Current Research into the Human Brain Has Begun to Explain How and Why Customers React to Marketing Messages in the Way They Do
“As regarding advertising, you’ve got to say it in such a way that people will feel it in their gut, because if they don’t feel it, nothing will happen.” – William Bernbach, advertising pioneer
Quite a while ago, I wrote some articles dealing with or at least touching on a relatively new discipline called neuromarketing – which is the study of how our customers’ and potential customers’ brains receive and process marketing information, such as advertisements, and actually make buying decisions.
Since then, I’ve also addressed the subject during a number of my presentations on the psychology of creative marketing that I’ve given to various Coin Laundry Association affiliates and other professional groups across the country.
As I expected, ongoing research in the neurosciences has continued to grow and produce additional remarkable insights related to how we process information on a neurological level. In other words, it’s not only about intellectually reading the written word, listening to the spoken sentence or watching commercials on a visual level that determine customer responses. Some of the most significant reactions also actually occur on a neurological level.
This is beyond huge!
The potential practical implications of neuromarketing – with regard to our promotional strategies for self-service laundries, focusing on advertising, of course – literally will be a game-changer.
Neuromarketing is a relatively new field that applies neuroscience directly to marketing. It actually uses medical technologies – such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and numerous other extremely sophisticated neurological assessment methods – to measure changes in activity in various parts of the brain (when an individual views or hears an advertising message) to discover why consumers make the buying decisions that they do and what part of the brain is actually signaling them to do so.
This knowledge will help you market more effectively by enabling you to design “brain-friendly” marketing campaigns, based more on the target-audience brain (neurological) responses, rather than simply their intellectual processing of your advertising messages.
We have learned many interesting things thus far from neuromarketing research that technically can help your advertising to be much more accurate, persuasive and economically sane when promoting your laundry business and its various services and aspects.
Here are some examples:
Research suggests that individuals process advertising even if they don’t consciously consider it. So, design your content to be recognizable anywhere it shows up, such as in print or on television or even on billboards. Big brand marketers know that, once they build brand momentum, they need to continue building awareness of their messages so that the recipient will think, “Where did I see that before?” This can be accomplished, for example, by establishing a strong logo for your laundry, which can then be inserted into all forms of your advertising and marketing.
Research findings also suggest using colors in your advertising materials that evoke and connect with the emotions you want consumers to feel when they interact with your content. Interestingly, it has been determined that somewhere between approximately 62 percent and 90 percent of an assessment of an advertisement by a recipient is determined by the perceived colors.
The psychology of color is indeed interesting. For instance, yellow is psychologically the “happiest” color (neurologically) in the color spectrum. It evokes optimism, warmth and positive feelings.
Did you know that 75 percent of the pencils sold in the United States are painted yellow? Of course, this very likely is because pencil manufacturers want you to use their products rather than pens. Also, consider some of the major brands that have incorporated yellow into their logos – UPS, Best Buy, Hertz and McDonald’s, to name just a few.
Blue, on the other hand, is associated with trust, dependability, sincerity, honesty and friendliness. Some big name brands that use blue prominently within their logos and signage include Dell, Lowe’s, Hewlett-Packard, Oreo cookies, Ford, Walmart, Facebook and Pfizer.
Neuroscience research also has determined that advertisements that “suggest” messages using images are more successful and meaningful to the target audience. In other words, actually showing happy people doing their laundry and smiling as their gaze is focused on the outside of your building or even on selected frontload washers will produce a more positive response to your ad and its message.
Furthermore, studies indicate that using emotion in your advertisements has a very positive impact on the reader. For instance, the use of emotionally charged words – such as delightful, astonishing, satisfying, breathtaking, innovative, free or special – either in the headlines or body copy of your advertisements will lead to a much more positive consumer response.
We also have learned that physical motion attracts attention. Therefore, if you’re shooting a cable television spot promoting the use of your frontload machines, be certain to show the machines actually operating (in motion), rather than simply having a voiceover expound upon all of the many advantages of your frontloaders. What’s more, it should stand to reason that big motions beat out little motions – so always use the largest washers or dryers you have in your store.
Lastly, along with the development of your logo, create a simple slogan to appear in all of your advertising and marketing materials, as well as within your laundromat. People will associate the logo with the slogan, and they’ll remember your laundry. Slogans that promise savings and/or higher quality should be a centerpiece of your marketing efforts.
The study of neuromarketing proves that people (prospective customers) are still human, despite their focus and reliance on all of the technical devices we use daily. The field of neuromarketing was first introduced at Harvard University in 1990, and over the last 16 years, it has attracted the attention of hundreds of forward-focused companies that want to understand the science underlying how people make buying decisions.
Neuromarketing research also has determined that, along with the neurological influences on our behavior, about 95 percent of our thinking actually takes place within our unconscious minds, and people use their conscious thought primarily as a way to rationalize their behaviors.
As a result, when writing your advertising copy, do so with a carefully designed, repetitive, projected focus on emotions in order to appeal to the highly influential emotional side of your potential customers.
As renowned poet Robert Frost once said, “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.
