Advertising open brain surgery
Brain research How does advertising work? Neuromarketing should provide answers. The advertising week on the trail of the shopping button in the head.
Brain research How does advertising work? Neuromarketing should provide answers. The advertising week on the trail of the shopping button in the head.Tamara Garcia loves shoes. So do millions of women. But the 22-year-old flight attendant is a special case. Because she has no idea how many shoes she owns. She knows the exact number of her bikinis, sorted by color and fashion, her shoes are a mystery to her. "If I like a shoe, I buy it," she says, returning her attention to the 300 franc boots in the shop window. What makes the young woman buy is worth millions to companies. That's why they invest in market research studies. But market research is increasingly reaching its limits. Although thousands of studies exist and hundreds of new marketing books are written every year, many companies fail to sell more. Studies show that 80 percent of newly introduced products disappear from retail shelves after one year. Many campaigns and products fail to achieve their goals. Consumers assign incorrect or no brands to 48 percent of all products if the brand logo is missing. This was determined by the brand consulting firm Decode. Marketers are looking for new ways to solve their sales problem. Brain research is the trend.
Although brain research has reported great progress in recent years, no one knows exactly how the human brain works in detail. The famous buy button that you simply need to stimulate has turned out to be an illusion in research. Scientists are still scratching their heads over the rules by which our complex organ of thought functions. However, basic research at the level conventional marketing was at 50 years ago has come closer to understanding the "Mystery of Mind". The most diverse models have been questioned and
be put into perspective.
For example, the distinction between left and right brain. Left rational, right emotional. As well-known and popular as the formula is, it is wrong. And for anatomical and functional reasons. But the greatest insight of the researchers is the knowledge of a powerful subconscious that controls us more strongly than previously assumed. The researchers even give a clear rejection to the concept of homo economicus. And even Freud's "wet and happy" black box model is history according to brain researchers. Experiments show that decision-making processes take place unconsciously. In other words, secret and hidden. Psychologist and Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman distinguishes two systems - the implicit and the explicit. The former works highly efficiently and unconsciously. Loves emotions and stories. The explicit system thinks. Creates cost-benefit analyses and can plan for the near future. In consumer surveys, for example, the explicit system would respond, "I don't understand this ad." The focus of the research is on the implicit system. According to brain researcher and psychologist Christian Scheier, "Without the implicit, or intuitive, processes, humans would not be able to make decisions. That has been proven."
The importance of the implicit system has long been underestimated. The autopilot, as researchers also call the subconscious, takes the wheel for practically every decision. Especially under time pressure. "If consumers thought what they tell us in conversations, they wouldn't be able to make a decision," says Scheier, author of the book "How Advertising Works." Especially when time is short in the supermarket, emotions are the decision makers.
And time is the most valuable currency in advertising. On average, consumers should pay attention to a poster for 1.5 seconds. The ad takes 1.7 seconds. That may seem daunting at first glance. But for our thinking apparatus, that's enough. Our head stores 11 million sensory impressions (bits) per second. 40 bits correspond to a short slogan that we can think about. The rest is stored unconsciously. From research studies we know that customers do not know why they buy something. The real reason remains hidden from them themselves. "This shows that advertising must target the subconscious," says Christian Scheier. The brain researcher with a doctorate speaks plainly: "Around half of advertising money is still wasted." The head mechanism is a mystery to advertisers.
Neuromarketing is supposed to provide a remedy. It is not so much about the perfect lettering, the optimal tint or the best logo. Rather, it is about the psychological and cultural science context that interprets the results from brain research for marketing. "Neuromarketing is more than measuring brain waves and looking at scanned brain convolutions," says Werner Fuchs, author of "A Thousand and One Powers" ("Why We Buy What We Buy," Werbewoche, November 23, 2005). Fuchs is an expert when it comes to marketing and modern brain research. According to Fuchs, "If you want to influence human behavior, you have to learn and use the sign languages of the unconscious." Neuromarketing wants to make this sign language concrete. It is about the construction plan of the subconscious, about the mechanisms.
