Book review: BRAINFLUENCE
100 Ways To Persuade And Convince Consumers With Neuromarketing
Genres:
- Psychology
- Behavioral Economics
- Neuroscience
- Marketing
Review posted on:
06.08.2016
The number of pages:
304 pages
Book rating:
4/5
Year the book was published:
First edition published 2011
Who should read this book:
- People in Marketing, Entrepreneurs, and anyone interested in how companies influence their customers.
Why did I pick up this book and what did I expect to get out of it:
While searching for books on the subject of Neuroscience, Behavioral Economics, and Psychology I came across Brainfluence by Roger Dooley. The thing that caught my “eye” instantly was the “100 ways to persuade and convince consumers with neuromarketing” on the front cover of the book. After checking a few reviews and checking the table of content I was sold on it. In Brainfluence I expect to get 100 case studies of how companies try to influence you, me, and all other consumers. I really hope that Roger Dooley goes in-depth into the case studies that he shares and that he will provide some research that will help us understand why something workers and why.
My thoughts about the book:
If you are looking for that boost that will make a difference in your sales, brand recognition, or customer satisfaction I recommend you read Brainfluence by Roger Dooley. The book is written so that it is easy to read and is actually a summary of 100 “tricks” based on marketing and neuromarketing research done by professors, scientists, and marketing specialists.
With every book I pick up, I wonder if the book is worth my time and I have to say that Brainfluence was. I highly recommend it. When I was done with it I was like, wow… I can definitely use some of what is written and I’m more aware of the tricks companies try to use to influence me. In the book, you will read what is the best way to influence male or female consumers, how to influence senior consumers, and more. The really cool part about the book was that it even included the “small stuff”, like where to put your logo, what types of font to use for which effect, and more. Every detail that Roger Dooley shares in each case study adds up and at the end of the book you will have an arsenal of tools to try to better your marketing efforts, or on the other side if you are a consumer, it will help you a lot to recognize when companies are trying to influence and you will maybe be able to resist that influence.
If you picked up this book please let me know what you think about it in the comment section.
My notes from the book:
- We all like to think there are good reasons for what we do and that our decisions result from a conscious, deliberative process. However researchers are constantly exposing new ways in which our subconscious drives our choices, often with minimal conscious involvement.
- Bundling products or services minimizes pain (customers buying pain).
- For many consumers, the credit card takes the pain out of purchasing. Pulling cash out of one’s wallet causes one to evaluate the purchase more carefully.
- Selling products in a way that consumer sees the price increase with every bit of consumption causes the most pain. If possible bundle items.
- Selling products in a way that consumer sees the price increase with every bit of consumption causes the most pain. If possible bundle items.
- If a higher anchor price can be established. Then offers involving lower prices will be attractive to consumers.
- Research shows that having too many choices reduces sales, due to a sort of paralysis of analysis. Making choices tires the chooser’s brain and can make subsequent decision-making more difficult.
- The connection between our senses and our brain is direct. Marketers who build sensory features into their products, services, and marketing can appeal directly to the emotions and stored memories of their customers.
- Smell is particularly potent in bypassing conscious thought and creating associations with memories and emotions. Smell can cause “involuntary memory”.
- Scent can change the way we process information – a lemon aroma can make us more alert (this could be more helpful when introducing a new product).
- Our brains process first-time smells in a different way than familiar ones.
- Even when your ads aren’t consciously noticed, your branding message is still having an impact. The key point for marketers is to keep your brand visible even when people don’t seem to be paying attention.
- The theory of social identity states that people have an inherent tendency to categorize themselves into groups. Brands that can be positioned to put their customers into a group will find that their effort will be enhanced by their customer’s own need to belong.
- When comparing brands don’t focus on the products. Focus on the people who use each product – who they are, what they stand for,…
- The way we perceive information can be affected dramatically by how simple or complex the font is. Readers of a simple font are more likely to make a commitment.
