Even though marketers throughout history have intended to get into people´s mind and try to “influence” them (not to say control them) one can only theorized into the ability of producing direct biological responses to trigger a consumption behavior to a predetermined product or service. Even for people that have a very light knowledge on human behavior or psychology, Pavlov´s experiments with dogs behavior would sound familiar. He concluded after a series of experiments, that an unconscious reflex can be developed in a dog using reinforcements that provoked that behavior. In simple terms dogs could be trained to generate saliva with sounds. This kind of experiments could be done in humans, but there are ethical and moral implications that may persuade people not to carry them on. One can conclude that similar results can be obtained with this kind of tests in people; this gives us a referral to our “animal” background. But the main difference between our reactions and those in animals is the complexity of our memories and our responses to stimuli. Also we have to take into consideration that as humans, we have the ability to create memories and to anticipate feelings and reactions, that is a factor that modern marketers may take into consideration to develop products and promotions.
Many of us have experienced feelings and memories due to external stimuli, even major religions around the world have use sounds, smells and tastes to generate submissions, reactions or meditation states. But these reactions have lots of things and behaviors related to them, for example in everyday situations, like my personal reactions on weekends: Every time I watch a soccer game on Sunday, I have a craving for barbeque, but not only this biological desire for a specific food, additionally, there is a desire for sharing with friends, having some beer, laughing and telling jokes, and the occasional poker match after the game. So there are lots of responses that I can do to try to reach most of my desires due to that soccer match. There is a mix of social, biological and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors that combine for certain reactions to an specific situation.
To give a more scientific approach of why there are differences in brain reactions with similar products lets analyze the conclusions of a specialized study made to compare Coke® and Pepsi®. This study was made on 2004 in the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. It used different combinations of presenting Coke® and Pepsi® into 4 different study groups. Among the conclusions of the study, the brains reactions to both drinks were in very similar almost identical parts of the brain. Meanwhile when Coke® brand was showed to the individuals, not only the sensorial parts of the brain we working, but also other parts related the memories and logical processes where activated.
Independently of the brand that is presented to the person, not only a biological response is given, but also a combination of zones in the brain that represent complex reactions of humans. In one hand all dogs can be trained in the same matter with the same stimuli, but for humans the same set of exposures doesn't provide the same reaction for everybody. This is a fundamental factor a company must include in their marketing strategies to provoke the desired reaction at the target audience.
Neuromarketing is just a dot that can become a part of a great artist paint of product promotion.
Great post Pablo. I think examples of this subconscious reaction to certain experiences or products can be seen in the positioning of beer next to chips in the supermarkets during football season or the existence of Starbucks coffee shops in Barnes and Noble stores. Consumers relate one product to the other and are more inclined to consume both.
ReplyDeleteBut is this really neuromarketing or simply clever product placement? Neuormarketing may just be at the core of the traditional product placement techniques.