The Halle Berry experiment illustrates what neuromarketing can do. Researchers were able to observe that, regardless of whether the actress Halle Berry was shown to the test subjects in a catwoman costume or in writing, only the same neuron in the head reacted. Neurons are like small information centers that communicate with each other via a multitude of nerve fibers. When Halle Berry was shown with another celebrity, the neuron remained silent. The conclusion for marketing: A brand is not only determined by formal similarities, but also by content. Movie posters with one star are measurably more effective than posters with several main actors.
New approaches in advertisingMarketers and researchers see new approaches for advertising in such findings. For the first time, existing models can be scientifically questioned with the help of neuromarketing. What attracts or repels people to buy, fascinates or bores them, is also easily recognizable without brain scanners. Neuromarketing, however, questions the weighting in advertising. More text or image. Werner Fuchs explains, "As a copywriter myself, I always went into it with the conviction that the text sells the product. A mistake." Text, says Fuchs, can never stimulate the subconscious as effectively as an image. Motifs have changed dramatically in recent years. In the meantime, advertisers have realized that surreal motifs such as water bubbles or floating balloons, for example, influence consumers more strongly than a slogan.
What seems surreal is in principle a daydream made visible. The implicit system processes such sensory impressions more strongly and more intensively. According to the researchers, brands are not coded via the logo, but via non-linguistic codes. For example, a water bubble representing "freshness" or the color blue representing "coolness." "Banal," advertisers would say. They would have always known that. Neuromarketing, however, tries to concretely show the relationships, these codes in the mind. According to theory, strong brands are chameleons. They can be shown - encoded - in the most different facets, in the brain of the customers they are always decoded in the same way. Always with the same codes. "A strong brand is a chameleon," says Christian Scheier, "no matter what color, it remains a chameleon." And Fuchs is convinced: "If advertisers understood the networks in their heads, the advertising impact would be higher."
Creatives remain skepticalSwiss creatives are still skeptical about neuromarketing; the young discipline is a foreign word to them. Euro-RSCG head Frank Bodin is not averse to giving brain research more space in daily advertising work. But at the same time, he makes it clear: "Fortunately, research is not that far along. The human brain is so wonderfully complex that you can't just make the perfect direct mail with an integrated scratch-off luck game there with a little brain research." Pius Walker, an advertiser, has no use for the term neuromarketing: "Neurology is really not my area of expertise. We appeal to the gut." What triggers the gut has been well researched. Gut instinct is not simply an intuitive "tickle." It is the result of stored packets of information in the mind. Just codes or - stories.
For Christian Scheier, the "arrogance" of advertisers toward brain research is telling. According to Scheier, advertisers have the feeling that research is killing creation. Werner Fuchs sees neuromarketing as a win-win situation for customers and advertisers: "Neuromarketing doesn't bring any big surprises. A lot of things are already known. And intuitively, top advertisers do everything right. But customers need rational explanations.
For Fuchs and Scheier, it is symptomatic that the Swiss advertising industry complacently sticks to its agenda. Fuchs: "The Swiss advertising industry thinks clumsily and classically." He is convinced that advertising can be improved with the help of neuromarketing. Maybe not necessarily with the top creative people. But among the less resourceful, the wheat would certainly be separated from the chaff.
O2 uses the new possibilitiesHow advertisers are already taking neuromarketing into account is shown by a campaign from O2. The mobile provider reportedly managed to optimize online advertising with the help of a "limbic map." A consumer survey assigned O2 to a mental map developed by brain researcher Hans-Georg Häusel ("Brain Script," Werbewoche, December 9, 2004). His approach: brands can be classified according to the same grid as consumers on the basis of their emotional imprint. Limbically, the O2 brand was associated with the qualities of adventure and courage, extravagance and dominance.
