Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing, also called consumer neuroscience, is a field of study that’s revolutionizing the way in which we design marketing strategies. By understanding how the user’s brain works, we can catch the customer’s attention and get the desired effect to boost our brand. Want to know how it works? Read on!
What is neuromarketing?
It’s a field of study that focuses on the customer’s brain activity to pinpoint the process behind decision making. Paul Ekman, one of the most renowned psychologists of the 20th century, studied the emotional reactions behind the involuntary facial expressions produced by different stimuli. Neuromarketing tries to target the most instinctive and primitive brain: the reptilian brain.
Nowadays, marketers apply this study with new software technology: A team of professionals of different areas such as neuroscience and publicity assemble to determine how stimuli affects our buying judgement and set out a marketing strategy accordingly.
Variables that affect our buying decisions:
- Emotions
- Attention span
- Cultural background
- Economic background
With a little help from my tools…
First things first: you need to analyze the user’s present reaction to your website in order to ascertain the possible steps to improve the impact of your brand. Some tools can help you tackle the low numbers and let your brand take off:
- Heat maps: With just a few clicks you can find a program that detects in which sections of the site the user lingers. With this info you can shape your content and graphic design to please the user’s eye.
- Surveys: Whether you choose social media or an e-mail invite for conducting the survey, you may get interesting user feedback for customizing your product. Try to ask the right questions that will provide meaningful data for defining the new course of action.
Neuromarketing for your strategy
The first step is always the hardest, so, to ease your way into the world of neuromarketing, follow these tips:
Follow your gut
Our brain is wired to organize information hierarchically, that’s why vivid colors, bold letters and powerful contrasts pleasure the eye. By observing the eye movements while scanning through a web page, two main intuitive designs have been determined:
- F pattern: The classic pattern that follows the eye’s natural left-to-right movement and prioritizes information clearly. It’s the typical website with a big title, an image and text. Brands wanting to give a call to action while also providing rich content usually go for this design pattern.
- Z pattern: Just like the F pattern, Z pattern takes into consideration the eye movement but, for the most part, it doesn’t provide much text because the purpose of the design is to take the users to an action and take them fast.
An image is worth a thousand words
Do you want your brand to me remembered? Then let the user see the product through an attractive image. The reason is quite simple: the human brain retains images in the long-term memory.
Keep it simple
When your brain is overwhelmed by information and images, it can respond in different ways (spoiler alert: none of them are positive): irritation or unresponsiveness. To avoid this, prioritize information, let the consumers ease their way into the content and then, if they wants, take a closer look.
Round it up
We tend to look for shapes that relate to nature and, given that sharp angles and geometric designs aren’t the main characteristic of nature, round edges and images are far more alluring. That’s one of the reasons why the MacBooks have one of the best industrial designs: they have round edges.
Make it fun
We’re far more tempted to buy a product that makes us laugh (or at least smile). Why? Because enjoyment lowers our level of stress, that is, it helps us to relax. And it’s in that moment that we’re more open to receiving more stimuli.
Neuromarketing is a fascinating field of study, and this is just a quick look, so dig deep and you’ll find resources to take your brand to the next level!
