What is neuromarketing?
Neuromarketing, also known as consumer neuroscience, is not a separate field of study (like neuroscience specifically), but rather a way in which neuroscience is used in the context of marketing and sales.
Companies use neuromarketing activities to study, analyze and understand customer shopping behavior. Neuromarketing thus focuses on studying the brain to predict how it will react to selected elements of the shopping process or when interacting with advertising content.
In scientific terms, neuromarketing thus has a crushing advantage over traditional research. This is because it does not rely on customer responses from surveys or questionnaires (which, inevitably, may not be precise enough). Instead, it is based on specific data, mainly survey results, such as:
- functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI),
- electroencephalography (EEG),
- eye-tracking.
In this way, researchers are able to ascertain how consumers behave when shopping, navigating store websites or consuming advertising content.
Neuromarketing research
As early as 2003, Gerald Zaltman found that as much as 95% of thought processes take place in the subconscious. Marketers have been trying to exploit this knowledge for many years, albeit with variable success. However, it is a statistic that cannot be ignored. It is still used today as a basis for neuromarketing research. Zaltman himself, by the way, patented the ZMET (Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique) research method back in the 1990s, which is still used today.
Checking the mind’s reaction to the content presented is important because, as we mentioned earlier, survey responses can be incorrectbecause they occur after the fact. Respondents – while they may answer honestly – often do not realize that most reactions are (and remain) unconscious. Neuromarketing studies brain responses in real time, which avoids cognitive error and provides insight into pure, unprocessed data by the respondent’s mind.
These issues are addressed, among others, by the research described in the article “Consumer neuroscience: assessing the brain response to marketing stimuli using electroencephalogram (EEG) and eye tracking,” as well as the scientific paper by Aneta Disterheft of the Poznań University of Economics, entitled “Neuromarketing research in predicting purchase intentions.” The author of the latter cites data cited by Gerald Zaltman in “How Customers Think: Essential Insights Into the Mind of the Market” (published in Poland under the title “How Customers Think. A Journey Into the Mind of the Market”), which states that:
- As much as 90% of the information that reaches the brain is processed without the involvement of consciousness,
- unconscious processing can be up to 500,000 times faster than conscious processing,
- Awareness is more often used to explain behavior after the fact than to guide behavior.
Applications of neuromarketing in e-commerce
Neuromarketing is used in these four areas, among others:
- web design,
- Product packaging design,
- advertising creation,
- Developing marketing communications.
Web design and optimization
Eye tracking is a technology that, far better than cursor tracking, analyzes users’ behavior and how they use websites.
Through a combination of eye- and cursor-tracking, researchers are able to determine which interface elements users find easy to use and which they find questionable. With access to the results of the research, companies can – based on the results – remove elements that make it difficult for users to navigate the site, and optimize the layout of buttons and content – all to improve the user experience on their online store.
Extremely important in the context of neuromarketing are those elements of a website that consumers often do not pay attention to – at least not consciously. Among other things, it is about colors and the emotions they can evoke . It is worth considering them in the process of designing and optimizing websites. According to current knowledge:
- Red is a color that gives the impression of urgency to an issue (such as an expiring promotion). This color is used in promotions, as well as limited-time and limited-quantity offers.
- The color blue is associated with trust and stability. For this reason, it is favored by financial institutions (including banks or factoring companies).
- Yellow is generally associated with a positive, open, optimistic attitude. However, it is important to pay close attention to the shade used – some of them can evoke opposite feelings. This also applies to other colors.
Product packaging design
How a product is packaged often has a big impact on the purchase decision. Thanks to neuromarketing, companies are able to test which packaging is particularly appealing to viewers. This tests not only the content layout and color scheme, but also the visibility of lettering and other graphic elements on the packaging.
Advertisements and marketing
As with packaging, neuromarketing can also help in creating and testing ads, as well as personalizing them. The results of neuromarketing research can help a company evaluate the effectiveness of the content it presents.