- If you want a reader to remember something making the reader’s brain work a little harder to read it can produce a more persistent memory. But don’t overdo it.
- Our brains are wired to respond to baby faces and even baby-like characteristics in adults. Babies are attention-getters.
- In advertising, we will look at what the person we see in an ad is looking at. If they are looking at us we will simply look back at them and not really anywhere else. Make sure that the person in the ad is looking at what you want your audience to look at.
- If men watch/view sexy images of women it makes them more impulsive and interested in immediate gratification. Being sexually aroused causes the male subject to be more focused on short-term gratification than on long-term logic.
- Be careful of using sex/sexy women in ads. They grab attention, but they can also reduce brand recall.
- Loyalty is an amazingly potent tool when it can be established. Retaining a loyal customer is far cheaper than trying to convert new buyers. Even more important, a truly loyal customer can turn into a strong brand advocate and further extent your marketing reach.
- Assuming your product or service is purchased frequently enough, offer your customers a loyalty program. In addition, keep your customers engaged by letting them monitor their progress and if possible reminding them about the program if they haven’t bought in a while.
- Behavior research shows us that sometimes asking for one favor first can greatly increase the probability of success with the second favor (which most people would otherwise not comply with).
- Brain imaging studies show hot and cold stimuli light up an area of the brain related to trust and cooperation. Warm beverages affect not just our perceptions of other people but our own behavior as well.
- Salespeople should be trained not just on what to say, but when to say it – and when not to say anything at all.
- We are drawn to stories about one person in crisis, but mass starvation or rampant disease barely engages us.
- Researchers in the United Kingdom found that the hippocampus, a small structure in our brain “predicts” what will happen next by automatically recalling an entire sequence of events in response to a single one. If you want to wake up your readers or listeners, substitute an unexpected word for the one their brains have already filled in.
- When presenting data or facts use real numbers for impact (9 out of 10 customers rate our services as “excellent”). Your customers identify more closely with the statistics when they see numbers as people.
- To engage potential customers, write a vivid story involving your product or brand. Include action, motion, dialogue, and other aspects that will activate different parts of your customers’ brains.
- Statistics are simply less interesting and relevant to our brains than detailed anecdotes. Turning a testimonial into a personal anecdote will greatly increase its impact. Adding a name, a face and a story will play to the way our brains evolved and be more convincing and more memorable.
- Advertisers must strike a balance between repeating their message but also providing novel information to trigger the reward circuits in the brain.
- A Standford University study shows that big potential rewards produce big responses, even if they are unlikely outcomes. In other words, our brain is very responsive to the size of the reward and far less sensitive to the probability of actually receiving that reward.
- The customer’s real experience with the product will be shaped by his or her expectations and beliefs about the product.
- Men spend money to enhance their reputation (and their appeal to the opposite sex). Marketers who give a man a chance to buy something expensive in a visible way can expect an above-average rate of success. The bottom line, ensure visibility and public recognition for male clients.
- Monitor where your customers post and engage them quickly and constructively. Don’t try to win an argument about who is right. Offer a simple but sincere apology, and state how the problem can be resolved with minimal customer pain. Not only do you have a chance to retain that customer, but you’ll have influenced many others as well.
- Rude treatment is considered to be a revenge motivator. A sincere apology goes a long way toward defusing customer anger.
- You have a greater chance of making a sale if you let your customers touch or hold your product. You can amplify the effect by helping customers imagine that they own the product.
- Emotion-based marketing may be more difficult to create, but the statistics say it’s worth the effort. Our brain’s ability to process emotional input without cognitive processing, as well as the fact that our brains are more powerful at recording emotional stimuli, should be a good enough reason to implement this concept.
- If you are marketing to seniors keep it simple, because brain scans show a dramatic difference in the ability of older brains to suppress distracting information, which is a key factor in memory formation decline.
- Based on eye-tracking research, where should the logo or brand identity be placed so that consumers actually see it, is the lower middle part of the pager or layout.
