Neuroscience and marketing have become a dynamic duo, transforming the way businesses target and draw in their audiences. Unsurprisingly, marketing—at least effective marketing—works closely with psychology. It makes sense: the better a business understands their target market, the better they can cater their product or service towards them.
It’s worth grasping the basics of how exactly neuromarketing works before traipsing into the ethics of it because in most cases the bulk of society remains unaware of such methods. To explain neuroscience on a simple level, it studies the affective and cognitive responses of human beings. This strategy is used to figure out why the brain makes the decisions it does and what part of the brain is telling them to do it. That translates into understanding people’s responses to the coloring of the product, the packaging, the advertising and much more.
Marketers have become especially adept at pulling in their target market through the advances in big data, too. The ample amount of information available through the use of data mining is instrumental in developing neuromarketing. Companies now have the ability to see what appeals to their consumers and then tailor their marketing towards that.
Some of the largest companies (Google, CBS and Disney) have devoted research into neuromarketing, as they’ve recognized the competitive advantage it gives them. Let’s check out a few methods of neuromarketing.
One of the first techniques is to focus on emotions. This appeals to the subconscious mind of the consumer. Visuals are prevalent in this instance, as the brain takes approximately 50 milliseconds to process images. A good example of this would be the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’s (ASPCA) commercial for neglected and abused animals. The bulk of the video depicts cats and dogs that have been mistreated, thus evoking strong feelings from the viewers.
Another trick is how companies display their pricing. Our brains subconsciously react differently to pricing listed at $99.95 and $100.00 It’s also seen during online shopping. Have you ever put multiple articles of clothing into your shopping cart and only hesitate to buy once the shipping rates were revealed?
Another strategy focuses on colors. They are effective at evoking certain emotions or feelings. McDonald’s offers a good example. The brands colors, red and yellow, elicit hunger. If you pay mind to other company logos, take note that the color blue evokes professionalism, black alludes to stability and power, orange facilitates a sense of caution and so on.
Beyond the pull of emotions, pricing and colors, neuromarketing acknowledges that people prefer familiarity. Our brains enjoy patterns and neutrality. When we recognize a pattern, our brains produce dopamine which is coined as the “feel-good hormone.” This is why it’s crucial for a brand to maintain its identity through a consistent visual theme.
The final “hack” that’ll be referenced is the use of social influence. Various successful companies, such as, Nike, Coca Cola and Adidas have all used celebrities with enormous platforms as brand ambassadors. Oftentimes referenced as the “cheerleader” effect, if key influencers support a particular company, their followers will most likely support it as well, thus making the product/service appear more attractive. Fear of missing out also plays into it. Did you buy Nike shoes because you genuinely wanted the pair, or was it because most of your friends have Nike shoes and it’s what’s “in?” This increases the demand for their shoes, and Nike can get away with increasing their prices because of how strong their brand identity is.
Understandably, it can be off-putting to recognize just how malleable we can be. Put it this way: marketers are simply looking for better ways to increase their customer base, and the best method is to first understand it. Perhaps a few ethical arguments can be drawn, but as with the information technology argument, we have been at the disposal of conglomerates for years. So, yes, neuroscience plus marketing equals manipulation, yet manipulation equals profit. In order for neuromarketing to be coined as manipulation, their audience must be unaware of the tactics used. Based off of the previous examples, the bulk of the target market is supposed to be unmindful to these methods for them to actually be effective. It’s challenging to draw the line between how far is too far, because how else will companies market their product or service?
Typically, manipulation has a negative connotation. In this instance, it shouldn’t. A synonym for manipulation is influence. Now, if I were to state: neuroscience plus marketing equals influence, the interpretation will vary. Presently, we should focus our concerns on our personal data. The least we can do is become aware and hope to eventually gain the ability to filter just how much data companies can draw from us, because that’s where ethics really comes into play.
