Podcast Summary
Neuroscience and Marketing: The Powerful Intersection: Marketing shapes our perceptions, decisions, and experiences through various tactics, influencing our brains and behaviors often subconsciously.
Marketing has a profound impact on our brains, shaping our perceptions, decisions, and experiences in ways that are often counterintuitive. Neuroscientist Matt Johnson and marketer Prince Geumann, guests on a recent podcast, discussed their book "Blindsight" which explores this intersection of neuroscience and marketing. Matt shared how his academic background in neuroscience was driven by pure curiosity, while Prince started his marketing career early on and tested marketing theories in real life. Their collaboration led to fascinating insights into how marketing influences us, from making dog food taste like pate, to the role of impulse in decision making, and the definition of surprise from a neuroscience perspective. The discussion also touched on how pleasure and pain affect our buying behavior. Overall, this podcast episode highlights the power of marketing in influencing our brains and behaviors, often in ways we may not even realize.
Neuromarketing: Applying Neuroscience to Marketing: Neuromarketing uses neuroscience insights to enhance marketing efforts, revealing hidden consumer preferences and optimizing campaigns through brain response data
Neuromarketing is the intersection of neuroscience and marketing. It aims to utilize insights from neuroscience to effectively market products within the marketplace. The brain processes information, learns, remembers, makes decisions, and marketers can apply these general principles to accomplish marketing goals. Additionally, collecting raw neuroscientific data can provide more accurate insights compared to traditional consumer research methods. A real-life example is the Cheetos commercial that was considered too mean in focus groups but was a hit based on brain response data from functional magnetic resonance imaging. This illustrates how neuromarketing can reveal insights that may not be apparent through traditional marketing methods. Ultimately, Neuromarketing can help bridge the gap between marketers and consumers, leading to better products and more enjoyable marketing experiences for both parties.
Our perception of reality is shaped by mental models: Marketing shapes our perception of reality through mental models, making it a powerful tool for businesses
Our perception of reality is shaped by mental models, which are essentially our brains' best guess at interpreting the information we receive through our senses. These mental models are influenced by various factors and are hard to correct, making them a powerful tool for marketers and businesses to shape our experiences and reality. For instance, the way a restaurant is designed, the way a product is marketed, or even the way a waiter interacts with us can all impact our mental models and, consequently, our perception of reality. This observation, as discussed in the book "Eating the Menu," makes marketing a magical and terrifyingly powerful tool. It's magical because it allows businesses to create our reality, and it's terrifyingly powerful because it means that our perception of reality is not always an objective one, but rather a subjective one influenced by our mental models. This fundamental gap between subjectivity and objectivity is what makes marketing so intriguing and effective.
The Power of Mental Models in Our Perception: Our mental models and perceptions shape our experiences, even in seemingly objective areas like golf and food tasting. Brands, labels, and context can significantly influence our enjoyment and judgments.
Our perceptions and mental models significantly influence our objective experiences, even in seemingly trivial areas like golf or food tasting. For instance, golfers hit golf balls farther with branded clubs, and people cannot distinguish dog food from expensive pate when served in the right context. Similarly, people's enjoyment of wine is influenced by factors like price, label, and origin, regardless of the actual taste. This phenomenon, known as the "Labelling Effect," was demonstrated in a study where sommeliers mistook white wine with red food coloring for a red wine, reporting flavors aligned with the color. These examples illustrate the power of our mental models and how deeply ingrained they are in our perception of reality.
The role of anchors in shaping our perception and understanding: Anchors, whether internal or external, can significantly influence our perception and understanding of various experiences, from wine tasting to marketing campaigns.
Our perception and understanding of various experiences, including wine tasting and alcohol consumption, are heavily influenced by reference points or anchors. These anchors can be as simple as the shape of a glass or as complex as cultural knowledge. For instance, sommeliers undergo rigorous training to identify the subtle nuances of wine, but even for them, the base level of deliciousness is essential. Similarly, the shape of a beer glass can significantly impact our perception of the beer before we even take a sip. Anchors can also come from external sources, such as marketing and branding. For example, spinning a wheel with random numbers can influence our estimation of difficult questions, even when we know the process is random. Brands use this psychological phenomenon to capture our attention and shape our judgments, especially in uncertain situations. Whether it's through the shape of a glass or a clever marketing campaign, anchors play a significant role in how we experience and understand various aspects of our lives.
