The psychology of advertising is a fascinating subject that has intrigued (and infuriated) advertisers for the last century.
It has been the subject of numerous studies, books, and essays and continually provides surprising results.
The science of neuromarketing is becoming an ever-present consideration within advertising but, despite the technological innovations in neuromarketing, these predictions are not always correct.
Marketing agencies should always consider the complexity of the human experience and their tendency to be unpredictable when it comes to client preferences.
What is neuromarketing?
Simply put, neuromarketing is the study of how an individual or group’s brain reacts to advertising stimuli.
Neuromarketing allows us to predict client behaviour, preferences and motivations and thereby tailor our advertising campaigns to maximum effect.
The newest developments in neuromarketing
Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have paved the way for more comprehensive data collection and analysis of client behaviour.
This new technology can identify subtle and overt trends in the data and provide statistical analysis that was historically unavailable to researchers.
In addition, neuromarketing has witnessed some revolutionary technological breakthroughs in recent years. Innovations like:
- Eye-tracking technology
- Reading emotions through facial coding
- Brainwave mapping to measure responses
- Sensory marketing, e.g., smell, touch, sound, etc.
- Predictive analysis through biometric measurements
Advertisers can use this data to fine-tune their strategies, predicting how target groups might respond to campaigns and allowing for the more effective allocation of advertising resources based on responses.
This means that advertising should become ever more successful in targeting the correct audience with the most effective marketing strategy. However, this isn’t always the case.
Neuromarketing: an evolution from behavioural economics
Behavioural economics aims to target the underlying psychology of client spending habits and invest in future growth areas.
This, historically, has been performed by analysing previous sales pattern data to forecast upcoming spending increases.
However, because human beings often make decisions based on irrational stimuli – like emotions and mood – these heuristics can provide incorrect predictions and false assumptions.
In other words, one minor quirk of the human brain could mean that an advertising campaign falls flat on its face, despite aligning with the behavioural economists’ predictions.
Neuromarketing has made behavioural economics considerably more effective.
Where behavioural economics relies on past data to predict current trends, neuromarketing allows real-time analysis of your client’s reactions on a subconscious level.
In addition, rather than relying on surveys and opinion polls, neuromarketing can go straight to the source of the brains reaction to stimuli and record data without interference.
Is neuromarketing the future of advertising?
Neuromarketing is a vibrant and fascinating field of study, but it doesn’t cover all the bases of advertising.
The marketing guru, Rory Sutherland, is hesitant to rely too heavily on computer modelling, neuromarketing and behavioural economics.
“A single rogue variable or a ‘black swan’ event can throw the most perfectly calibrated model into chaos,” he says in his book, Alchemy.
He adds: “The number of people who think they understand statistics dangerously dwarfs those who actually do, and maths can cause fundamental problems when badly used.”
He argues that neuromarketing is more effectively used as a guide to advertising rather than a rule.
This is because there remains the possibility of outliers, anomalies, and unexpected moments of serendipity in the statistics.
Referring again to Rory Sutherland’s work, neuromarketing’s reliance upon rational data to market to irrational creatures means it can never be fully accurate.
It is often a piece of advertising that is inherently illogical, strange, and unusual that grabs clients’ attention, rather than the logically developed ‘perfect’ advert.
Sutherland puts it perfectly when he says, “not everything that makes sense works, and not everything that works makes sense.”
That’s where the human creativity inside marketing agencies comes in. Advertising experts, copywriters, graphic and web designers fill the gaps, that neuromarketing can’t, with brilliant, new, and unusual ideas.
JE Consulting is full of creative individuals who offer numerous advertising services to suit your needs.
To find out how your business could create more creative and successful advertising campaigns, speak to one of our team.
