Consumer decision-making is a process that marketing specialists have been trying to understand and influence for many years. How to attract the recipient’s attention? What determines the attractiveness of an advertisement or a product? How to fast track the purchasing process? It is hard to find answers to these questions and, in each case, we can reply with the classic “it depends.”
When making purchasing decisions, it largely depends on the consumers’ subconsciousness, which, as we perfectly know, is deeply hidden and there is no simple way to reach it. Basic activities and marketing stimuli not always turn out to be sufficient to influence a purchasing decision; you need to dig deeper, then. Therefore, experts started to observe and study the psychological features of consumers, which have a considerable impact on decisions they make. And that is how a new discipline was created, which now is called neuromarketing.
Neuromarketing supports most marketing actions carried out by the largest global brands, such as Coca-Cola, NIVEA, Honda, Louis Vuitton, Colgate, Axe, Mercedes-Benz, and Heineken. However, the multitude of studies and observations make the achievements of neuromarketing accessible for even small enterprises. In many cases though, neuromarketing – being frequently misunderstood – raises controversy, as it is often associated with manipulating consumers’ minds. In reality, neuromarketing is not about manipulating, but only observing and studying relationships in search of certain algorithms which will help discover the rules governing the consumer decision-making. The goal of neuromarketing is not convincing consumers to do something, but to discover what is deeply hidden in their subconsciousness and can affect how they perceive and react to marketing stimuli. Neuromarketing delivers a range of information on the purchasing habits and preferences of consumers, which makes it easier for marketing specialists to design the sales process.
The biggest problem in reaching consumers is that they do not communicate their needs themselves – sometimes, they need to be discovered or created. It is in this area that neuromarketing can be applied, as it analyses consumers’ subconsciousness together with the needs and preferences deeply rooted in it. From the neuromarketing point of view, the most important fact is that consumers have limited control over their subconsciousness, or they do not control it at all. Hence, both in the real and the virtual world, that is wherever people have contact with the brand or the product, marketing specialists try to affect consumers’ subconsciousness and emotions. When it comes to the real world, in which the consumer has the opportunity to see and touch the product, neuromarketing possibilities are different – on the one hand, they can be more elaborate, as you can additionally use aromatic or tactile stimuli, but on the other hand, they are more limited because decisions made in the real world are more rational and well thought-out. It seems, then, that in the online reality, neuromarketing has more room for action when developing e-products. When it comes to the virtual world, neuromarketing is used in such areas as web design, online store, or social media development, etc. Its main goal is to improve user experience (UX) and increase the online sales value.
The websites of the most popular brands are developed based on neuromarketing principles, which can be seen in such elements as the alignment of text and images, colours used, the arrangement or order of buttons or the product prices. Today, we will be looking at the most common techniques that can be observed for most e-products.
Product price and purchase decision
If there is a choice between two products of the same category and similar quality, with one cheaper than the other, the customer will almost always choose the cheaper one (having to pick between one mobile phone for PLN 500 and the other for PLN 600, they choose the first one most of the times). The situation will turn around, however, when there is a third product, which is the most expensive of all (for example a model for PLN 700). When there is a choice among three mobile phones (PLN 500, PLN 600, and PLN 700), the customer almost always will reach for the middle-price model. With a wider range to compare, the customer does not decide to buy the cheapest model, assuming that the lowest price arises from the lowest quality. They might not be able to afford the most expensive product or it might seem just too expensive, while the middle-price model will seem a perfect solution. This relationship is usually used by online stores, which add the most expensive products in the market to their offer. What we find most interesting, however, is that when it comes to virtual sales, not every product listed on the website will actually be in stock. The main purpose of adding the most expensive products to the offer is to expand the product range that consumers can choose from. Online stores use it extensively and, usually for the most expensive goods, you can see that they are “sold out” or “unavailable.” You need to be aware that it is usually done on purpose to increase the value of purchases and encourage the customer to click “BUY” at a middle-priced product, which in fact is the most expensive one (out of actually available products).
Another price-related technique that proves effective when it comes to emotion-driven shopping is, for example, purchasing limits that give you free shipping or a discount. How many times have you added another product to your shopping cart just to avoid paying the shipping costs? More than once probably. It is a classic way to increase online sales, which is an ideal place to use this technique, as it requires making a fast and spontaneous decision. Importantly, the additional amount needed to get a discount or free shipping is so small that it is more reasonable for the customer to buy another product than cover other costs. Therefore, the customer does not think long about the purchases and within several seconds adds another product to the shopping cart.
Emotional online shopping
Online shopping is a specific process. The customer does not have a direct contact with the seller, cannot touch or smell the product, while the payment is usually made electronically. These and a range of other features of online shopping contributed to the fact that compared to standard shopping in the real world, buying online is much more emotional and takes considerably less time. Consumer decisions are made in even several dozen seconds and it takes just a few mouse clicks to buy a product. Such a situation gives the neuromarketing specialists numerous opportunities to put their skills to work. A classic example using the emotional nature of e-shopping is the so-called left shopping cart. It probably happened to you that you added a product to the shopping cart and then, without completing the transaction, you left the store website. What online stores do in such a case is a typical example of expediting the consumer decision. In the vast majority of cases, within an hour (or several hours at most) from leaving the shopping cart, you will receive an e-mail notification of the need to complete the started transaction. More often than not, such a notification will contain a discount code, which is supposed to convince the customer to make a purchase. The response time is crucial in this case for the customer to take a spontaneous decision to “BUY.”
The impact of colours on the consumer
Colours are one of the crucial stimuli that affect consumers’ subconsciousness. The skilful use of colours allows marketing specialists to arouse specific emotions in the customers and increase their perception. Red will attract attention, blue will inspire trust, orange will expedite the process of clicking the “BUY” button. Colours play an important role not only when it comes to the website or online store design, but are also important in the pictures of items we sell. If an item is sold for a higher price, almost always it is photographed on a black background, which is associated with luxury. However, when it comes to selling household appliances, the dominating colour is blue, which consumers associate with comfort and safety. How to sell a middle-value product for a higher value? Just photograph it on a black background. The consumer’s mind will automatically think the product is of a higher class and it is worth paying for it more money. Now, just browse through websites from different segments to find the differences. Bank websites will be based on the shades of blue; websites where many discounts are currently offered use much red (especially for call to action buttons), while websites with watches or jewellery are based on classic colours (black, white, grey).
Product order and descriptions
Order in which the consumer will see the products in an online store has a significant bearing on their purchasing decision. Here, marketing specialists use the so-called primacy principle, according to which the product seen first has a greater chance of being remembered and liked by the customer. That is why, online stores very often arrange their products starting from the most popular ones and bestsellers, as there is a higher likelihood that if the customer sees these products first, then they will most likely decide to buy them.
When it comes to order, the product picture and description arrangement in relation to each other is also important. The customer will, to a larger extent, be influenced by text that is placed to the right of the picture. However, there are exceptions to this rule. If we want to encourage the customer to buy a product using its description only, then it is actually better for the text to be placed to the right of the picture. It is different, however, when we want to influence the consumer’s decision by the picture alone. Then it is the picture that should be at the right side. Graphics at the right will attract most attention of the consumer, taking it away from the content. This principle proves best for online sales of products that are pretty and attractive, which do not need much description.
It is only one of many neuromarketing techniques that are used online. Seemingly simple, can be quickly translated into profits from online sales. They are less complicated, however, than techniques used in the real world, which we will discuss in future articles.