An agency developed online banners that were oriented to the limbic control elements. According to O2, the click rate increased by up to 40 percent. Conclusion: The more authentic the campaign motifs, the more effective the campaign. Among experts, however, the O2 banner optimization campaign is pure neuro-etiquette. Linking a consumer survey with brain research is tricky, they say. Because: What a person says, he does not think. And what they think, they don't feel. Creatives in the Swiss advertising scene find messages à la O2 amusing. But that's all. For them, one thing is certain: "Advertising is a craft. We still do the work, not a psychologist."
Christian Lüscher
Although brain research has reported great progress in recent years, no one knows exactly how the human brain works in detail. The famous buy button that you simply need to stimulate has turned out to be an illusion in research. Scientists are still scratching their heads over the rules by which our complex organ of thought functions. However, basic research at the level conventional marketing was at 50 years ago has come closer to understanding the "Mystery of Mind". The most diverse models have been questioned and
be put into perspective.
For example, the distinction between left and right brain. Left rational, right emotional. As well-known and popular as the formula is, it is wrong. And for anatomical and functional reasons. But the greatest insight of the researchers is the knowledge of a powerful subconscious that controls us more strongly than previously assumed. The researchers even give a clear rejection to the concept of homo economicus. And even Freud's "wet and happy" black box model is history according to brain researchers. Experiments show that decision-making processes take place unconsciously. In other words, secret and hidden. Psychologist and Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman distinguishes two systems - the implicit and the explicit. The former works highly efficiently and unconsciously. Loves emotions and stories. The explicit system thinks. Creates cost-benefit analyses and can plan for the near future. In consumer surveys, for example, the explicit system would respond, "I don't understand this ad." The focus of the research is on the implicit system. According to brain researcher and psychologist Christian Scheier, "Without the implicit, or intuitive, processes, humans would not be able to make decisions. That has been proven."
The importance of the implicit system has long been underestimated. The autopilot, as researchers also call the subconscious, takes the wheel for practically every decision. Especially under time pressure. "If consumers thought what they tell us in conversations, they wouldn't be able to make a decision," says Scheier, author of the book "How Advertising Works." Especially when time is short in the supermarket, emotions are the decision makers.
And time is the most valuable currency in advertising. On average, consumers should pay attention to a poster for 1.5 seconds. The ad takes 1.7 seconds. That may seem daunting at first glance. But for our thinking apparatus, that's enough. Our head stores 11 million sensory impressions (bits) per second. 40 bits correspond to a short slogan that we can think about. The rest is stored unconsciously. From research studies we know that customers do not know why they buy something. The real reason remains hidden from them themselves. "This shows that advertising must target the subconscious," says Christian Scheier. The brain researcher with a doctorate speaks plainly: "Around half of advertising money is still wasted." The head mechanism is a mystery to advertisers.
Neuromarketing is supposed to provide a remedy. It is not so much about the perfect lettering, the optimal tint or the best logo. Rather, it is about the psychological and cultural science context that interprets the results from brain research for marketing. "Neuromarketing is more than measuring brain waves and looking at scanned brain convolutions," says Werner Fuchs, author of "A Thousand and One Powers" ("Why We Buy What We Buy," Werbewoche, November 23, 2005). Fuchs is an expert when it comes to marketing and modern brain research. According to Fuchs, "If you want to influence human behavior, you have to learn and use the sign languages of the unconscious." Neuromarketing wants to make this sign language concrete. It is about the construction plan of the subconscious, about the mechanisms.
The Halle Berry experiment illustrates what neuromarketing can do. Researchers were able to observe that, regardless of whether the actress Halle Berry was shown to the test subjects in a catwoman costume or in writing, only the same neuron in the head reacted. Neurons are like small information centers that communicate with each other via a multitude of nerve fibers. When Halle Berry was shown with another celebrity, the neuron remained silent. The conclusion for marketing: A brand is not only determined by formal similarities, but also by content. Movie posters with one star are measurably more effective than posters with several main actors.
