Сударев Д.А.
Руководитель Машкова Л.А.
Сударев Денис Андреевич – студент (бакалавриат), факультет государственного управления, МГУ имени М.В. Ломоносова
E-mail: sudarev.spa.msu@gmail.com
Annotation. In the present day complex market environment traditional approaches to marketing have proved ineffective. Since modern companies tend to stick to new trends in science, neuromarketing becomes the natural choice; however, being successful and effective, it remains highly controversial at the same time. Combining marketing and psychology, neuromarketing allows us to explain people’s initial motives of consumer behaviour and influence them. That is why it is regarded as the greatest discovery in marketing – and potential “mass destruction weapon” at the same time.
Key words: Neuromarketing, product promotion, human consumer behaviour, product placement, mirror neurons, sensor branding
The present article focuses on the new modern approach to explaining human consumer behaviour, which can be used by companies to develop its marketing strategies.
In today’s highly competitive world a large number of new companies and brands enter the market offering their products and services. All of them implement different marketing tools to increase product appeal and earn customer loyalty. However, in many cases real sales and the degree of customer attraction do not coincide with their forecasts and outlooks. This leads to four out of five companies ceasing to exist after the first year of their establishment; moreover, even the products of the most successful companies leave the market.
Why does this happen? At present no method available for marketeers is able to give a precise answer. However, at the beginning of the XX century a new way with great possibilities to explain and affect consumer behaviour emerged. This approach is called neuromarketing, as it studies consumer behaviour through marketing analysis, cognitive psychology and neurophysiology. Neuromarketing does not use subjective data for obtaining objective information about consumer preferences. Instead, it allows researchers to affect human thoughts before people realize them and develop a position to stick to. In other words, neuromarketing is aimed at recognizing the real motives of human behaviour that are shown to be far faster than words and impossible to conceal.
Neuromarketing research has been carried out for no more than 10 years. However, there is a huge amount of information about human behaviour that has been accumulated. After analyzing this information, it becomes possible to figure out the main recommendations about product promoting.
The first sphere of neuromarketing interest is product placement, which is an advertising technique used to promote products through appearances in films, or television, or other media. Traditional marketing approaches state that this way of promoting is nearly always successful, as humans’ need to have the same product as their favorite character implores them to buy this product. Neuromarketing explains that it does not work because our brain has to receive and process a lot of information. As a result, it cannot remember all information and thus naturally deletes insignificant parts, which often include the results of product placement. To make a brand memorable it should be highly connected with film or program genre and content. Moreover, the more brands are shown, the less chance to remember them. That is why a company should be concerned about its brand uniqueness in the film.
The next problem of neuromarketing analysis is so-called “mirror neurons mechanism”. When a person observes other people’s actions, he or she becomes influenced by mirror neurons and starts imitating these actions, experiencing specific emotions and feelings. This relates to consumer choice. If a person notices someone with stylish clothes, mirror neurons make one desire such clothes, in order to be as stylish as that person is. As a result of such thinking, a person will inevitably buy a product, sometimes subsequently doubting the appropriateness of this purchase. An application of this mechanism is called “smile effect”. If a person is served by a smiling vendor, he or she experiences happiness and subconsciously will choose this vendor in the future.
The main discovery of neuromarketing is undoubtedly sensor branding, which is strategy implying total influence on human sense organs through visual, sound and olfactory means. According to research in this sphere effectiveness and memorability of visual perception of a product can be improved by impacting via sound, touch and olfactory. For example, when a person feels a good smell connected with a product, specific brain areas responsible for enjoyable emotions and memories begin to work. As a result, he or she prefers this product to others. However, it is important to create a proper set of images, sounds and smells that will combine with each other and compose the unique holistic sum of positive emotions. A successful combination can make a brand much more recognizable and sold.
Despite neuromarketing being very effective in explaining human consumer behaviour, it is criticized for its results, which can be used for influencing people’s consciousness. However, in the right hands this new approach allows to promote products in spite of thousands of rivals and to avoid ceasing to exist within the first year of operating.
References
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