Why Marketing Neuroscience is Critical in Today’s Marketing Environment
The rise of digital media means that all marketing now requires “always-on” brands.
As Heinz Marketing president Matt Heinz explains, “We don’t control when we have access to the buyer; we don’t get to control when they have access to us. We need to be ready when they are ready, and ideally it’s not just when they want to learn about your product.”
Today, marketers know they need an always-on awareness of how customers/prospects think – often informed by what people say in social media – as well as how they behave, in terms of ad response and sales.
But the most critical aspect is often missing – an always-on knowledge of how customers/prospects feel, because that’s what drives what they think and how they ultimately act.
When marketers are unaware of their customers’ often unspoken emotional priorities, it’s very easy to drift out of sync. Every social media kerfuffle, every sales trend, every data point can pull your attention away from how your customers really choose, decide, and act.
To avoid these and other costly errors, it’s important to understand how decisions happen inside the brain.
Emotional System First, Reason System Second
What drives a decision, choice, or behavior is the result of two brain systems acting together. The neurobiology behind this process has been well researched.
The first of these systems to fire is the Emotional System, which is located in the limbic region. This system operates automatically, quickly, and with no effort. The limbic region — an older part of the brain located in the mid-brain — is where emotion, habit, reward, hesitation, and motivation are processed.
The second is the Reason System, which is supported by the prefrontal cortex. This is the part of the brain that is analytical, evaluates risk/benefit ratios, processes the information we’re aware of, and gives us the ability to not act impulsively.
The disruption of either the Emotional System or the Reason System – or the exchange between them – negatively impacts decisions. A common way this disruption happens is “cognitive Load”.
What People Say In Social Media Rarely Reveals The True Self
Social media is a lot of things, but the one thing it definitely is not is representative of how people really feel. People use social media to connect with others and to manage the impression they make on others.
Everyone knows that what they say will be seen by a specific set of friends and family, and will be “liked” or not liked, shared or not shared. In his book “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life”, sociologist Ervin Goffman famously wrote, “We are all just actors trying to control and manage our public image, we act based on how others might see us.” This observation rings 3 more true than ever in the Instagram age . What’s more, even if people really intend to be 4 honest, the process of thinking about what to post and how to say it means that it can’t represent the person’s real emotional priorities. In nearly all cases, what is posted on social media will be “the act” – what we call “the me I want you to see” – rather than a person’s true self or real emotional priorities.
In brief, while there can be business value in “social listening” marketers must remember that it is not a perfect reflection of reality.
Priorities Can (And Do) Shift, Especially in Turbulent, High Stakes Markets
Maintaining an “always-on” awareness of buyers’ emotional priorities is further complicated by the fact that few markets today remain static for long. Competing brands are launched. Old brands are reinvigorated with new marketing campaigns. Regulations change. Innovations mean that product differences that were once a meaningful source of competitive advantage become little more than table stakes. Rapid technological change can shift how consumers view markets, how they define your competition, and sometimes even how much they fundamentally value your offering.
In high stakes markets, keeping a continuous understanding of often-unspoken emotional priorities can make a powerful difference. Understanding which changes your brand must react to – especially before those changes become apparent in the marketplace – enables marketers to confidently maintain or change course to stay ahead of competitors.
Three Steps Always-On Brands Should Take to Leverage Marketing Neuroscience
Here are some ways you can use marketing neuroscience to help ensure that you remain tightly in sync with how customers make decisions. These are best
1. Perform a Market Volatility Assessment.
How fast are changes happening in your market? What competitive product launches are you expecting to hit the market? Have recent product innovations (yours, or competitors) changed how the market thinks about products in your category? Do coming regulatory changes have the potential to change how buyers choose, decide, and act?
2. Determine the optimal syncing schedule.
If market volatility is low and sales are growing steadily, checking in on emotional priorities every 9-12 months may be enough. If market volatility is expected to be high – and/or if you’re experience slipping sales and want to ensure you understand the underlying causes – then more routine re-syncing with what may be shifting might be the route to take.
3. Establish a baseline Emotional Engagement Mindset
An Emotional Engagement Mindset is based on a valence/arousal measurement, which is a neuroscientific predictive measurement of behavior.
It reveals a) the level of attraction; b) why it exists in the language of the audience; and c) what each mindset needs to process in order to become even more willing to choose the brand.
Understanding how decisions, choices, and behaviors are created in the brain directly impacts marketing’s ability to influence those decisions, choices, and behaviors.
For example, More than 85% of decisions are guided by often-unspoken emotional priorities. In high-stakes markets, how much could it cost you to fall out of sync with the constantly changing ways customers decide and act as markets evolve?