3BrainMarketing

I’ve been thinking about the human decision making process lately, especially as it relates to influencing actions in sales situations. I’m specifically interested in the non-logical, subconscious drivers and how businesses can exploit this knowledge for their own profit.

In layman terms, how do you get someone to spend more money on your product or service without him/her realizing it?

Note: I’ve left much of the technical and scientific background out of this post for the sake of simplicity and conciseness. If you’re curious about digging deeper in this area, feel free to give me a shout on twitter or through the contact form and I can send you the relevant academic research.

First, the Background

If you’ve ever seen print ads from 50 or 100 years ago, you’ve seen the direct (e.g., “Eat at Joes”), and often less effective, methods that were used. They started to get better by tying in spokespeople and/or expertise. Painfully inaccurate comes to mind…

The real insight came when FMRI studies were conducted (basically MRI scans of your brain to see which areas were activated while decisions are made). Researchers in behavioral marketing found that while people will give logical reasons for explaining purchases, it’s actually the subconscious, emotional reasoning that drove their behavior.

Second, the Emotional Drivers

Take, for instance, the marketing for Coca-Cola. If they simply showed you the features and benefits of Coke, you would never buy it:

“Buy new coke featuring brown food coloring, sugar water, and carbonation!”

Instead they focus on the experience of drinking Coke. A major example you’re likely familiar with is the “Coke Side of Life” campaigns that play before movies showing three teens drinking Coke while their environment changes from a movie theater to a forest, consistent with the movie they’re watching. In a nutshell, Coke is saying subconsciously that if you’re going to watch a movie, you need to drink Coke to get the best experience. Smart, eh?

Ok, that’s an obvious example, but what about a more subtle example? Enter the genius of Alka-Seltzer. Yah, who’d of thought…

Read The Full Article Here: Behavioral Decision Making