The Perfect Combination

With the use of multimedia platforms, marketers design million-dollar campaigns, hire a plethora of creative professionals in the hope of eliciting an emotional tie between the consumer and the brand. By igniting an emotional reaction from the client, the marketer hopes to acquire new customers to purchase the brand’s products and services and retain current customers. However, the majority of this layout is highly dependent on the ability to affect and infer the consumers’ behaviour, meaning marketing mainly involves the use of consumer psychology. Although marketing campaigns are heavily reliant on the use of psychology, many businesses remain amiss to the benefits of implementing and considering a psychological component to their advertisements. Before we discuss the possible benefits of applying consumer psychology, we must first understand what it involves.

In a description of consumer psychology depicted by Dr. Lars Perner, consumer psychology involves several aspects, including: 

  1. How consumers think, feel, and differentiate between alternatives, whether it be products, brands or retailers.
  2. How a consumer is affected by socio-cultural aspects
  3. The behaviours executed while making a purchase
  4. How consumer motivation and strategies to arrive at a decision differ between products that vary in price and level of interest.
  5. And finally, how marketing campaigns can implement this knowledge to attract the consumer successfully.

With the use of all the aspects mentioned above, it’s possible that a marketing campaign can reach its consumers using psychology. But how exactly can they implement such ideas?

In an article for Fast Company, Robert Rosenthal, a distinguished German American psychologist, spent the bulk of his career investigating this question and describes five ways marketers can achieve this: 

  1. Run emotional ideas. Studies have proven time and time again that marketing messages accomplish more when they paint a picture of what the consumer will achieve with the product, rather than listing its components and features. Doing this, the marketer is essentially creating a new memory map tied to an emotion of hope or excitement, making it much easier to remember.
  2. Highlight your flaws. A large part of attracting or maintaining your current client list is the building of consumer trust, and this can be done by attending and addressing your product’s flaws instead of deceiving the consumer by hiding their existence.
  3. Reposition your competition. In an ethical and non-bashing way, reframe how the consumers view your competition. This can be done correctly by highlighting how your product can fill benefit a need in their life to a much higher degree, thus making your product the leading contender.
  4. Promote exclusivity. Understanding human needs is a significant benefit, and by understanding human psychology, you can target your customer’s ego by making them feel special if they were to continue in their purchase with your brand.
  5. Introduce fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Underline the possible consequences of their inaction. Loss aversion is an incredibly powerful motivational tool used in psychology that can be used to persuade people to purchase your product if it prevents negative outcomes.

The possible benefits of the intertwining of marketing and psychology are immense. However, there’s also a fragile line between ethical marketing and non-ethical marketing, especially when it comes to implementing subliminal psychological strategies. Several companies in the early 2000s had attempted to subliminally persuade their consumers into purchasing their product by flashing them a picture of the product below the threshold of human awareness. However, in recent years, the scientific community seems to be in consensus that this strategy simply does not work at a significant level. Nonetheless, the practice of psychology in marketing should always take into account the ethical boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed when trying to attract new clients. 

Marketing and Psychology

With the use of multimedia platforms, marketers finance million-dollar campaigns, hire several creative directors with the hope of eliciting an emotional connection between the consumer and the brand. By igniting an emotional reaction from the customer, the marketer hopes to attract new customers to their brand; convince new consumers to purchase their product, and even convince existing customers to continue their business with repeat purchases. However, much is dependent on the ability to affect the consumer’s behaviour. Marketing involves tapping into consumer psychology. Although marketing campaigns are dependent on the use of psychology, many businesses remain amiss to the benefits of implementing and considering a psychological component to their advertisements. Before we discuss the possible benefits of implementing consumer psychology, it is very helpful to understand what it involves.