The Power of Anchors on Our Perception of Value and Attention: Anchors, such as prices or visual cues, can significantly impact our perception of value and attention. Our brains are strongly influenced by anchors, and removing them can lead to unexpected consumer responses, as seen with JCPenney's pricing experiment.
Our perception of value and attention are significantly influenced by anchors. Anchors can be prices, visual cues, or anything that establishes a reference point in our minds. JCPenney, a department store, experimented with eliminating MSRPs and found that consumers responded positively to more transparent pricing. However, they eventually reverted back due to our brains' strong attachment to anchors. Our attention is also driven by novelty and habituation, with new things grabbing our focus and constant stimuli fading into the background. Anchoring is a classic example of how irrational human behavior can impact our decision-making, and it's just one of the many fascinating topics explored in the field of behavioral economics.
Violation of Expectations: Surprising Consumers and Capturing Attention: Unexpected elements in marketing and humor can capture our attention by violating our expectations and requiring us to recalibrate our understanding.
Our perception of pleasure, happiness, and attention is anchored to certain expectations, and a violation of those expectations can lead to surprise and capturing our attention. In the consumer world, companies use this principle to stand out by introducing new, unexpected elements. For instance, Nissan's burnt orange Zed car and Mercedes' crooked billboard are examples of breaking the norm. Similarly, in humor, comedians like Anthony Jeselnik use misdirection and violation of expectation to create surprise and laughter. Neuroscientifically, violation of expectation is defined as surprise, and it drives our attention by requiring us to recapitulate ourselves and form new hypotheses. A notable example of this is Cadbury's gorilla commercial, which captured everyone's attention with its unexpected and memorable advertisement.
The Power of Surprising Expectations in Marketing: Understanding the role of expectations and memory can help marketers create memorable campaigns by violating expectations and establishing new ones.
Our expectations play a significant role in shaping our experiences and memories. When it comes to marketing, violating expectations can be an effective way to create memorable ads. However, once the surprise factor wears off, it's essential to establish new expectations to maintain impact. The Cadbury gorilla ad is a classic example of this, as the initial shock of the unexpected gorilla in the ad wore off when they tried to recreate the same concept. Memory is another fascinating area, as it turns out that our intuition about how we record and recall experiences is often inaccurate. Our brains prioritize certain information over others, and emotion plays a significant role in determining which memories we'll remember later. The recall process is also reconstructive, meaning that the memories we access depend on the context in which we're in. Attention and memory are connected, as experiences that break our expectations can help encode memories deeper. For example, Debbie Lilly, the mastermind behind Oprah's famous giveaways, intuitively used the violation of expectation to create memorable experiences for her audience. By understanding the role of expectations and memory, marketers can create more impactful campaigns that resonate with consumers.
Creating unexpected experiences violates consumer expectations and leads to memorable moments: Unexpected experiences, like Oprah's surprise giveaways or experiential marketing, can create deeply encoded memories by violating consumer expectations and disrupting normal routines. However, memories are not exact recordings, but rather reconstructive processes that can be influenced and even implanted through suggestion.
Creating unexpected experiences, or violating consumer expectations, can lead to deeply encoded memories for individuals. This was exemplified by Oprah's surprise giveaways, which violated audience expectations repeatedly and resulted in memorable moments. Similarly, experiential marketing, such as pop-up shops or events, can create memorable experiences by violating consumers' expectations of normal routines. However, it's important to note that memory is not an exact recording of events, but rather a reconstructive process. Memories can be influenced and even implanted through suggestion, as demonstrated by research in false memories. This means that experiences, even if they're not real, can be remembered as vividly as actual memories. From a philosophical perspective, this raises the question of what constitutes a memory, and whether the experience of an event being as real and vivid as the event itself makes a difference.
Identity and memories evolve over time: The nature of memory and identity raises philosophical questions as every cell in our body is replaced, leaving only shared experiences and memories as the only constant connection to our past selves. Intense experiences significantly impact how we remember events.