Central to this research is the way in which test subjects react to different versions of advertising banners, selected excerpts from promotional videos, etc. Analyzing this behavior allows companies to identify elements that are extremely effective, as well as those that do not elicit the desired response.
Example:
Company X decided to conduct neuromarketing research on a marketing campaign it was preparing. At first, they decided to test three variants of video advertising.
EEG and eye-tracking techniques were used. Subjects were asked to watch each variant of the ad while the devices studied both eye movement and brain wave behavior. The ad variants were run in different order to minimize the effect of fatigue on the subjects, and intervals were implemented between each video display.
The results of the study showed at which moments of the screened films the subjects reacted more strongly, as well as which passages and elements their eyes were particularly focused on. What areas of the brain were activated at the given moments were examined, so that conclusions could be drawn.
With these results in hand, the company was able to commission a video ad that included most of the elements of particular interest to those surveyed.
Developing a pricing strategy
It is neuromarketing research that has proven the importance of the so-called “left-digit effect,” according to which prices ending with the digit 9 (PLN 399.99 instead of PLN 400) are perceived by consumers as cheaper. This is because we assimilate content (including product prices) from left to right, making a product priced at PLN 399.99 seem to us “not much more expensive” than PLN 300, while in reality only a penny separates it from the PLN 400 ceiling.
And while there is no contradiction in the example given a moment ago, a study conducted by MIT and the University of Chicago showed that the number 9 has special significance. The same product (a woman’s dress) was sold in the experiment at three different prices: $34, $39 and $44. The result was surprising: the dress recorded the best sales when it was sold at $39.
It is for this reason that online stores (and others) often sell products at prices ending in 9 or 99.
Simplifying purchasing decisions
Another area where neuromarketing can have practical applications is in optimization the purchasing process. Often, the first iterations of this process are multi-step and overly complicated, which – instead of encouraging purchases – is more likely to encourage
- complex communications to be simplified.
- steps that can be removed without harming the process,
- elements that should be optimized to make navigating through the next steps of the process more intuitive (buttons, forms, etc.).
Who stands to gain from neuromarketing?
The simple answer is: almost all of them. Many companies have a website that could use optimization, marketing communications that could be improved and prices that could be more inviting. However, simple answers are not always enough.
In this case, the key is the cost of conducting the research. The technologies used in neuromarketing are still advanced and far from widely available. Few companies can afford to build their own neuromarketing research facilities, and using services offered by marketing agencies (which usually have access to relevant service providers) is not a cheap solution.
It is for this reason that neuromarketing, while gaining popularity, is still not widespread. Companies are more likely to choose to stay with standard, less expensive research methods – the such as A/B testing.
Neuromarketing in e-commerce: what’s next?
Although today it is a costly solution with limited availability, neuromarketing is constantly evolving and using more and more advanced technologies.
Today, a particular opportunity for process improvement is seen in the development of large-scale language models (or, to simplify, AI). These can help in the processing of data related to reactions, and thus significantly speed up the process of analyzing the behavior of subjects in response to presented content.
But it doesn’t stop there: currently testing AI capabilities in the context of automatically optimizing page layout. In the future, we may reach a point where a store’s website for each user (or for each user profile) will look slightly different, as it will be customized according to the user’s preferences.
Neuromarketing is also exploring the possibility of using camera systems that, through facial recognition, will be able to analyze in real time the emotions evoked by particular elements of a website, advertisement or specific offer.
Summary – costly techniques and an interesting future
Neuromarketing is an important and very promising tool that can help e-commerce development significantly. Its main advantage is the ability to learn about consumers’ unprocessed reactions to content, which gives access to data not otherwise available.
Unfortunately, in the current environment, this is reserved for companies with large marketing budgets and money dedicated to research and development. Small and medium-sized companies will have to stay with traditional research methods – at least until neuromarketing in e-commerce becomes widespread.
