Rating Qualities

7
Innovative

The Brain Sell

When Science Meets Shopping
David Lewis | Nicholas Brealey Publishing © 2014

Cognitive neuroscience’s great leap forward brought marketers in its wake. Noninvasive
neuroimagers like MRI scanners and EEG machines show the inner workings of the human brain
as never before. Businesses use this information to develop marketing campaigns that manipulate
your subconscious. However, most people are not aware of, nor do they consent to, this type of
mind manipulation. Dr. David Lewis, co-founder of Mindlab International, describes the latest
discoveries in brain science and how advertisers exploit them. His goal to cover every aspect of
this subject is noble and ambitious, but it leads to some cumbersome reading in places. Lewis’s
new and illuminating ideas will reward your persistence. getAbstract recommends his insights
and overview to consumers and advertisers seeking conscious awareness of purchasing habits and
patterns.

Take-Aways
• “Neuromarketing” is the application of new brain technologies to marketing activities.
• Marketers seek to blur the distinction between a “need” and a “want.”
• Sophisticated brain scanning machines and physical monitoring devices provide insight into
consumer behavior.
• Marketers influence behavior by adjusting stimuli to draw out a desired mental and physical
response in consumers.
• The brain directs purchasing decisions subconsciously, through categorization or with
“heuristics.”
• Online and offline, retailers now engineer every aspect of the customer experience.
• A subliminal message is one that people receive without conscious awareness.
• Subliminal messaging “primes” recipients to favor one brand or product over another.

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 • Advertisers use emotional triggers to forge consumer-brand connections outside of people’s
conscious awareness.
• “Big data” allow digital marketers to send out highly personalized and timely messages.

Summary

“Neuromarketing”

As the 20th century dawned, advertisers looked to psychology to influence consumers. By the
end of the First World War, the popularity of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis convinced
advertisers of the necessity of appealing to people’s emotions.

Edward Bernays, the “founding father” of public relations, used psychological tactics to sway
public opinion. He linked products with causes, such as positioning the act of smoking Lucky
Strikes as an expression of women’s independence. In the late 1970s, psychologists Daniel
Kahneman, Amos Tversky and Richard Thaler introduced the idea of “behavioral economics.”
Cognitive psychology, aided by new technology that allows scientists to view mental processes,
began to take shape. Neuromarketing, applying brain technologies to marketing activities, came to
the forefront in the new millennium.

“Want-Needs”

“Doing the shopping” is a chore; in contrast, “going shopping” is a pleasurable leisure activity.
People enjoy looking for something special, gazing at enticing displays and bathing in the
attention of salespeople. In fact, successful bargain hunters experience a physical reaction similar
to that felt by someone winning a prize or taking cocaine. The heart rate accelerates, and the
beta waves in the frontal region of the brain vibrate at a high frequency – signs of “an increase in
sympathetic arousal.”

“Today, billions of Internet users have become the enthusiastic accomplices of their own
surveillance.”

Shoppers don’t always differentiate between what they “want” and what they “need.” When they
fancy something, it becomes a want-need and they strive to satisfy that desire. Advertisers and
marketers increase this longing by using such tactics as:

• “Make shoppers work for their purchases” – Searching for bargains among messy,
packed racks or negotiating prices makes customers earn a purchase.
• “Create a scarcity” – The message is buy now, compete for a scarce item or miss out.
• “That’s not all” – Retailers cut prices, offer bonus items or incentives, like buy-one-get-one-
free deals.

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 • “Create a sense of inadequacy” – You have bad breath, body odor and stained teeth. A
cure awaits in a product or service.
• Price manipulations – Sellers reduce the amount of product in a package while keeping the
same price or they price items at $2.99 rather than $3.

Neuromarketing Techniques

Neuromarketers use “quantified electroencephalography” (QEEG) and “functional magnetic

resonance imaging” (fMRI) to observe and measure brain activity. Previously, marketers gathered
information from focus groups, interviews and surveys. They asked people what they thought and
felt. And people fudged the truth for many reasons. They provided answers that they thought were
socially acceptable or that cast them in a positive light. Neuromarketing techniques bypass such
subjective accounts and memories by measuring brain activity and physical response.

“Every major company in the world is engaged in a race to use advances in neuroscience
to develop techniques for influencing consumers.”