Our identity and memories are complex and constantly evolving. The documentary discusses a Ukrainian man who was accused of being a Nazi death camp guard decades after the fact. The question of whether he was the same person then as he is now, and whether he should be held accountable for past actions, raises philosophical questions about the nature of memory and identity. The discussion also touched upon the idea that every cell in our body is replaced over time, leaving only shared experiences and memories as the only constant connection to our past selves. Additionally, research on memory encoding suggests that intense peaks and ends of experiences have a significant impact on how we remember events. These findings challenge our understanding of self and memory, suggesting that we are perpetually changing beings.
Focus on peak and end moments for better experiences: Manipulating peak and end moments can make experiences seem less painful or more enjoyable, influencing our perception and memory of them
Our perception of an experience, especially its pain level, can be manipulated by focusing on the peak and end moments. This phenomenon is known as the peak-end rule. For instance, during a medical procedure like a colonoscopy, making the end less painful can make the entire experience seem less painful overall, even if it's actually longer and more painful on average. This concept can be applied to marketing as well. By focusing on creating memorable peak and end moments, marketers can make their brand or product more appealing and memorable to consumers. For example, a TED talk or a movie can leave a lasting impression by having a strong opening or closing moment. Additionally, our brains tend to give more weight to the end of an experience, which is why it's crucial to ensure a positive ending. This concept can be applied to various aspects of life, from public speaking to attending a concert. Overall, understanding the peak-end rule can help us make more intentional choices to create positive experiences and memories.
Our Brains Prefer the Familiar and the New: Our brains release dopamine for new experiences and appreciate the familiar, striking a balance between novelty and comfort in marketing and life.
Our brains are wired to appreciate both the familiar and the new. This was illustrated in a study where students were shown Chinese characters and asked to guess their meanings. The characters they had seen before were associated with positive emotions, while new characters were assigned regular, boring words. This is known as the exposure effect. However, there's also a love for surprise and novelty. Our brains release dopamine when we experience unexpected events. This seems to contradict the exposure effect, but it's resolved by the concept of "new and safe." In other words, we like things that are new enough to be interesting, but also safe enough to be comfortable. This concept can be applied to marketing and entrepreneurship, where products need to strike a balance between novelty and familiarity to achieve mass adoption. Additionally, there are evolutionary explanations for why we find certain sounds comforting, such as the crackling of a fire and a dog snoring, which provide a sense of safety and security. Another interesting finding was that people who live alone have a shorter lifespan than those with families, but those with families and dogs live the longest. This suggests that social connections and companionship, particularly with animals, are essential for our well-being.
The pursuit of fleeting pleasures on social media and digital platforms can lead to a hedonic treadmill: Understanding the hedonic treadmill can help us focus on the journey rather than solely chasing fleeting moments of pleasure, ultimately leading to greater overall happiness
Our pursuit of pleasure, particularly on social media and digital platforms, can lead us to strive for arbitrary milestones that may not actually bring lasting happiness. This concept, known as the "hedonic treadmill" or "impact bias," suggests that we're often poor at predicting how events will impact our happiness levels. For instance, marathon runners may obsess over finishing times, but the sense of accomplishment from reaching a goal tends to wear off over time. Similarly, the excitement of getting a new iPhone every year can fade quickly. Instead, the pleasure often lies in the chase rather than the achievement itself. Apple, for example, is brilliant at capitalizing on this human tendency by releasing new iPhones annually. It's important to be aware of this phenomenon and consider focusing on the journey rather than solely chasing fleeting moments of pleasure.
The pleasure of anticipation and its impact on our decisions: Understanding the pleasure of anticipation can help marketers enhance consumer experiences and motivate purchases by increasing pleasure or reducing pain points.
Both pleasure and anticipation play a significant role in driving our desires and motivations, including our purchasing decisions. According to research, people experience the highest levels of happiness just before embarking on an exciting experience, such as a night out. This "pleasure of anticipation" is linked to the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with feelings of pleasure and reward. This drive to seek more pleasure and overcome dissatisfaction is believed to have evolutionary origins, pushing us to continue striving for new experiences and achievements. For marketers, understanding this concept can help them tap into consumers' desires by increasing the pleasure associated with their products or services, or by reducing the pain points in the purchasing process. Apple's success in retail is a prime example of minimizing friction and creating a seamless, pleasurable customer experience.
