According to neuromarketing research, creative marketing, and B2B solutions, buyers prefer educating themselves about various potential vendors by visiting their websites. But effective web content that would convince these potential buyers can be difficult to understand. So some companies have used eye tracking and EEG measures to analyse the brain’s response to the various content, aesthetics and web design combinations.
Microsoft and IBM
An example of using this creative marketing data is Microsoft, a company that uses eye tracking techniques to learn client tendencies to further engage them, for instance Carrefour can use the technology to improve product displays. Another well-known example is IBM Watson, a system that interprets data to expose patterns. It is trained to sense and predict customer preferences, thus providing important insights as to what customers tend to value.
Budweiser tickles the feelings bone
A beer company knows better than your best friend how to draw out your emotions: with a 60 second story about a puppy and friendship. Humans are emotional; first we buy because of the way we feel and then (misleadingly) justify the reason with logic. Who doesn’t love a golden lab pappy? A positive emotion equals a positive response, whether it’s subconscious or completely conscious.
Apple designs gadgets they know you’ll love
You probably know at least one Apple fanatic who just can’t stop talking about how amazing Steve Jobs (still) and how fantastic the new iPhone is going to be years in advance of its release. And part of that is because Apple has really done their work into designing products that make their customers’ brains release all sorts of nice neurotransmitters when they test them out.
That might mean the delight when you touch a tablet and it does exactly what you’re hoping it will, or the way the smooth curves of your new iPhone fit into your hand.
Volvo knows what you want before you do
The reason that car is so aesthetic, with each line a perfect curve, perfect shape, the perfect interior, perfect EVERYTHING, is because they knew what you liked before even you! Volvo does countless experiments before launching a new design of a family of cars, just to see how users relate to different aspects emotionally as well as logically. It’s the perfect ‘bridging-the-gap’ in communication on a subconscious level.
PayPal redoes its ads
PayPal was launching a new ad campaign, and they were trying to figure out which would be the most relevant points for their consumers. They tested out a bunch of ideas, including ones that promised safety and security while others emphasised speed and convenience. Can you guess which one they chose?
Porsche does neuromarketing, too!
Another example of integrating neuroscience findings directly into the ad is Porsche. In this revealing video we can see how the brain reacts while racing in a Porsche compared to flying a fighter jet. The neuromarketing is two-fold: they present facts, and they show you images of a Porsche with a fighter jet. Really, they could have done the same with a donkey cart.