In a description of consumer psychology depicted by Dr. Lars Perner, consumer psychology involves several aspects, including:

  1. How consumers think, feel, and differentiate between alternatives, whether it be products, brands or retailers
  2. How a consumer is affected by socio-cultural aspects
  3. Consumer behaviour while making a purchase
  4. How consumer motivation and strategies are used to arrive at a decision, differs between products that vary in price and level of interest
  5. And finally, how marketing campaigns can implement this knowledge to successfully attract the consumer.

With the use of all the aforementioned, it’s very possible that a marketing campaign can reach consumers using psychology. But how exactly can they implement such ideas?

In an article for Fast Company, Robert Rosenthal a distinguished German American psychologist spent the bulk of his career investigating this question and describes five ways marketers can achieve this:

  1. Run emotion ideas. Studies have proven time and time again that marketing messages accomplish more when they paint a picture of what the consumer will achieve with the product, rather than listing its components and features. Doing this the marketer is essentially creating a new memory map tied to an emotion of hope or excitement, making it much easier to remember.
  2. Highlight your flaws. A large part of attracting or maintaining your current client list is the building of consumer trust, and this can be done by being transparent and addressing your product’s shortcomings, instead of trying to deceive the consumer.
  3. Reposition your competition. In an ethical and non-insulting way, reframe how the consumer views your competition. This can be done by highlighting how your product can offer a benefit for a key customer need, thus making your product the main contender.
  4. Promote exclusivity. Understanding human needs is an important benefit; and by understanding human psychology, you can target your customer’s ego by making them feel special if they were to purchase your brand.
  5. Introduce fear, uncertainty and doubt. Underline the possible consequences of their inaction. Loss aversion is an incredibly powerful motivational tool used in psychology that can be used to persuade people to purchase your product if it prevents negative outcomes.

It’s clear that the possible benefits between the intertwining of marketing and psychology are immense. However, there’s also a very fine line between ethical marketing and non-ethical marketing, especially when it comes to implementing subliminal psychological strategies. Several companies in the early 2000s had attempted to subliminally persuade their consumers into purchasing their product by flashing them a picture of the product below the threshold of human awareness.  However, in recent years, the scientific community seems to be in consensus that this strategy simply does not work. Nonetheless, the practice of psychology in marketing should always take into account the ethical boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed when trying to attract customers.

CIMMO and Demand Metric Strengthening Relationship

We are very proud to announce that The Chartered Institute of Marketing Management of Ontario and Demand Metric have strengthened their partnership, and CIMMO’s current and future members have reasons to celebrate. Demand Metric is a well-established corporation that provides over 1000+ tools, training courses and software to help established or entry-level marketers, product managers and consultants operate at their highest efficiency.

Effective January 2020, CIMMO members will have a complimentary pro membership which is valued at 1164 CAD. This membership will enable accessibility to five premium tools and templates per month and 300+ free guides, reports, webinars and a multitude of other resources.  In addition, CIMMO members will have an established digital marketing learning path within Demand Metric University which includes fourteen video modules with three levels of certification exams in an array of topics such as Content Marketing, Blogging for Business, SEO, Online Advertising, Social Media and Demand Generation strategy.  Finally, a 50% discount code for unlimited membership with Demand metric will also be provided to all CIMMO members.

CIMMO is delighted with this collaboration as part of many others to come aiming at providing our valuable members with added value to their membership.

CIMMO Partnering with DX3, Canada’s Biggest Retail, Marketing and Technology Event

CIMMO Members have a special discount to attend the DX3, Canada’s biggest retail, marketing and technology event, and it will take place for its 9th year on March 10-11, 2020 at MTCC in Toronto.

Here are some confirmed speakers :

  • President & CEO, Church+State
  • Vice President of Marketing & Omni Channel Innovation, Toys”R”Us
  • Head of Social Studio, LEGO Group
  • CEO, INDOCHINO
  • Social Media Manager, Volvo Car Canada
  • Director, Digital Strategy, Juniper Park\TBWA
  • Senior Vice President, Customer Experience, Holt Renfrew
  • Managing Director, Canada, HUGE

For more information, visit www.dx3canada.com

What is Neuromarketing, and how can it help your Brand?

