I own this book and took these notes to further my own learning. Taking notes, publishing them and re-reading them allow me to flatten my forgetting curve. If you enjoy these notes, I highly encourage you to do the same, buy this book here and take your own notes.
INTRODUCTION
Today, modern tools (fMRI, heart rate and eye-tracking, ) allow us to make a shift from madmen to the development of neuroscience/neuromarketing/behavioral research. Neuromarketing is all about understanding how our brains work to improve our products and marketing
CORE
- Price and Product Brainfluence
- 95% of our thoughts, emotions, learning occur without our conscious awareness.
- Paying causes the brain center in our brain to light-up. The key is to minimize the pain of paying. The price must be seen as fair (bundling, perceived fairness, credit card = painkiller compared to cash)
- Avoid multiple pain points in the purchase process (monthly vs daily, sushi pieces vs menu, etc.)
- Supplying the subject with cues related to money increases selfish behavior. Mutual returns seek this feeling that's why they display big money, piggy bank, prosperous saving vision, etc. Restaurant, on the contrary, should rather not display the $ sign in their menus
- Anchor price: careful where you will drop the anchor price
- Wine prices and expectation is a great example of how discount also discredit your product. $100 bottle is expected to be very good, 1 bottle of this wine is $10 now could increase the sale, but if all bottles of the same are now $10 the bargain becomes suspicious…
- Use precise pricing: don't round number ($500), detailed price ($502.22) makes the price more serious and less inappropriate
- Decoy marketing to push your top product: same price but one bundle appears better than other (the economist experience)
- Add a high-end product to your list: the $100 sauvignon makes a $35 bottle an acceptable price
- Cut choice to boost sales (choice tires customers’ brain), find the sweet spot number + help your customer to make the choice (label)
- Sensory Brainfluence
- Importance of Olfactory branding. 75% of emotions are generated by what we smell. Marcel Proust's concept of “involuntary memory”, described an avalanche of memories being triggered by the smell of a madeleine
- Appeal sensory with your product, Nespresso innovated to create a machine that will diffuse more aroma in the air
- Use background music that works. (Example: calming background for children doing math, Muzak is a company working on changing behaviors of customers thanks to background music)
- Unique scents boost memorability (more than a song)
- Brainfluence branding
- Brands can trump sense (example Coke vs Pepsi)
- Pavlovian branding: keep your brand association consistent. Customers’ brain plasticity will begin to make an association (red = coke = salivate)
- Familiarity breeds likeability. Any exposure is better than nothing and can cause a positive association later. Experience: subjects that receive 5 subliminal exposures to an ideograph liked it much better in the end.
- Hiring a passionate employee to create a passionate product
- Compare people not product, Apple vs Microsoft, create a community brand to improve loyalty (our customers are better/different). Create an enemy, ex: Apple, Etsy (small business vs. big corporate). Build a tribe. Prime your target with cues that differentiate them from other
- Brainfluence in print
- Vivid print images can create a false memory of having tried a product and improve likability of it
- The weight effect, Job candidate experiment: each received either a light or a heavy clipboard. People receiving the heavy clipboard judged the applicant to have more serious interest in the position…
- Simple font = users more likely to commit. Complex font increases the feeling of complexity (describe high-end technology with hard-to-read font). A more complex font to justify a high price.
- Complex font improve memorability
- Picture Brainfluence
- The baby picture draws the eye and the attention
- We look at what the person gazes in the picture… so use the baby's gaze to direct attention to your product
- Men prefer female faces with baby-like features
- Pretty women picture boost response rate of the male and un-affect female
- Dilated pupils, men rate higher the attractiveness of women picture with bigger pupils
- Loyalty and Trust Brainfluence
- Use counter scenarios to boost loyalty: what if you did not buy our product/service? Helping users to think about different scenarios give an instance enhancement of positive sentiment
- The loyalty program works. Keep the user engaged by showing them their progress and reminding them about the program if they have not bought in a while.
- Loyalty program: “100 extra rewards points with every purchase!” big numbers may seem more important to users
- Give a head start: the Linkedin progress bar is at 70% at the beginning to give a feeling of almost achieved to the users. Researchers food in the 1930s that rats run faster as they got closer to the food. That's why coffee pre stamps your loyalty cards
- Time builds trust and loyalty. Researchers found that the amount of time and feedback from the company was a key factor in the level of trust extended by the VC. All customer relationships will increase with time spent listening to them. Customers need to believe his or her concerns are being heard
- Boost your trust score by 33% just by adding this “You can trust us to do the job for you”. Just tell the customer to trust you so that they trust you
- Show that you trust your customers to get trust in return
- Brainfluence in person
- Schmooze first, bargain later. Time spent chitchatting in the beginning lay the ground for mutual respect and trust
- Good handshakes = more likely to be hired. Touching is important to build trust. A light touch from the female on a shoulder = encourage to take the riskier option
- Right ear selling are more likely to be successful
- Smiling face affects people willing to pay
- Demonstration of confidence is more likely to close a sale
- Asking for a small favor first can increase the probability of success with the second favor. Just ask for the time, for a glass of water, ask to complete a short survey first, etc.