Researchers collect data while people shop, watch movies, drive, work and play. In 1971, Herbert
Krugman observed his assistant’s brain waves while she watched television. Her brain waves
slowed as she gazed, mimicking the pattern of “relaxed daydreaming.” When she read a magazine,
her brain waves showed “alert attentiveness.”

“Mobile devices have created a ‘connected generation,’ whose informed and hypercynical
outlook has changed all aspects of advertising and marketing – forever.”

A technology like fMRI imaging measures the blood flow in the brain, detecting changes and
identifying activated regions. By monitoring which brain areas “light up,” researchers determine
how a participant reacts to and feels about a stimulus. This technology is a potent neuromarketing
tool, but it is expensive and it requires subjects to lie passively in the scanner. Other tools include
“eye-tracking devices, heart rate monitors, skin conductance and psychological testing.”

Thinking with Your Stomach

The “standard cognitive model” views the brain as separate from the body. “Embodied cognition”
considers how the brain works in concert with the body. Surprisingly, humans possess two brains:
one in the head and the other in the stomach. The “enteric nervous system” (ENS) operates in the
digestive tract, varying the rate of digestion to provide energy to the body as needed.

“Modern consumers are exposed to some 4,000 commercial messages each and every
day, many of which rely on statements of personal inadequacy.”

Marketers influence your shopping behavior by adjusting stimuli to elicit a desired mental and
physical response. Body positioning, movement and outside incitements affect your feelings and

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 behaviors. For example, sitting in a soft, comfy chair makes people more receptive to negotiating
than sitting upright on a wooden seat. People respond positively to head nods, a friendly touch or
a sunny day. The ease or “fluency” with which people grasp a concept affects their reactions. For
example, public stocks with easy-to-pronounce names perform better than those with difficult
names. Font readability also affects choice, so a recognizable logo is beneficial.

Operations Manager

The brain manages your physical operations and your purchasing decisions subconsciously,
through “categorization” or with “heuristics,” which are “subconscious rules of thumb” that save
strain and thinking time. Heuristic shortcuts include buying things out of habit, or purchasing the
same items your friends like rather than expending the mental energy to consider new brands.
Most people’s everyday thinking happens rapidly and automatically, without deep contemplation.
This “System I,” or impulsive process, is quick and efficient; it lets people as well as animals
function in the world. “System R,” or “reflective” thinking, is slower, considered and rational. It
analyzes information and possible outcomes to make decisions and solve problems.

“As with all online retailers, Amazon’s appetite for gathering information on its
customers’ habits is insatiable.”

The brain’s categorization process connects “objects, words, events, visual patterns and different
ideas.” Thus you contextualize new experiences and stimuli. Advertisers use categorization to
make their products fluent and easily recognizable. For example, they might position a breakfast
cereal as “healthy” or a dessert as “indulgent.”

Environmental and Emotional Persuasion

Online and offline retailers engineer the customer experience in great detail. “Atmospherics,” a
term coined by marketing professor Philip Kotler, is “the conscious designing of space to...produce
specific emotional effects in the buyer that enhance his purchase probability.” These triggers
include design, layout, lighting, color, music and aroma, as well as safety, comfort and even ease
of parking. Human interactions, or “humanics” refers to the work that salespeople and other staff
members do with shoppers. Some employers, such as the Disney Corporation, go to great lengths
to ensure that every employee or “cast member” enhances the customer experience. They use
environmental mechanics that consider and adapt every aspect of the physical setting.

“Going shopping is now the number-one leisure activity for consumers in most
countries.”

Brands that evoke a deep, emotional connection stand out amid a plethora of choices. That’s why
Starbucks doesn’t simply sell coffee; it sells the “romance of the coffee experience.” Nike doesn’t
manufacture sportswear. Rather, it aligns its brand with “physical prowess and competitive
success.” A consumer’s “love” of particular brands begins at an early age, as exemplified by

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 American children who use brands to define their personalities and social status. A brand that
successfully establishes an emotional bond with a customer can gain a loyal user for life. That is
the goal of every brand – to imprint so deeply in a consumer’s consciousness that he or she never
considers buying a competing brand.

“If you can successfully engineer the emotions that a brand generates so that it will
appeal to consumers across their lifetime, then you have a license to print money.”

