What is Neuromarketing: objectives, characteristics, and types
What leads a person to make a purchase? What are the determining factors that make a potential consumer choose one product over another? Let’s set the stage, because neuromarketing comes into play to explain which aspects are key when a sale takes place. Below, we explain what neuromarketing is, its variations, and its objectives – and how it achieves them!
It is a true phenomenon: the marketing techniques that make up what is known as neuromarketing are experiencing their golden age. This field is expected to move a business volume of around 3.5 trillion dollars by 2028 (according to Grand View Research), showing that more and more professionals and brands are betting on planning actions based on research and understanding of what drives consumers to purchase a product or service.
In fact, neuromarketing is a highly effective tool to understand what lies behind users’ purchasing decisions. This allows companies to improve purchasing processes, products, and the way they are presented to potential audiences. To highlight the main aspects of this field, below we detail what neuromarketing is, the existing types of neuromarketing, and the objectives these techniques pursue.
Definition of Neuromarketing
We are dealing with a very recent discipline, one of the marketing techniques that has advanced the most over time thanks to increasingly sophisticated tools to predict user behavior. And it is precisely behavior—how the consumer acts—that is the focus when trying to define neuromarketing. So, what exactly are we talking about?
- A branch of marketing that studies and analyzes audience behavior.
- Its effectiveness and foundations are based on neuroscience and psychology.
- These disciplines aim to understand what lies behind each consumer purchasing decision.
- Neuromarketing is applied in different areas but is always led by specialists in advertising, communication, and marketing.
- Its final goal is, in one way or another, to generate benefits for the brand, company, or professional implementing these strategies.
The best way to understand this definition and how neuromarketing applies to the real world is to look at examples from recent years. The Master in Consumer Behavior and Marketing Insights at EAE Barcelona addresses this by providing students with campaigns based on neuromarketing that have achieved outstanding results.
A very striking case is the one developed by Volkswagen to raise awareness about mobile phone use while driving. In cinemas, images were projected showing the audience behind a steering wheel driving along a straight road. At that moment, a text message arrived on the smartphones of the audience, and they instinctively looked at their devices, causing an accident on screen. They were left in shock. It can be found on YouTube as “Volkswagen eyes on the road.” A clear example of an impactful and effective neuromarketing action, followed by many others, as the car manufacturer strongly invests in such initiatives.
Objectives of Neuromarketing
The Volkswagen case is just one of many. Large companies across all sectors have taken advantage of the benefits and excellent results of these marketing strategies to apply them for their own advantage. Neuromarketing has numerous objectives, including:
- Increasing visibility among your target audience.
- Predicting consumer purchasing behavior.
- Creating consumption habits that help build customer loyalty.
- Better understanding your customer profile to design products and services that are especially appealing to them.
- Designing tailor-made products. Linked to the previous point: by carefully analyzing the target audience and their needs, it is more likely to create products or services that meet those expectations.
- Understanding how the brain works and what drives your target audience. This is useful both for future launches and for deciding which messages will have the greatest impact.
These are some of the main objectives of neuromarketing. Each brand must determine which goals it wants to achieve by developing such specific actions.
Types of Neuromarketing
There are several ways to apply neuromarketing in advertising campaigns. These are the three most widely used types today:
- Auditory neuromarketing, based on the sense of hearing. Sounds, levels, and different types of music are used to generate specific emotions and feelings in the target audience.
- Visual neuromarketing, with sight as the central focus. A well-known example is fashion stores that price items ending in .99. The eye is tricked into perceiving the price as lower. It is also used in signs such as “Sale,” “Discount,” “Offer,” or the famous “2 for 1.”
- Kinesthetic neuromarketing, focused on the senses of taste, smell, and touch. Examples include food tastings, in-store product testing, and trying perfumes, among others.
All of this has been greatly enriched by countless studies and research exploring what lies behind human reactions to certain stimuli, forming the basis of what neuromarketing is today. It is worth mentioning Gerald Zaltman, from Harvard’s Mind Institute, who states that 95% of the decision-making process happens unconsciously, driven by the subconscious.
What is Neuromarketing for?
Neuromarketing requires specialized professionals who understand the full scope of these strategies. To achieve results, it is essential to fully understand its foundations and choose actions aligned with the company’s goals. Finally, it is important to recall what lies behind auditory, visual, and kinesthetic neuromarketing.
- Analyze the market and the target consumer.
- Personalize both offers and messages to reach them effectively.
- Optimize company resources, maximizing the advantages that differentiate one business from another.
- Improve products and services to better meet audience desires.
Based on these principles, companies can implement more effective plans with better results. Neuromarketing has become one of the leading strategies in marketing and communication and is therefore an essential part of any training program for marketing professionals.