Creating a shared neural experience: Effective communication creates similar brain activity in speaker and listener, leading to increased understanding and a shared experience.
Effective communication is about creating a neural coupling between the speaker and the listener. This means that as a speaker, the goal is to inculcate the same brain activity in your brain while telling the story as you want the listener's brain to experience. According to research, this leads to increased understanding and similarity in brain activity between the speaker and the listener. This phenomenon has been observed in various forms of communication, including storytelling and movie watching. For instance, when we listen to a story, our brains become more similar to the speaker's brain as we comprehend the story. Similarly, when we watch a movie by a master director like Alfred Hitchcock, our brains show almost identical activation patterns, indicating a shared experience. Therefore, effective communication is about creating a shared neural experience between the speaker and the listener. It's a fascinating way to think about communication as a process of manipulating mental blocks, or ideas, to fit seamlessly into the receiver's mind.
Brands need to balance authenticity and audience preferences: Understanding psychology of pleasure and surprise can help brands create effective and authentic communication strategies.
Effective communication and authenticity are crucial for brands, especially when trying to connect with their audience. Microsoft's failed attempt to recruit interns through an overly casual and frat-like email is an example of how brands can miss the mark when they stray too far from their authentic voice. Brands need to find the right balance between staying true to their identity and adapting to their audience's preferences. In the digital age, engagement is a key metric used to measure the success of tech products, but it's important to remember that constant engagement can also be a form of addiction. Understanding the psychology behind pleasure and surprise can help brands create more effective and authentic communication strategies.
Tech platforms leverage our pleasure systems through uncertainty: Tech companies use variable rewards to maximize user time, activating our dopaminergic system and leading to compulsive behavior
Tech platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, deliver an anticipated pleasure through an element of uncertainty. This variable reward system, inspired by experiments like Michael Zieler's pigeon experiment, drives compulsive behavior by activating our dopaminergic system's anticipation reward system. Initially, users may dislike changes like Facebook's newsfeed, but the increased uncertainty leads to higher engagement and longer time spent on the site. Tech companies have converged on this fundamental way our pleasure systems work, maximizing user time on-site, much like casinos do. It's crucial to recognize this manipulation and bridge the gap between being both a consumer and a marketer, ensuring transparency and awareness of the true cost of using these platforms.
Marketers exploiting consumer behavior leading to distrust: Consumers can demand better, support privacy-focused businesses to create a balanced digital landscape.
There is a significant level of distrust between consumers and marketers due to the use of psychological manipulation in digital products. This distrust arises from the fact that consumers often feel their behavior is being exploited without their explicit consent. Marketers need to acknowledge this issue and work towards reducing it. The advent of mobile technology and the dominance of business models built on free consumer data have given marketers an unfair advantage. However, consumer power lies in their ability to demand better and pay for alternative, privacy-focused services. As consumers, we need to be willing to support businesses that prioritize our privacy and value our time. By doing so, we can force new business models to emerge and create a more balanced digital landscape.
Understanding the role of technology in shaping consumer behavior: As we learn more about human psychology and technology's impact on our decisions, we can make informed choices and take control of our digital experiences. The Haines study on pushing buttons shows our conscious awareness isn't the only factor, emphasizing the importance of understanding the subconscious.
Our understanding of consumer behavior and the role of technology in shaping it is evolving. The assumption that consumers will always want free products and services may change as people become more aware of the costs, both financial and personal, of using them. The more we learn about human psychology and the ways in which technology can manipulate our desires, the better equipped we'll be to make informed choices and take control of our digital experiences. One fascinating study that illustrates this point is the Haines study on pushing buttons, which showed that researchers could predict which image a person would choose before they even pushed the button. This demonstrates that our conscious awareness is not the only factor driving our decisions and highlights the importance of understanding the role of the subconscious in shaping our behavior. As we continue to explore these topics and educate ourselves, we can begin to deprogram unconscious wants and needs and experience life in a more liberated way.
People are not in control of their decisions: People make choices based on biases and justifications, often unaware of the factors influencing their decisions. Marketers use this to their advantage.
