What is neuromarketing and how will it improve your performance?
Offering great services and great products is rarely enough to generate sales. The reason for this lies in our brain. As functional as it is, our brain does not always act in a rational way!
Our brain uses precise rules when collecting, processing information and eventually taking decisions. Neuromarketing consists of taking into account these decision rules, along with the way our brain works, to optimise customer experience and encourage purchases. Emphasis can thus be put on products and services that provide you with the highest margins and profits.
Neuromarketing is not magical! Techniques used are based on rigorous scientific evidence from psychology, and their efficiency has been proven to improve selling strategy. Neuromarketing is a great, reliable and efficient tool to increase sales, margins, and your customers’ satisfaction and loyalty.
SOME EXAMPLES
– One of the most famous examples of neuromarketing are prices ending with the number 9. Labelling a product at £49 will appear more cost-effective in customers’ eyes and generate more sales than the same product labelled at £50. This is true, but not in every case. It has been proven that a price ending with zero, such as £50, increases customers’ quality perception of the corresponding product, thereby increasing purchase intent. Context indeed matters: a technique that is efficient to boost sales at a given point of purchase may not be as efficient at another one. It is neuromarketing experts’ work to adjust these techniques in a subtle and individualized way as a function of your needs and of your business’ peculiarities.
– Another application consists of taking into account the way our brain makes choices: we mostly compare different options in a relative way, rarely an absolute way. For instance, a pair of shoes labelled at £40 will be perceived as a more of a deal when compared with another pair labelled at £50, than when compared with a third one at £30, and when on its own. This effect can be used to promote products and favour their purchase.
– Another technique linked to pricing consists of splitting the cost of a service to increase client loyalty. It has for instance been shown that people paying a monthly membership to a gym trained more regularly than people paying membership on an annual basis. Annual memberships decreased loyalty to the gym and to the brand, but also the consumption of side-products, such as food, drinks and sports equipment, sold in the facilities. In this situation, a monthly membership strategy seems like a more beneficial pricing strategy.
“Neuromarketing is an efficient and easily applicable tool to boost sales”
Again, what is relevant and efficient for one business might not be the same for another one. The act of buying is known as being psychologically ‘painful’ for customers. Reducing the number of buying instances should in some cases be favoured. For instance, insurance companies could provide their clients with offers including several options at a given price rather than enabling them to add costly options separately.
To conclude, neuromarketing is an efficient and easily applicable tool to boost sales. Its associated techniques, when applied by experts, will lead to major improvements in customers’ satisfaction and loyalty, and increases in profits and margins.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A former academic and behavioural sciences expert, Dr. Morgan David is the founder and director of ANALYTICA, a consultancy agency based in Edinburgh, UK and in Dijon, France. ANALYTICA uses the way our brain works to design better products and better services in the realm of neuromarketing, webmarketing, customer experience, sales strategy and pricing tactics. ANALYTICA is the creator of CogniSales and of CogniMenu, the first neuromarketing service of new-generation menu engineering aimed at improving restaurants’ sales.
