In the conclusion to last week's column, Jim Meskauskas fleshes out some possible applications for neuromarketing.
Last week I introduced a new concept that I predict will quickly become one of the most talked about new tools in marketing: neuromarketing.
Neuromarketing is the study of the brain's responses to advertising, the brands encountered in our daily lives, and all the associated messages and images that are strewn throughout the cultural landscape of everyday life.
This week I'd like to review the architecture of the brain as it is articulated by those working in neuromarketing, and just how marketers can develop more effective means of communication by addressing those parts of the brain.
The Three Amigos
Neuroscientists, psychologists, and other students of the brain as an organ typically look at the brain as having three parts, each part often described as a brain unto itself. These "three brains" are like a "matryoshka" (a Russian nesting doll) with one inside of the other.
The outer-most brain is called the cortex or neocortex. It is the part of the brain, if you subscribe to evolution, that came to be most recently in our human development and is responsible for things like learning, logic, language, and distinguishing between smart decisions and dumb ones. As each of us have learned over the course of our lives, it is not always adept at doing that well.
The middle of the brain is the called the limbic system, deriving from the Latin word "limbus," meaning "girdle," which is what this part of the brain does: it girdles the oldest part of our brain. The limbic system is typically associated with emotional constructs and feelings. It also has a great deal of control over mood, memory, and hormones.
At the center of our matryoshka is the oldest part of our brain. It is called the R Complex. It takes care of the basics like hunger, temperature control, fight-or-flight fear responses, defending territory, staying out of harm's way -- that sort of thing. The structures that perform these functions within our brain are extremely similar to those in the brains of reptiles, hence the name "R Complex," with R standing for reptilian.
These three amigos carry on a dialogue with one another throughout the course of a life. They may not be talking to one another about everything. For instance, the reptilian brain doesn't send a note to the cortex in order to get clearance for each breath we take or each beat of our heart.
But when you are driving along the road and come upon a car accident, when you see it, your old brain registers danger, tells the limbic system about it, the limbic system registers an emotional response -- fear, sadness, concern -- and this is communicated to the cortex, which says things like, "be careful when you drive here," or "don't take this road again," or "maybe I should stop and help."
What neuroscientists have found, and neuromarketers seek to capitalize on, is the fact that the most potent communication comes from the oldest brain and most often can override the higher functions. It is the part of the brain that drives crowds to panic, with Moms beating one another over the head with their purses for that last Cabbage Patch doll or Beanie Baby. Though the more evolved cortex is where logic and rational decision making takes place, the old reptilian brain can have a much louder voice, drowning out the voice of reason and ultimately driving the decision-making process. If marketers can understand the language this older brain speaks, it could be possible for them to motivate the decision making process in their favor by appealing to the instincts that reside there.
A piece of steak
In 1999, Douglas Rushkoff -- who heads the Narrative Lab at NYU's TischITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program) -- published "Coercion." In that book, Rushkoff discussed all of the different means by which people are swayed into making certain decisions. What they do, what they buy, how they respond to events, can all be influenced by a variety of tried and true tactics that have been employed for years by marketers, advertisers, opinion makers, and governments.
For the purposes of influence, Rushkoff argues, it is necessary to disable our capacity for making logical and deliberated judgments by appealing to that which would otherwise ordinarily be associated with internal, unresolved, and usually unrelated issues.
"By understanding the unconscious processes we use to make our choices of what to buy, where to eat, whom to respect, and how to feel, clever influence professionals can sidestep our critical faculties and compel us to act however they please."
Though the above quote makes Rushkoff sound like a conspiracy theorist, the point is that there are means by which people can be persuaded that are effective in spite of one's well-developed higher functions and sensibilities. Rushkoff never makes it explicit, but the techniques of influence he discusses in his book all have something in common: they all rely on going straight for the old brain.
The best example of this is when he talks about an Outback Steakhouse event sponsorship. Some years back at a Jets game, colorful signs were given out to attendees of a Jets game that had written on one side, "Sack Attack!" On the other side were the name Outback Steakhouse and their logo. Whenever the opposing quarterback was sacked, the announcer would shout "Outback Sack Attack!" Then the crowd would flail their signs in the air.
"The brilliance of the promotion is its perfect isolation of the moments during the game when the crowd is experiencing its greatest rush of collective aggression," he writes.
What Outback has done in this instance is to associate something as primal as eating meat with the language of the old brain, namely, aggression.
SalesBrain
There has risen out from the froth of neuromarketing a company that has set out to decipher the language of the old brain and teach that language to marketers for use in more effective marketing communications.
The company is called SalesBrain. Founded by Patrick Renvoisé and Christophe Morin in 2002, SalesBrain offers clients a kind of sales training program based on a formula for decoding a product or service's true appeal to that scurrying little reptile brain.
The formula is simple on its face: articulating consumer pain, making a claim that addresses that pain, demonstrating the gain to be yielded by the consumer, and then creating the appropriate message to appeal to the old brain in an attempt to get it to make decisions over the possible objections of the more logical-bound cortex.
