Neuromarketing is a multidisciplinary approach that makes it possible to study concrete, reliable data on how marketing actions influence the consumer’s mind. For years, these kinds of tools have been used in the campaigns and actions of major companies, producing incredible changes in their sales returns.
In this article you will find real figures on how companies have improved their ROI through Neuromarketing, how it can be used in market research to get better results, and specific cases of companies that use it today.
This content is the second part of a series of articles on everything you need to know about Neuromarketing. If you want to know what Neuromarketing is, how it came about and which tools it uses, I invite you to read the first article by clicking here. If you have already read it, continue with this part, where we will see how this science has been applied to this decade’s advertising campaigns.
The Key Points
- Neuromarketing studies are based on the use of tools from neuroscience to understand the unconscious patterns behind consumers’ purchasing behavior.
- The market shows that around 76% of service and product launches fail in their first year.
- Companies that rely on Neuromarketing to build their market strategies have a 65% higher ROI than when they used traditional marketing techniques, improving their brand positioning relative to their competitors.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Neuromarketing?
Without a doubt, being able to use neuroscience techniques in marketing is something very new. Neuroscience provides strong backing for every strategy and investment a company wants to make. Based on the results obtained in research studies, all of a company’s actions can be structured around what its consumers really want or what connects with their unconscious.
We tend to believe that buying processes are 100% rational. We are presented with a need, we research which is the best option or product to satisfy it, and then we buy it.
But reality… is something else.
Perhaps the main reason neuromarketing is becoming more and more popular among large companies is the finding that decisions are not really “rational”, and that marketing strategies based on that assumption are therefore not as successful as was thought.
Studies based on neuroscience have shown that our decisions are mostly unconscious. The part we think is conscious is only a justification or rationalization of what our brain has already determined unconsciously; what’s more, it does so quickly and without taking all the available data into account.
That is why Neuromarketing and the study of Neuroimaging have been fundamental in the transformation of the market, since they make it possible to study an individual’s non-verbal information, unlike traditional marketing research techniques such as surveys, where people can adapt their answers to whatever they want to show at the time.
Advantages
- There is reliable evidence of which areas of the brain are involved when a marketing stimulus is presented.
- You can compare and find out which designs attract the most consumer attention.
- It lets you shape strategies to reliably get consumers to take the action a campaign is aiming for.
- It helps optimize processes.
- Companies can be sure their investments will pay off.
- You can achieve personalized communication with the user.
- You can connect with the consumer’s emotions.
Disadvantages
- These techniques are expensive: the companies with the most resources are the ones best placed financially to carry out this kind of research.
- The research must be very well structured, using a representative sample of the target population; otherwise, the results will not be conclusive for the market you want to reach.
Cases of companies that use Neuromarketing in their strategies
Experiment: Pepsi vs. Coca-Cola
One of the first experiments on the effect of advertising on people’s brains was the famous “Pepsi Challenge” (1975). It was based on a blind test in which the study subjects were offered 2 colas (one ‘Pepsi’ and one ‘Coca-Cola’) in cups that made it impossible to tell which brand they were drinking.
The result was that more than 50% of the people studied preferred the taste of Pepsi when they didn’t know which brand of soda they had drunk and were comparing only the taste.
In 2003, Read Montague repeated the experiment, but this time applying Neuromarketing techniques, specifically fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). The study continued to confirm the results obtained in earlier years. When subjects didn’t know which brand of soda they were drinking, they preferred the taste of Pepsi, and this could be corroborated with the brain images obtained through fMRI.
For this experiment they decided to add a second part to broaden the results with a non-blind test: before drinking the soda, the person could see which brand they were drinking. In this case, 75% of participants chose the Coca-Cola brand. This showed up as activation of brain areas related to pleasure, which were observed through the scans.
It was concluded that the consumer’s brain oscillates between the rational, which in this case was the preference for the taste of the drink (if asked to choose one, objectively picking the one that tastes better), and the emotional (the unconscious preference people have for a brand and how they have identified with it).
The study showed that the emotional component prevails in the decisions the subject makes, and that they are not aware of it.
Coca-Cola has used various Neuromarketing-based strategies for its brand identity and customer loyalty. It is a great example of how to build a lasting emotional connection between users and the brand. This can be seen both in the research and in its sales returns.
Lay’s
The Lay’s brand has also been a clear example of how to use data and neuroscience to create more effective marketing strategies.
Through its own company data, it noticed that its consumer base was mostly male. This caught their attention, and they decided to carry out a study using Neuromarketing techniques to find out why.
What they discovered is that men, compared with women, were less interested in knowing what they were eating, and very few stopped to read the nutritional information labels.
Women, on the other hand, tend to be less influenced by the packaging of their snacks, since for most of them an important factor is taking care of their health, and women are more likely than men to understand complex information in advertisements.
In this study, one striking finding was that women didn’t buy these snacks because they afterwards felt ‘guilty’ about eating something unhealthy and about how it might affect their appearance. Thanks to this information, the PepsiCo division (Lay’s) managed to change its marketing strategy.
For some products they improved the packaging and made baked versions of the snacks with more ‘healthy’ ingredients, adapted to women’s needs, so that they would feel encouraged to eat them, feeling ‘guilt-free’.
This is how Lay’s has carried out various studies using Neuromarketing strategies, which has allowed it to improve its communication and reach a wider audience.
Starbucks
Without a doubt, Starbucks is another company that keeps up to date with research into what its target audience really wants and how to satisfy it.
Over the years, the international coffee chain has made a point of pleasing its customers in different ways, taking the experience beyond simply offering a product. Through studies using Neuromarketing tools, they found the key to decorating their stores in a calm, welcoming way, creating comfortable spaces that reflect their company philosophy and mission.
