects’ “animal brains” in mind separating the “pseudo” from the “science.” “Religion, enlightenment in the fourth grade classroom. Take a few seconds to transport yourself back to fourth grade science class. We realize superstition this may be a less-than-pleasant mental trip for some of you, so we’ll make it quick. and fear were The kid next to you takes on a sickly green color as your teacher passes out the dead frogs. The girls in the next replaced by row are giggling and exchanging notes filled with glitter reason and and gossip. But that’s not the important stuff. The target of our time travel is that poster hanging on the back of knowledge.” the classroom door. The poster, with its bold, glossy colors, shouts: SCIENTIFIC METHOD PURPOSE J. D. Bernal, Marxist RESEARCH historian and scientist HYPOTH… You get the idea. The scientific method: the steps your science teacher had you take to make something scientific. “To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.” Yeah, she said something like that. Put into motion by ancient Egyptians, the deductive Plato and the empirical Aristotle, and then further refined by Arab scholar Alhazen, Galileo, Kepler, Bacon, Descartes and Mill, the scientific method and evidence-based thinking separated the “pseudo” from the “science.” It drew the line between alchemists and chemists, mystics and metrics. It put the sun at the center of the solar system and shined light on the atom. 2 escaping the “dark labyrinth.” Einstein famously stated that we cannot understand the universe without speaking its language: the “triangles, circles and other geometrical figures” that make life tick. If you don’t speak the language, you might as well be “wandering around in a dark labyrinth,” he claimed. Einstein used this “dark labyrinth” to symbolize the futility of physics without quantifiable data and mathematical models, but you don’t have to be a theoretical physicist or quantum mechanic to realize how relevant this analogy is to many aspects of life. You have to speak the language of your subject matter in order to understand it. Just as important, you have to speak the language of your audience in order to connect with and make an impact on them. ©Yousef Karsh 3 putting the science “The rational into marketing. mind is the market to your prospects’ intuitive brains, humble servant, not their rational minds. the intuitive When it comes to marketing your business, you have to speak the language of your brain the sacred prospects. But you must know that this dialect isn’t a purely conscious or tangible one. Not only is this language more emotional than logical, but your prospects are also gift. We have speaking it without even realizing it. And that’s okay. In fact, it’s how things are created a society supposed to work. that honors the It’s not your prospects’ job to know the science of this language. That, my friend, is your job. servant, and has forgotten “It is not the customers’ job to know what they want.” Steve Jobs, co-founder and former chairman/CEO of Apple Inc. the gift.” You have to understand the language of the unconscious, intuitive brain, not the conscious, rational mind. Albert Einstein “The conscious mind is simply not running the show, but we’ve created an entire industry pretending that it does.” Douglas Van Praet, author of Unconscious Branding This unconscious language of the “animal brain” is the language of neuromarketing, and to survive in today’s marketplace, you have to learn, live and love this language. 4 neuromarketing ≠ manipulating minds. This isn’t about using sneaky strategies to control your prospects and customers. Today’s buyer is far too savvy and empowered to fall for marketing manipulations and subliminal advertising that vilified the industry in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Neuromarketing is about understanding the real way your prospects think, decide and purchase – the “rumblings below the cortical surface” – so you can create more likable, more effective and less costly marketing. 5 * “The fact of neuromarketing = smarter marketing. Most business owners, and even marketers themselves, are selling their products and the matter is services without understanding how to connect them with people. anyone can do *Smarter marketing = understanding how your customers’ brains work to get better neuromarketing results with less guesswork and less cost. With the help of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and without ever electroencephalogram (EEG) technology, modern neuroscience is showing us what consumers are really connecting with when they’re making decisions. What’s more, it’s scanning a showing us that consumers’ brains tell quite a different story than the spiel that comes single brain.” out of their mouths. “Our conscious minds are designed to think up stories to try to explain and make meaning of the hidden forces