Our everyday life includes running errands and constant visits to the supermarket to buy food, drinks, snacks, clothes, and other essential items. Most commonly we get thrilled to compare between various product options to convince ourselves that we have made the best purchase choice and saved some bucks or got a product free.
Though we are mostly convinced that our decisions are our very own decisions while making a purchase, the reality is there are many factors that tend to influence the choices we make between one product over another. Research has been conducted to study these factors and the individual response as to how these factors contribute to the alterations in the decisions.
Neuromarketing can be defined as a scientific study focused on the application of neuroscientific methods to measure and improve human behavior by combining aspects of neuroscience, psychology, and marketing.
Neuromarketing focuses on various factors that influence a buyer’s decision about a product, in order to provide a better commercial acceptance, some of these factors are:
– Attention
– Memory
These factors, among others, are studied closely or independently to gain a better understanding of how the brain of a potential buyer function. Let’s see how attention and memory, which are very important cognitive functions allowing us to learn and store information.
Attention
Attention is a cognitive function that provides direction to the processing approach towards auditory, visual, or other sensory inputs. Researchers have found that differences in visual salience among two or more objects can affect the choice-making of a product placed on the shelves of a supermarket.
In this study, neuroscientific evidence shows that the visual salience of a product on a shelf, such as its colors, size, and so on, has a greater influence on its selection than other factors such as personal preference for a product. This is especially true in situations where the buyer must make a quick decision. When compared to a different item that is not visible at eye level or a picture placed on a shore of the screen, products placed at the height of the eyes or images of products centered on the screen have up to double the propensity to be selected.
Memory
Memory is the ability to take in, store, and recall information, either for the short or long term. Through neuroscience techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG), it has been studied that factors such as the sex of the consumer and the familiarity with the product, can affect the choice of purchase towards a specific product.
The positive response to stimuli with which a consumer has familiarity, also indicates that if another product has been mentioned in a commercial, even if it is a “competition product”, this stimulus triggers a neuronal response.
These are a few factors that are taken into consideration in physical and virtual stores to attract customers or influence them to choose a particular product. Neuromarketing, also known as “Shopper Marketing”, and it should be noted that is not an independent area but is an interdisciplinary field combining aspects of neuroscience, psychology, and marketing. So various studies that are originally psychological or neuroscientific can be used to form a principle of neuromarketing.
To study and research in relation to neuromarketing there are working teams that are dedicated. And so, find new ways to propensity the customer to purchase a targeted product. There are many work teams that have investigations in this area.
It is more common for researchers to use technologies such as EEG or MEG because they can measure brain activity directly related to specific brain functions for a longer period of time. ActiChamp and EEG Analysis Analyzer 2 are two examples of equipment that can be used for these purposes. Eye-tracking systems, such as the Tobii system from Brain Products or the Argus system from the USC Roski Eye Institute, are also used to study neuromarketing.
These are just some of the factors that are taken into account in physical and virtual stores to attract customers or have them choose a certain product.
There are research working groups dedicated to neuromarketing research. Find new ways to increase the likelihood that a product will be purchased by consumers. Because they can record responses to stimuli for a longer period of time, researchers prefer technologies such as EEG or MEG. In order to record and analyze the captured data, actichamp and EEG Analysis Analyzer 2 can be used.
The results of neuromarketing research are widely used to create product positioning strategies in the market, colorimetry, logo creation, and in many cases strategies to make the consumer feel desirable towards the product because of the “history” or “story” behind that object or service.
Lastly, the study of neuromarketing provides profound knowledge about cognitive functions and a better understanding of consumer behavior. Moreover, it also gives helpful tools to influence our decisions. So this knowledge must be used carefully and responsibly.
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