Our beliefs about having complete control over our actions and decisions are an illusion. The Nesbitt and Wilson study from the 1970s demonstrated this through the lens of memory and decision-making. People make choices based on biases and justifications, often unaware of the factors influencing their decisions. Marketers capitalize on this by providing consumers with reasons to justify their choices post-purchase. Ultimately, we are not the pilots of our own actions, but rather complex beings influenced by various factors beyond our conscious awareness. This understanding challenges the notion of being rational, objective decision-makers and invites us to embrace the intricacies of human behavior.
Understanding and managing our own cognitive biases is a challenge for even experts: Experts struggle with their biases, choosing between impact bias for positivity and hedonic treadmill for survival. Future marketing will be psychological, with consumer data ownership shaping new business models.
Even experts like Daniel Kahneman, despite decades of research into human behavior and decision-making biases, still struggle with applying this knowledge to their own lives. This highlights the challenge we all face in understanding and managing our own cognitive biases. If we were to be stranded on a desert island with only one bias to take with us, Matt suggested the impact bias, which can help us maintain a positive outlook and accept the ups and downs of life. Prince, on the other hand, chose the hedonic treadmill, believing that the pursuit of fleeting pleasures could increase his chances of survival. Regarding the future of marketing, Matt believes it will become more psychological, with small to mid-sized companies able to access and utilize customer psychographics. He also predicts that consumers will demand ownership of their data, leading to new business models and a shift in power dynamics.
Experiential Marketing: Creating Lasting Connections: The future of marketing is experiential, offering unique, memorable moments to consumers. Brands that provide these experiences differentiate themselves and build goodwill.
The future of marketing lies in providing unique, experiential moments for consumers, rather than just commodified digital products. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of direct experiences, as people crave authentic connections and memories that can't be replicated online. Companies and brands that can offer these experiences, whether through events, immersive technologies, or personalized interactions, will differentiate themselves and build genuine goodwill with consumers. This shift towards experiential marketing is a response to the convenience era we've found ourselves in, where everything is easily accessible but people yearn for something more memorable and meaningful. As the speaker mentioned, experiences like attending a concert or an immersive VR event leave a lasting impression and create a deeper connection with the brand.
Authors express gratitude and invite listeners to check out their blog and follow them on social media: The authors of an upcoming neuroscience and marketing book thanked Chris for featuring them and shared their passion for the topic, inviting listeners to engage with them on social media and read their free content on their blog.
The authors of an upcoming neuroscience and marketing book expressed their gratitude to Chris for featuring them on his podcast and helping to spread their message. They emphasized that their book, which comes out May 19th, is a labor of love and not driven by financial gain. The authors also encouraged listeners to check out their blog, Pop Neuro, for free content related to the book. They invited listeners to follow them on Twitter at @mattjohnsonisme, @princeguman248, and @popneuro. The authors thanked Chris for his support and encouraged listeners to buy the book if they're interested in marketing and behavioral economics. They also mentioned some influential figures in their field, such as Paul Bloom and Nir Eyal, whom they've had on their podcast. Overall, the authors expressed their passion for their topic and their appreciation for Chris' help in sharing their message with a wider audience.
Expressing gratitude and maintaining positive relationships: Express gratitude often, build a comfortable atmosphere, and end conversations on a positive note to strengthen relationships and foster productive conversations.
Learning from our conversation today is the importance of expressing gratitude and maintaining positive relationships. The speaker, who has enjoyed the discussion, expresses her appreciation to the participants and even asks them to convey her well-wishes to a pet. This simple act of expressing gratitude not only strengthens the bonds between individuals but also leaves a lasting positive impression. So, let's strive to express our appreciation more often and cherish the relationships we build along the way. Additionally, the speaker's use of casual language and friendly tone highlights the importance of building a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere during discussions. This can lead to more productive and engaging conversations, as everyone feels at ease to share their thoughts and ideas. Lastly, the speaker's sign-off with "have a good one" and "take care, man" emphasizes the importance of ending conversations on a positive note. This not only leaves a good impression but also sets a positive tone for future interactions. In summary, today's conversation has emphasized the importance of expressing gratitude, building a comfortable atmosphere, and ending conversations on a positive note. Let's remember to apply these principles in our own interactions to build stronger relationships and foster productive conversations.