and hardwired Douglas Van Praet, author neural programs that guide our behavior” … of Unconscious Branding In other words, your prospects are making decisions based on underlying brain processes that they’re not even aware of. And then they’re offering up whatever evidence that comes to mind: any reasonable explanation that make their decisions seem logical. In the world of psychiatry, this post-rationalization – “I chose X because of Y.” – is called “confabulation.” … “to believe our lies and confabulations… to hide most of our intentions and promote self-confidence, an adaptive function that improves lives and prevents information overload.” Douglas Van Praet, author of Unconscious Branding Note: You don’t need a big research budget and access to fMRI and EEG machines to take advantage of neuromarketing. All you need is awareness of the research that’s being done and the common sense to apply it to your own marketing. 6 aristotle: “know thyself.” neuromarketers: easier said than done. The visual cortex sees more than meets the eye. Blindsight: the ability to respond to visual stimuli without consciously perceiving them. Studies of individuals blinded by brain damage show that this isn’t just hokey subliminal manipulation. Even with lesions in their primary visual cortex, known as “V1,” they’re able to navigate around obstacles, correctly point to specific targets and reach out and grab strategically placed items – all without conscious knowledge of how they’re doing it. The top neurologists and neurosurgeons in the world admit there is still a lot we don’t fully understand about perception, with neural projections going backward from each level in the visual processing hierarchy outnumbering those going forward. We may not completely understand how blindsight works. But this is not due to lack of neuroscientists’ effort. There are several viable theories based on some pretty compelling research, like the Nature study on macaque monkeys that suggests the boss of blindsight is the lateral geniculate nucleus, which lies in the sensory-relaying thalamus. www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/nature09179 7 But what visual experts do know is that what was once thought – that perceptions must enter consciousness to affect our behavior – is simply not true. There’s more to the picture than the primary V1 pathway. We have a secondary, more primitive system – V2, V3, V4 and V5 – that feeds directly into our subconscious. What’s the takeaway from this? You need to keep your message consistent and your marketing on point at all times, even when your prospects aren’t paying attention or, more accurately, when they aren’t consciously paying attention. Colors, shapes, messaging, names, logos, etc. – it’s all subject to subconscious storage in your prospects’ emotional brains. So keep it consistent, keep it genuine and keep it remarkable… even when no one’s “watching.” The ventral putamen likes it sweet. You’re probably familiar with the classic Pepsi Challenge: the ongoing blind taste test, first conducted in 1975 by PepsiCo, that consistently puts Pepsi ahead of Coke. Neuroscientist Read Montague re-enacted the Pepsi challenge in 2003, but this time scanning the tasters’ brains with an MRI machine. Just as in the original Challenge, the two carbonated beverages were not labeled. On average, people reported liking the unlabeled Pepsi more. This was backed up by the MRI machine: Pepsi produced a stronger response in the ventral putamen, a brain region associated with reward processing. And even in the minority of subjects who reported preferring the unlabeled Coke, the putamen in their brains was five times less active than it was in the majority who reported preferring the unlabeled Pepsi. The preference for Pepsi has been highly attributed to its sweeter taste. 8 The syrupy scandal. “You would Coke’s response in 1985 led to what Time magazine ranks as #23 on the have thought we list of 50 Worst Inventions Ever and what Advertising Age claimed to be the industry’s sixth worst moment: the product that introduced “the new taste cured cancer.” of Coca-Cola.” Coca-Cola executive, Officially labeled Coca-Cola II in 1992, the new, sweeter beverage gave rise talking about the public’s to a campaign group called “Old Cola Drinkers of America.” The group euphoric of Coke’s original, 99-year-old formula publicly poured the new Coke down drains and, naturally, the media drank it up. Just 77 days after the new formula was introduced, Coca-Cola executives announced the return of the original, 99-year-old formula. ABC News’ Peter Jennings even interrupted General Hospital to share “the second coming” of the old Coke: Coke Classic. Conspiracy theories still bubble up now and again: • Some people swear that the soft drink company purposely changed the formula to upset the public, incite demand for its old product and spike sales.