Do you wish that there was a way to know exactly how people felt when they saw your advertising? Would you like to know the very moment that people’s attention switched off from your advertisements? Do people even notice your billboard when they are walking down the street? Well, there is a way to discover all this and more.
Neuromarketing probes deep into the subconscious
Marketers who are seeking to outperform their competitors are quickly realising that neuromarketing is a vital tool that can be used to analyse more than simple hard data. Even subjective opinions gained through qualitative research methods such as focus groups, interviews and surveys do not provide a true reflection of people’s responses to advertising. Yes, qualitative research goes beyond figures alone to provide some insight into what people felt and thought when they saw an advertisement. However, this information is just reliant on people’s conscious thoughts and even that depends on if they are actually being completely honest. People may deliberately conceal their true thoughts to provide the answers that they think the interviewer wants to hear or to fit in with the rest of the focus group. Alternatively, they may truly believe that the reason they feel compelled to buy one brand over another is due to price when, in fact, they are unaware of their own underlying thought processes that drive them to make purchasing decisions such as the way an advertisement made them feel.
Buying impulses are based on subconscious reactions that come down to the very basis of our brains’ survival mechanisms. These responses are things that people will not even be aware of, so they are unable to accurately articulate them in a survey. If they were not being completely honest with their responses in an interview or focus group, neuromarketing will reveal their true feelings.
Neuromarketing reveals people's true emotional responses to advertising
Neuromarketing provides the double bonus of quantifiable, measurable results that probe deeper than simply showing how many people responded to an advertisement or whether they say that they liked it. It provides data of how many people responded with a certain emotion and exactly which part of the advertisement caused them to feel that way.
Neuroscience studies measure brain activity in response to seeing TV advertisements, listening to radio advertisements or walking down a street filled with outdoor advertising. EEG (electroencephalography) is a method used to measure brain activity and eye tracking technology can track which aspects of the advertisements people’s eyes are drawn to and how long they spend looking at it.
In these studies, participants are not aware of what they are actually being tested for. As far as they are concerned, they are just being asked to watch a TV show or to see how they respond when walking down the street or driving in the car. 
The studies are designed to reflect the normal conditions of a daily routine in order to produce as unbiased and accurate a result as possible. People might tune out when driving and not pay attention when a radio talk show turns to the radio ads but a certain point in your advertisement may make their interest spike. Alternatively, in a simulation of participants walking down the street, an eye tracking study could reveal that not one of them looks up to notice your billboard which is positioned above them. It is incredibly useful to gain these insights in order to know how to strategically design the most effective marketing campaign.
Neuromarketing measures brand recall
By displaying your ad more than once in the neuroscience study, you can detect if there is activity in people's memories to see if your first ad was memorable enough to prompt brand recall when people are faced with your product a second time. You could even design the neuroscience study so that participants simulate walking past your billboard several times to measure exactly how many times they have to see your advertisement before they experience brand recall.
Neuromarketing can uncover emotional response and the intensity of this emotion in reaction to your advertisement. It can reveal whether your copy, images and music are hitting the spot for participants in the study to understand exactly which aspects are working and which are not.
The brain may be complex but it has simple desires which are easily measurable with neuromarketing. Marketers can tap into these desires and basic emotions that compel people to buy and use the results to design a tailored marketing campaign that pushes all the right buttons.
Top Australian and global brands have tapped into the power of neuromarketing
The top 10 most valuable brands in the world, as ranked by Brand Finance in 2018, are noteworthy for how many of them have used neuromarketing as their secret weapon to keep them ahead of the pack, including Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Samsung. It is also remarkable how many of the top 10 most valuable brands in Australia in 2018 have used neuromarketing to leave their competitors trailing behind them, including Coles, Woolworths, Westpac and National Australia Bank. These companies all know that to be a leader in their field, measuring people’s subconscious responses to their advertising through neuromarketing is such an accurately effective way to gain an insight into consumer’s feelings that will help them to design tailored advertising that will make the desired impact and gain a surge in sales.
Get in touch to find out how we can help you to implement neuromarketing into your marketing strategy and to design advertising that will appeal to people’s emotions and desires.
.png?width=180&height=51&name=image%202%20(2).png)