Their premises let customers work, study or read while enjoying a drink or something to eat in a relaxed atmosphere, as if it were part of their own home.
They make a point of providing personalized service, even in the small details, such as writing each customer’s name on their cup, which creates real engagement and loyalty to the brand.
Nespresso Spain
Through experiences designed with Neuromarketing, Nespresso set out to introduce a new concept in Spain.
They designed their premises to give users a complete experience that stands apart from their competitors’. They created a decor based on sustainable design, very cozy and in a boutique style.
One of the most striking aspects of their Neuromarketing strategy, besides the ambience of the space, is the use of ‘Audiobranding’ in the store. What do we mean by ‘Audiobranding’? By playing custom-made Indie-Pop-style sounds, Nespresso conveys its brand identity to users.
It has been a very effective strategy that manages to evoke sophistication and modernity. Customers can taste the coffees and the different aromas in the boutique, and they connect with the brand in a unique way, living a complete experience that engages all their senses.
Correos España
The state-owned company in charge of postal services in Spain is Correos. It is among the organizations that keep innovating and don’t intend to fall behind in their marketing tactics.
A few years ago, they began using the ‘Odotype’ as a differentiation strategy, which aims to build brand association through unique scents in their offices. Thanks to Neuromarketing, they gave their branding methods a new direction, going beyond any kind of visual stimulus.
They create a complete experience in their post offices, scenting the air with a very fresh floral perfume with citrus and leather notes. This reinforces the company’s values, this time through scent.
Other well-known companies that use Neuromarketing
- L’Oréal
- Johnson & Johnson
- Hyundai
- Cinnabon
- Unilever
- Procter & Gamble
- Apple
- Sony
How has Neuromarketing transformed the sales and advertising market?
As described in earlier paragraphs, there are many cases of global companies that have implemented Neuromarketing techniques in their actions and have achieved the goals of their strategies: attracting new targets, building customer loyalty, connecting emotionally and generating engagement with the brand.
The market has undoubtedly been transformed. Nowadays, before implementing any action, it is necessary to analyze all the data available in the environment. It is no longer profitable to create marketing strategies just because they seem like a good idea.
Investors want a guaranteed return, so before allocating resources to any kind of campaign, they prefer to know for certain what responses it might produce in users, and for that they rely on Neuromarketing. Thanks to these changes, most actions today aim to build empathy with the consumer and get to know them better in order to meet their needs.
The business school OBS Business School, a partner of the University of Barcelona, carried out a report titled “Neuromarketing: business solutions and success stories” by Mariana Gómez and Henry Castillo. In this report they measured the return on investment (ROI) of some of the largest companies in the world, including: Nike, Microsoft, Adidas, BMW, Google, among others.
These companies rely on Neuromarketing to build their market strategies; the report concluded that since they began using these techniques they have had an ROI more than 65% higher than when they used traditional marketing techniques, improving their brand positioning relative to their competitors.
Can Neuromarketing be applied to market research?
Of course. Applying Neuromarketing in market research can be a very valuable resource. Considering all the reliable data that this ingenious discipline can provide, we find the following benefits:
- Insights into the emotions that the stimulus produces in the user.
- The unconscious attitudes and desires of our target audience.
- The efficiency of the resources used in the different campaigns.
Based on this, it could be very worthwhile to implement it to increase our ROI, since it would let us know in advance how the customer will behave and whether or not it is worth taking the step of making the investment and launching the campaign, on the basis that it will have a positive effect for the company.
According to a market study carried out by Nielsen in 2011, around 76% of service and product launches fail in their first year (in Japan this figure is estimated to reach 9.7 out of every 10 projects).
But… why does this happen? Could it be due to insufficient investment in, or poor quality of, market research?
Well, that is not the answer. In the United States of America between 2005 and 2007, companies’ investment in market research for their launches averaged 9.65 billion dollars. (Juárez et al., 2016)
In marketing, there is a popular assumption that has spread over the years: ‘Half of what companies spend on advertising is wasted’. That would represent 50% of the budget, and the dilemma is that the origin of precisely that failing 50% is unknown, so it is hard to predict or fix.
That is precisely why Neuromarketing is ideal for market research, since it would help identify what really works and therefore optimize the investments made.
Of course, we are talking about techniques that complement traditional market research without replacing it. The role of Neuromarketing would be to study the unconscious and the consumer’s reactions, while traditional market techniques can provide more concrete, statistical data.
Is Neuromarketing expensive?
As you have read, one of the disadvantages of Neuromarketing is that it can be somewhat expensive. Nowadays there are various companies that carry out this kind of study, so you don’t need to worry about having to buy any of the research equipment yourself, or for your company, in order to use Neuromarketing techniques.
Likewise, whether or not it is expensive is very relative, since a company can focus on the fact that, if it has the necessary resources, this is a strategy that largely ensures a return on the investment made, and so it will be profitable. The big problem in these cases is having the means, or daring, to take that first step with a heavy investment.
Summary
Neuromarketing is expected to keep growing in popularity in the coming years, since it is a discipline whose studies are based on neuroscience and whose methods have a high guaranteed success rate.
It lets you know for certain what attracts the consumer and how that influences their decision to buy a product or choose a specific brand. From this, a variety of successful content and services can be created for the market, alongside the marketing methods we already know.
A growing percentage of companies are interested in implementing it, and we see their strategies focused and specialized on delivering unique, differentiating experiences to their users.
Now that you know all about Neuromarketing… would you dare to use it in your market strategies?
If you missed the first part of this series, Neuromarketing: everything you need to know about new trends and the transformation of the market gives you the foundation this article builds on, and if you are interested in going deeper into how these principles are applied, experiential marketing shows you how to create memorable experiences for your customers.
A good part of its effectiveness is explained by the same psychological triggers that this discipline studies.