You’ve probably heard the term “neuromarketing” recently, as it is becoming a commonly used marketing practice. So what is neuromarketing, and what does it comprise? Neuromarketing as a discipline first emerged in 2002, and it has since gained credibility and popularity within the marketing community. In an article published by The American Marketing Association in February 2019, neuromarketing is defined as “a brand new field of marketing research that employs the principles of neuroscience and the medical technology of brain imaging to learn about how consumers unconsciously respond to advertisements and branding elements.” Neuromarketing employs the study of cognitive, sensorimotor and affective responses to marketing stimuli. To better understand consumers’ decision-making ability, neuromarketing provides scientific insight into their minds. So before we start a discussion on how neuromarketing can improve advertising campaigns, let us understand some of its tools—and implications.

The tools behind neuromarketing

To understand a customer’s preferences, motivations and thinking behind their decision, tools such as fMRI and EEG are used to measure specific neural and physiological signals. This can aid in the overall marketing and product development process.

The fMRI, or functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, measures brain activity with the use of multiple magnetic fields to measure the changes in blood flow within the brain. When a certain area of the brain is activated or in use, there is an increased level of blood flow to that area. Similar to this, the EEG, or the Electroencephalogram, monitors the electrical activity within the brain using electrodes placed on the scalp. The EEG can easily track brain activity; however, it cannot precisely decipher the area of activation. In addition, tools like eye tracking and pupil dilation can offer a more physiological approach to the measurement. Other physiological measurements include heart rate, skin conductivity and emotional responses.

How can these tools be used to predict the consumer’s rationale?

A recent study has indicated that the neural measurements recorded from a group of 30 consumers, to predict their market-level behaviour, yield more enhanced results over traditional marketing tools. Information collected from fMRI market research has proven to overtake traditional behavioural information when it comes to predicting music sales, and even the persuasiveness of anti-smoking advertisement campaigns.

What should make this exceptionally exciting to marketers is that small sample size, as noted above, of the population is required to predict the response of a larger-scale customer base response. Therefore, although the neuroimaging study could be expensive, it could quickly pay for itself in short order—with promising returns.

In one of the studies carried out by Plassmann et al., fMRI was used to exhibit how the price of a product can establish a placebo effect. In the study, data collected showed that a higher price tag placed on two identical wines resulted in people rating the more expensive wine as “better tasting.” No effect was shown in the primary taste areas, but rather the cognitive areas that perceive taste. Fundamentally, the individual’s preconception of how good the wine should be due to the higher price tag affected their cognitive perception of it. In another study, fMRI data disclosed the timing of which the consumer is presented with the price of a product, significantly alters their purchasing behaviour. When the price was presented at the beginning, it was shown that the decision question posited by the consumer, changed from “do I like this product?” to “is this product worth it?”. This could be very beneficial for consumer researchers in predicting which purchases would profit from seeing the price, first.

What about the ethical implications of neuromarketing?

Although neuromarketing can be a beneficial tool for marketing communications, as it allows for a deeper understanding of the targeted consumer base, ethical concerns still need to be addressed. In the article, “Is Neuromarketing Ethical? Consumers Say Yes. Consumers Say No.”, authored by Jason Flores, Arne Baruca and Robert Saldivar, and cited by the American Marketing Association article, a legitimate concern is raised about brands’ influence through neuromarketing. The authors argue that neuromarketing gives brands a handy tool that can surreptitiously or covertly manipulatively, influence consumers to “push the buy button.”

 So what?

In an era of social and digital marketing, where approximately $400 billion are spent on marketing campaigns, it’s safe to predict the growing influence of neuropsychology in marketing communication, which offers brands a better perspective in understanding consumers’ preferences over their competitors, will become more mainstream. Overall, brands that employ ethical use of this emerging field, will find a more efficient way of capturing their customer’s hearts and minds, which can result in a sustainable competitive advantage over their competition.