The Human Brain

From papyrus to the internet, marketing strategies have been evolving for thousands of years. It’s difficult to resist going in the same direction as everyone else and focusing on the newest tech to get your brand out there.  However, there is one powerful tool that you may be overlooking – the brain.

It is the single unchanging piece of communications hardware that we have.

Many business owners and marketing teams spend their time focused on modern tech such as Instagram and YouTube’s algorithm. However, for a deeper understanding and marketing impact, it may be useful to take into consideration the workings of the human brain when it comes to consumerism.

Jeff Bezos explained how focusing on what is changing is less effective than looking at what hasn’t.

“I very frequently get the question: ‘What’s going to change in the next 10 years?’…I almost never get the question: ‘What’s not going to change in the next 10 years?’ And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two, because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time.”

The Basics of Neuromarketing

An article published by Harvard Business Review on the impact of neuromarketing explains that the field of neuromarketing—also known as consumer neuroscience—studies the brain to predict and even manipulate consumer behaviour and decision making.

“For marketers the promise of this idea is that neurobiology can reduce the uncertainty and conjecture that traditionally hamper efforts to understand consumer behaviour.”

There are two key areas of marketing when looking at neuromarketing. The first is emotion, and the second is motivation. A great example of this is the famously emotional John Lewis Christmas advert. It works so well because it has the perfect combination of an emotional response followed by motivation.

According to Marketing Week “Motivation is aided by including something that reinforces what the brand helps you to achieve.” In the case of John Lewis, their videos make people cry/laugh which get attention, likes & shares. But it also shows John Lewis shoppers are ‘thoughtful gifters’ which is an implicit goal the audience wants to achieve.

Watch this video from Tedx to gain a deeper understanding of what motivates people to buy – Neuromarketing – Knowing Why You Buy

In conclusion, the most effective marketing communications will always create emotive and motivational responses within the consumer. Human imagination and creativity combined with the power of technology is a sure-fire way to elicit those responses. If you’re interested in building your marketing strategies further, or finding a sustainable way to build your business you can claim your free business and marketing coaching session with our resident Business Coach Bev Howard here.