Neuromarketing targets the brain

There is a new catchphrase doing the rounds. It is called ‘neuromarketing’. Although its meaning is simple, its purpose is intriguing. Neuromarketing can loosely be defined as the efforts of marketers to understand how the human brain processes images and various marketing stimuli. How, for instance, does the brain collect and filter information while making decisions related to buying? Read our take on the subject in this piece.

The brain retains some of this collected information; it recalls and re‐associates it when exposed to the corresponding stimuli. This information‐ collection process is an ongoing one. We may assume this is done unconsciously, spontaneously and speedily. Ponder over this when you make your next buying decision. What attracted you? What were the colors you liked? How did you react to the words around the product and the images? How did you associate the words with the colors and the propositions the product sets out? These questions will give you a sense of what neuromarketers are attempting to do.

The neuromarketer’s hypothesis is that the brain is central to buying decisions. And if one could unravel its mysteries in the context of buying, then the chances of success at predicting what may work becomes a distinct possibility. For marketers, knowledge of the brain’s working could be a useful tool, especially when the amount of time and monies invested in marketing is so high and the pressures of success unrelenting. They believe that perhaps neuromarketing will help them comprehend better how consumers notice, consider and ultimately buy a product.

Neuromarketing certainly seems to have arrived. This gainful marriage between marketing and science may possibly see a new wave of consumer research. Marketers using this will work towards digging deep and trying to understand our subconscious thoughts, feelings, and desires that drive our perceptions and our purchase decisions. Martin Lindstrom, in his book Buy.ology offers an interesting narrative on neuromarketing summing up marketers’ efforts and researchers’ strides in the direction of mapping our brains.

As consumers, how does all of this impact us? How do we handle the onslaught on our neurons and our private, mental repository? Are we to be more vigilant while making buying decisions, or tread warily on our next visit to the supermarket? Or should we feel that we are being scanned when we reach out for our favorite soft drink? Honestly, none of these. Research and neuromarketing notwithstanding, only consumers know their minds. As they get exposed to more images, new experiences and contexts, their brains too will process the information of their own accord. That is what makes human consumers wonderfully unpredictable. We think, compare, choose, buy and experience products and services in our own inimitable ways. Marketers or neuromarketers can at best attempt to draw up some basic contours of the ways in which we behave. Wiring up our brains and tracking neurons may not really be a guarantee for the most appropriate answers. At best it would be another estimation of a positive buying decision.

Neuroscientists are of the opinion that it is unlikely that purchasing behavior actually follows a single pathway. No two brains are the same and the same brain does not behave the same way each time. Little wonder then, that professionals in the communication business are forever observing consumers. And do they know neuromarketing? Maybe they do… of a different kind… maybe.

Author : Raj Mohan Tella. August 24, 2021