Pain
Clotaire Rapaille, the marketing psychologist/consultant has said that most people don't have a conscious understanding of what they are doing or why they do it when it comes to brand engagement and product purchase decisions
What is meant by "pain" is that desire deep inside of us for those things that the old brain addresses. As Mr. Renvoisé told me recently in an interview, traditional marketing is not as effective because it is concerned only with what people say they want, not with what they really want. People "buy SUVs because they think they are looking for utility, but really, in the old brain, they are looking for security and safety."
To give an example of properly assessed "pain:" the number one pain a customer has regarding pizza delivery is not knowing when the pizza will arrive. Dominos capitalized on this with addressing that pain: "Pizza in 30 minutes or less."
Claim
The next part of the formula is to differentiate your claims. Everybody out there claims the same thing. We are "one of the leading providers of" something. Whenever there is a new product category, we need to associate it with another previous concept, but the brain has been trained to believe that when there is a new category, there is really only one "owner" of that category. Levis did it with jeans. They owned it for 100 years. Coke invented the idea of the cola drink.
When making a claim about the product or service, that claim has to be distinct.
Gain
Demonstrating the gain means showing beyond a reasonable doubt how the customer will benefit from the engagement of the product or service. Value tends to fall into three categories:
- Financial
- Strategic
- Personal
So, for coffee, is there a financial dimension? Not in the grand scheme of things. Strategic? Maybe. It will help you stay awake or something. Personal? Well, the experience of having a coffee at Starbucks is considered more valuable to the consumer than the cost.
According to Mr. Renvoisé, the question then becomes,"can you summarize your value proposition in such a way that a two-year old can understand it?"
Old Brain
This is when you get down to "how you say" what needs to be said. The delivery of a message to the old brain requires the language of the old brain. Words don't seem to work when communicating with the old brain, as they are "new" relative to the organ we are trying to access. So the vehicle necessary to get in most effectively are images.
Summarizing this formula, using jeans as an example, looks like this:
- Pain: I feel inadequate compared to my peers or those I see in media images, not looking as good as they do.
- Claim: the product promising to alleviate my pain is the only one that can do it. This is category brand ownership.
- Gain: 6here is the promise that I, too, will look like the image shown in the ad for this product and my pain will be assuaged.
- Vehicle for communication: images of attractive people in attractive pants in the company of other attractive people.
As fascinating as all of this is, the question still remains: does knowing the language of the old brain really aid in the development of better marketing communications?
Evidence of applied neuromarketing is still scarce, but anecdotally, from those working closely with the concept, it is a successful technique.
But what neuromarketing seems to demonstrate more than anything else is a posteriori evidence of marketing and advertising practices that have been in use long before there was a science to explain or justify them. Reminding us of our fears and inadequacy is something advertising has long relied on. Beer commercials with good looking women hanging out having a good time with guys about your age reminds us of the life we don't have but wish we did. Though SUVs are more prone to tipping on the road, and people who drive them tend to have more accidents, we buy them believing they will fit all the members of our family and keep them safe while we're on the road. (For example, see Malcolm Gladwell's article in the January 5, 2004 issue of "The New Yorker".)
What neuromarketing does do for advertising is to explain why some of the things that work, in spite of reason, work the way they do and how to replicate those practices. Findings derived from this discipline, if it is indeed a discipline, can help in designing communications packages.
If the language of the old brain is one that speaks of fear or ecstasy, then both sublime and overt images based on that are likely to work best. It means more images should be used in communicating with potential consumers, and the online ad space could use more such images. And, if you are only going to use words, make sure those words always reflect the consumer's interest, rather than those of the advertiser.
During our conversation, Mr. Renvoisé told me a story that illustrates the power of neuromarketing. Going into a restaurant in San Francisco, he came upon a transient holding a sign, asking for money. Mr. Renvoisé told the man he would help him draw in even more money if he let him change the wording of the man's sign. The affable transient let him, and Mr. Renvoisé went into the restaurant to have his meal. When he'd returned, the man had pulled in so many "donations" that he offered to give some to Mr. Renvoisé. The changed sign now read, "What if YOU were hungry?"
Make what is said about the individual under address.
And, finally, take advantage of vehicles that have elements that appeal to our fears, inadequacies, and lusts. Those blogs that are egocentric indulgences whose content serves more often than not to confirm a bias borne of irrational fear might be a perfect place for a wider array of advertisements than most marketers might otherwise think. Similarly, medical content sites may be more effective for advertisers whose products have no overt affinity for healthcare than you might think.
There are still vast, unexplored territories within the mind of the consumer, and there is a lot left to be discovered about consumer behavior. Neuromarketing is the latest means of removing "here be dragons" from the map.
Jim Meskauskas is the Media Strategies Editor for iMedia Connection.
- How will marketers find their target consumers as media convergence increases? The CEO of Geary Interactive shares some key adaptive strategies.
- More In Focus Articles »