Branding professionals use a variety of strategies to engender brand loyalty, including advertising,
endorsements, sponsorships, public relations efforts and graphics. Neuroscience allows them to
do this with a higher level of accuracy than ever before. For example, by studying the way a brain
reacts to a television commercial, producers can tweak it to create the optimal emotional response.
At its heart, every successful brand strategy is a calculated mix of “images, words and music.”

“Thirsty? Drink Coca-Cola”

At a drive-in movie theater in New Jersey in 1957, the messages “Thirsty? Drink Coca-Cola”
and “Hungry? Eat Popcorn” flashed on the screen for milliseconds. This first experiment in
subliminal advertising, which turned out to be a hoax, generated an uproar. People were rightly
concerned that advertisers were manipulating their minds without their consent. A subliminal
message is one that people receive without being consciously aware of getting it. Messengers
deliver them so quickly, as in the New Jersey experiment, that the exchange remains below the
level of awareness. People can see “supraliminal” messages, as in a “single-frame cut” in a video,
upon close examination, but in action these messages often pass by undetected. Marketers embed
messages by camouflaging them within another image or sound. “Inattentional blindness” causes
people to miss a message because they are concentrating on something else.

“Over the next few years, advertising and marketing will increasingly be generated
by computers and disseminated to consumers without the need for any human
intervention.”

Neuromarketers use subliminal messaging to “prime” recipients to favor one brand or product
over another. These messages, delivered below the level of conscious awareness, can affect mental
processes without the recipient’s consent. Brands symbolize “aspirational characteristics,” traits
people want to have, such as status or daring. “Brand priming” links a brand symbol to a desired
behavior. People eat more quickly when viewing McDonald’s golden arches.

Seven Hours a Day

In the US, people spend an average of seven hours per day watching television; in the UK, viewing
time is about 4.5 hours per day. American children between eight and 13 years old spend close to
3.5 hours daily watching TV. They recognize logos by the time they are one-and-a-half years old,
and ask for products by brand name by age three. Advertisers spend millions creating and placing

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 commercials to reach this childhood audience. They use neuromarketing to test the efficacy
of their campaigns. Neuroresearch shows that viewers don’t actually need to pay attention for
advertising to sway them. Through a process called “implicit learning,” they develop subconscious
memories of advertising messages, and that affects their behavior.

“The less mental energy we have to expend when understanding and evaluating a
product, the more likely we are to choose it.”

Advertisers use known warm emotional triggers – babies, puppies, sexy models or celebrities
– to manipulate viewers’ feelings outside of their conscious awareness. They attempt to engage
consumers’ emotions, incorporating three elements in their messaging: “It must be personally
meaningful, culturally relevant and create feeling of positive affect.” Marketers use repetition, an
annoying but incredibly effective method of persuasion. In addition to boosting recall, repetition
induces comfort and familiarity with a brand.

New Technologies and Big Data

Your smartphone is getting smarter. Soon, it will discern and respond to your emotional state and
adjust sales messages accordingly. For example, if you’re feeling tired, your device might suggest
a cup of coffee and provide the location of the nearest Starbucks. The newest digital marketing,
called “SOLOMO” for “Social, Local and Mobile,” identifies a user’s location so advertisers can
make relevant, well-timed offers. Advertisers who know where potential customers are and what
they are doing can craft messages that meet their precise needs. People have their smartphones on
constantly, enabling marketers to deliver personalized messages with impeccable timing.

“Today, every company strives to manufacture a deep emotional connection between its
brand and some desirable personal goal or worthy aspiration.”

Soon, computers will generate consumer messages using algorithms based on the titanic
amounts of detailed personal information available about Internet users. Companies such as
Google, Amazon, Facebook and Twitter collect extensive, detailed profiles on every user. This
“big data” will enable advertisers to develop campaigns designed to operate below consumers’
awareness levels. For example, Amazon is already incredibly adept at customizing its marketing
to match users’ preferences and interests. Tailored communications based on consumers’ known
preferences and desires produce a sincere emotional response in recipients. The resulting
connection between people and brands forms at a deep-rooted level within the brain, causing
people to mistake that manufactured connection for personal opinion rather than an instilled
commercial message.

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 About the Author
Dr. David Lewis, the “father of neuromarketing,” co-founded the research firm Mindlab
International, and wrote several books, including The Soul of the New Consumer and Impulse.

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