Atrillion dollars is what is being spent each year in understanding the subconscious. Specifically put, on the fine art of communicating with and persuading human brains! Quite a fortune. But then the investment is well worth it. If marketers get the consumer?s pulse right, there?s no looking back.
In The Buying Brain ?Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind, author A K Pradeep details the nuances of how the buying brain functions, what?s attractive to it, how it decides what it likes or doesn?t like, and how it makes that all-important transition from being a ?shopping brain? to becoming a ?buying brain?. The subject is undoubtedly difficult. Our senses take in close to 11 million bits of information every second but our conscious mind processes only 40 bits. The remaining is processed subconsciously? translating into 99.999% subconscious to conscious processing. And that, as the author rightly points out, is the challenge for the marketers??how to get into that 40 bits of consciously considered information.?
The author, a neuromarketing researcher and founder CEO of NeuroFocus Inc, is easily able to convince the reader with the help of scientific research data and relevant case studies. The book lists several ways to do it: by motivating customers by activating their pleasure/reward circuits by focusing on powerful images of the emotional payoff elements of the product; avoiding visual clutter; engaging the empathic mind of women consumers or simply by including an act of charity in the coupons to raise the purchase intent.
The book classifies in detail the ?female brain?, the ?mommy brain? and the ?empathic brain?. It also asserts how it is time marketers began laying emphasis on the ?boomer brain?: ?after age 60, transformations that have been slowly occurring become more apparent. Since the huge generational cohorts of Baby Boomers are now in their 50s and 60s, this change is of enormous consequence to marketers. The largest generational segment in human history is moving like the proverbial pig in the python directly into this life stage. Currently 46 to 64 years old, the 44 million Baby Boomers will all be evaluating your brand, product, package, message, and environment with mature brains in the very near future, if they?re not already.?
There are several take-offs the book guarantees: how to create neurologically powerful content for social networks, neurological best practices to enhance effectiveness of advertising messages, how to activate neurological iconic signatures at the stores amongst others. Consider a case study for packaging?when NeuroFocus developed the Neurological Effectiveness score for California Olive Ranch?s olive oil, to decide whether its label should carry a stylised map of California or an orchard, it found that the latter emerged a clear winner.
But then, the regular apprehensions remain because most of the study findings arrived at in the space of neuro marketing remain largely indicative and not substantive. A lot therefore depends on the precise techniques used to map the correlation of neuro marketing strategies and buying behaviour?yet another ground where the book gathers a decent score. Overall, an insightful read.