New approaches in advertisingMarketers and researchers see new approaches for advertising in such findings. For the first time, existing models can be scientifically questioned with the help of neuromarketing. What attracts or repels people to buy, fascinates or bores them, is also easily recognizable without brain scanners. Neuromarketing, however, questions the weighting in advertising. More text or image. Werner Fuchs explains, "As a copywriter myself, I always went into it with the conviction that the text sells the product. A mistake." Text, says Fuchs, can never stimulate the subconscious as effectively as an image. Motifs have changed dramatically in recent years. In the meantime, advertisers have realized that surreal motifs such as water bubbles or floating balloons, for example, influence consumers more strongly than a slogan.
What seems surreal is in principle a daydream made visible. The implicit system processes such sensory impressions more strongly and more intensively. According to the researchers, brands are not coded via the logo, but via non-linguistic codes. For example, a water bubble representing "freshness" or the color blue representing "coolness." "Banal," advertisers would say. They would have always known that. Neuromarketing, however, tries to concretely show the relationships, these codes in the mind. According to theory, strong brands are chameleons. They can be shown - encoded - in the most different facets, in the brain of the customers they are always decoded in the same way. Always with the same codes. "A strong brand is a chameleon," says Christian Scheier, "no matter what color, it remains a chameleon." And Fuchs is convinced: "If advertisers understood the networks in their heads, the advertising impact would be higher."
Creatives remain skepticalSwiss creatives are still skeptical about neuromarketing; the young discipline is a foreign word to them. Euro-RSCG head Frank Bodin is not averse to giving brain research more space in daily advertising work. But at the same time, he makes it clear: "Fortunately, research is not that far along. The human brain is so wonderfully complex that you can't just make the perfect direct mail with an integrated scratch-off luck game there with a little brain research." Pius Walker, an advertiser, has no use for the term neuromarketing: "Neurology is really not my area of expertise. We appeal to the gut." What triggers the gut has been well researched. Gut instinct is not simply an intuitive "tickle." It is the result of stored packets of information in the mind. Just codes or - stories.
For Christian Scheier, the "arrogance" of advertisers toward brain research is telling. According to Scheier, advertisers have the feeling that research is killing creation. Werner Fuchs sees neuromarketing as a win-win situation for customers and advertisers: "Neuromarketing doesn't bring any big surprises. A lot of things are already known. And intuitively, top advertisers do everything right. But customers need rational explanations.
For Fuchs and Scheier, it is symptomatic that the Swiss advertising industry complacently sticks to its agenda. Fuchs: "The Swiss advertising industry thinks clumsily and classically." He is convinced that advertising can be improved with the help of neuromarketing. Maybe not necessarily with the top creative people. But among the less resourceful, the wheat would certainly be separated from the chaff.
O2 uses the new possibilitiesHow advertisers are already taking neuromarketing into account is shown by a campaign from O2. The mobile provider reportedly managed to optimize online advertising with the help of a "limbic map." A consumer survey assigned O2 to a mental map developed by brain researcher Hans-Georg Häusel ("Brain Script," Werbewoche, December 9, 2004). His approach: brands can be classified according to the same grid as consumers on the basis of their emotional imprint. Limbically, the O2 brand was associated with the qualities of adventure and courage, extravagance and dominance.
An agency developed online banners that were oriented to the limbic control elements. According to O2, the click rate increased by up to 40 percent. Conclusion: The more authentic the campaign motifs, the more effective the campaign. Among experts, however, the O2 banner optimization campaign is pure neuro-etiquette. Linking a consumer survey with brain research is tricky, they say. Because: What a person says, he does not think. And what they think, they don't feel. Creatives in the Swiss advertising scene find messages à la O2 amusing. But that's all. For them, one thing is certain: "Advertising is a craft. We still do the work, not a psychologist."
Christian Lüscher