- Even when flattery is not sincere, studies showed that flattery can still leave a lasting and positive impression of the flatterer. Marketing try: “As an owner of a Black card, you showed you are an individual who can recognize sophisticated styling and superb quality…”
- Serve hot beverages to be judged as a warmer, generous and trusting person (bonus: coffee boost memory if you offer this before your presentation)
- Act like a magician: 1) user can focus on one thing at a time so don't let customer multitask if you need their attention; 2) motion = grab attention, use it smartly and not everywhere; 3) use big motions to increase the attention; 4) unexpected / surprise / unfamiliar / “New!” grab a lot the attention of a user; 5) familiar physical actions engage the brain
- User will pay more in a soft chair than in a hard chair, hard objects increased rigidity in negotiations
- Brainfluence for a cause
- Mirrors on wall reduce the rate of bad behavior
- Use babies to boos altruism
- Reciprocity principle: gift your prospect to receive bigger
- Make it personal when describing the recipient for better response rate, don't group recipients: help this child Noe vs help these children
- When asking for donation avoid financial or business cues
- Start big and ask for something almost impossible for a better response rate on real demand. Ask 1st for a $30 000 donation, no response, then ask if the prospect can at least…
- Brainfluence copywriting
- Surprise the audience, unexpected words, images or events grab the audience attention: “Stitch in times saves nine” becomes “stitch in times save money”
- If the brand is a value brand, use a saving slogan and make it a centerpiece of your marketing efforts, this offer the potential to increase consumer purchase
- Write like Shakespeare, W.S was used to turning noon into verb (“he godded me”). “Misuse” a word, take a word that people know and use it unexpectedly. Neuro your copy
- Rename the category of your product to increase sales. The food example smoothie category sounds healthier than milkshake even if they had the same ingredients. (pasta vs salad, etc…)
- Use a real number for impact instead of %. For instance, cancer killed 1286 out of 10 000 people sounds more than 12.86%. Example2: 2% chance of misfortune sounds low, but if you heard 2 people out of 100 will be harmed your brain imagines 2 actual people suffering. Example3: 90% of our customers rate our CS “excellent” vs. 9 out of 10 customers. On the contrary, you can also present negative data as %
- “FREE” copy is very powerful: Example of Free kisses that beat the bargain truffles.
- “NEW”; making a product new and it will get a boost when comparing to the existing product
- Vivid and compelling adjectives are efficient in a copy.
- Tell vivid stories to engage the brain, involve your product and include action, motion, dialogue and other aspects that will activate different parts of the customer's brain
- Use story testimonials, anecdotes can be a very efficient way to sell a product. Short testimonials, + add name and face to increase the social proof
- Text beats other media when it tells a story (example of the google Parisian love add during the SuperBowl)
- Consumer Brainfluence
- Purchasers of simple products are happier when having thought long and hard about the purchase, the opposite: purchaser of complex products are happier when those purchases were taken with little deliberation. Marketing learning: use a simple message when selling a car ("#1 in customer satisfaction”) and add more message for toothpaste or socks
- In marketing, find the right balance bwn repeating a message and also providing novel information. Indeed novelty, new learning, unexpected images trigger the reward system of the brain
- Should vs want? Want = is consumed directly, should = is consumed in the future
- Population is divided in 3 categ: 24% Tightwards, 60% unconflicted, 15% Spendthrifts.
- Tightwads are individuals the feel a lot of pain buy buying and that will then avoid spending money (even when very justified). Mktg should focus on minimizing pain for the tightwad category. 1. make the price a bargain. 2. Avoid repeated pain points. 3. Create a product bundle. 4) Appeal to important needs. 5) use language “$5 fee” to “small $5 fee”
- Sell to Spendthrifts: 1. focus on both utilitarian and hedonistic. 2. Provide and emphasize credit options. 3. offer instant gratification. 4. improve margins with up-sell options
- big potential rewards produce big responses, even if they are unlikely outcomes. In lottery spectacular prize is better, even if the odds are lower
- Implicit egotism, people are generally positive about themselves + ownership effect, a preference for an item that one owns over one that belongs to someone else. A study showed that student whose names began with A or B got better grades in school, Marv and Mark are more likely to do marketing for a living…… think about enhanced personalization… database with customer testimonials…
- Research shows that what customers believe about a product can turn into reality, if they believe a product is better, it will be better. Set high but achievable expectations
- Create a positive feeling with a small surprise. It is not the value the most important but more that something positive happened to you. Surprise in the box + brand it “free gift”. Zappos upgraded users with faster shipping and told it to the users after checkout.
- Gender Brainfluence
- Men spend money to enhance their reputation and their appeal (cars, costly restaurants, …), Women spend money on closing intended to enhance their attractiveness
- Language processing by women is more abstract, whereas boys are more sensory when dealing with those tasks. Boys & girls use a different port of their brains for these same activities (brain 1 vs. 2). Man copy should simple and direct, a female-oriented copy can provide more context
- Use attractive women pictures to increase male sale, but don't use them for selling certain kind of product (life insurance, etc.) involving spending money in the future
- Shopper Brainfluence
- Wathe the pairing of your products. The experiment showed that food items that had been in proximity to a disgust-inducing item were less appealing for subjects. Transparent packages were judged to have higher fat after subjects touched a contained of lard.
- Engage customer problems quickly, Harris survey showed that 18% of users who posted a negative feedbacks and receive a reply ultimately became loyal and bought more. 70% reversed the negative content either by deleting the review or posting a second positive one
- Apologize is very efficient
- Touching an object cause people to feel a greater sense of ownership and to place a higher value on it,… let your customer touch your product
- Video, tv and film brainfluence
- Boies talk, Crossed arms = resistance of an idea, steepled fingers = symbol of authority… posture reinforces the verbal message
- Best order = credibility before claims. An idea that is not instantly believable is less effective
- Emotional content > logic
- Brainfluence on web
- The first impression count a lot
- Confirmation bias made in milliseconds makes the first impression stick and will continue as the user view the site entirely. Hence the importance of testing your website first impression
- Use Golden ratio in your web
- Reward > reciprocity. Research showed that twice as many visitors gave up their contact data if they were able to access the information first
- Use scarcity and be specific “Just sold another! Only one left” > “only 2 left” > “limited supply”
- Help customers to imagine ownership
- Avoid corner of death: lower right corner