Have you ever wondered why some brands are unforgettable? Think about Nike. When you see the swoosh, you instantly know what it represents. That’s not an accident. It’s the result of something called neurobranding.
Neurobranding is a fascinating topic. Imagine knowing how to make people remember your brand and feel something special about it. That's what neurobranding does. It finds its approaches both in the brain and in brand strategies to leave a deep and positive imprint of the brand in the peoples’ minds. It's not just about logos and colours; it's about understanding how people think and feel about brands.
This blog will cover the area of neurobranding, its concept and significance, how to ensure that your brand is firmly etched in the minds of your target audience and much more that you should take notice of!
What is Neurobranding?
Neuro branding or neuromarketing is a technique of branding which helps brands to be easily recognisable with the help of knowledge about the brain. It applies concepts from the relatively new field of cognitive science which is all about how our brain works, stores information and makes new learnings. Thus, it assists brands to create a solid bond with the viewers. It focuses on analysing the effect of brand components such as logos, colours, and messages. However, while logos and colours are carefully regarded in neurobranding, this approach searches for how individuals feel and think about brands. The ultimate objective is to build a bond with consumers to help them select the brand over related brands.
Why is Neurobranding Important?
Brands are everywhere. They are in the shoes we wear, the foods we eat, and the games we play including the movies and music we listen to. However, not all of the brands are catchy. It aids in ensuring that brands stick in consumers’ minds. It implies that when a brand applies neuro branding, it has a chance to connect with its target customers on a psychological level. With neurobranding, brands can penetrate people on a deeper level and customers will come and buy from them often.
How Does Neurobranding Work?
Neurobranding was conceptualised for the first time in 1990. It revolves around the notion that about 95% of our thinking happens unconsciously. It then means that we make choices unknowingly because they are made automatically. Therefore, Neurobranding seeks to build top affiliations with brands at the back of the subconscious mind. Emotions are also a kind of attention, the most complete experience because it takes up our entire consciousness when we feel an emotion. The brands generate closer emotional connections with the viewers and therefore consequently are easier to recall and be loved more.
For instance, consider the sensation you receive when you spot the symbol of a preferred eatery, such as McDonald’s. It is a response of the brand that forms such a feeling in the mind. Neurobranding is about instilling these positive emotions as you choose to go for their brand out of the many available.
Neurobranding is founded on the brain’s data processing mechanism and is part of a larger domain known as neuromarketing. Neuromarketing is an area of marketing science that employs specific tools and techniques to monitor people’s brain responses to marketing. The following are those tools; functional magnetic resonance imaging also referred to as fMRI and electroencephalography also referred to as EEG. These methods assist marketers in visualising the sections of the brain that are engaged when people make some perceptions of the various sorts of ads. By outlining these processes brands will be better positioned to bond with their audience.
Tools Used in Neurobranding
Neuromarketing is one of the critical components of neurobranding. It employs underlying scientific methods using tools to analyse responses from customers’ brains to marketing. These tools also assist marketers in observing what works and what doesn’t. Thus, they can have better ways of advertising and promoting their products.
- Functional MRI (fMRI): This tool assesses Brain functioning in a manner that involves blood flow as a way of measuring the activity of the brain. It helps marketers determine which areas of the brain are used when a person recognises a brand or advert. Although fMRI is extremely precise, the procedure is extremely costly.
- Electroencephalogram (EEG): EEG applies electrodes to the scalp to record the brain's electrical activity. Compared to fMRI, it is cheaper and can depict the initial response in an individual’s brain. However, it is less specific regarding the parts of the brain that are impacted.
- Eye Tracking: It demonstrates in a field where the person is looking, or where he or she has been looking and for how long. This helps the marketers know what captures people's attention in an advert or on a given website.
- Facial Coding: Facial coding interprets the expression on one’s face to determine what one thinks about a brand. It can pick up even mild responses and give information about customers’ feelings.
- Galvanic Skin Response (GSR): GSR regards the variations in the skin conductance level that can reflect the level of the patient’s emotional state. Because it can show the emotional response generated by the branding campaign to the marketers.
Companies also have to be informed about the ethical aspects of neurobranding. They should stop scheming ways to trick customers into buying their products and work on ways of bonding with customers. The following core brand communication strategies should primarily reflect the values of transparency and honesty.
Why Does Neurobranding Matter for Businesses?
Neurobranding can assist firms in building powerful and repeatable associations with people. In this way, with the help of science, companies can provide some guarantees that their brands will be recalled and liked. This implies only spending on marketing that will yield good results.
People tend to select memorable brands among other options. This is why businesses are so interested in neurobranding. It's because neurobranding provides an investigatory method into the consumer's mind to ensure that business brands are positioned correctly and placed into categories that will deliver the optimal response from the consumer.
Neurobranding is also useful in rebranding. Brand renovation is the process through which a company alters its name, logo, or the general appearance of a brand. This can be complicated since some people do not support change. Neurobranding facilitates the process of rebranding. This way, that is through detecting the emotions towards the new brand name, companies estimate the effectiveness of the repositioning strategy. They could also take several tests to identify the best creative concept to communicate to the masses.
Examples of Top Popular Companies that Use Neurobranding
The Pepsi vs. Coke Experiment
In 2004, a neuroscientist named Professor Read Montague was able to conduct a well-known experiment commonly known as the “Pepsi Challenge”. He wished to find out the effect of our brains towards different brands of cola. He requested 67 people to take Pepsi and Coke separately without knowing which. He then used an MRI to see which areas of their brains would be activated.
Every time, the people consumed a favourite cola, a component of the brain which was the ventral putamen, got activated. This area is associated with reward activity. Peculiarly, when subjects were informed that they were consuming Coke they said it tasted better and a new neural centre was activated, the lateral prefrontal cortex. This part of our brain is associated with thinking and memory. This experiment proved that brands can alter the perception and feelings for a product, in this case, the same product.
Victoria’s Secret
Victoria’s Secret uses neurobranding by focusing on colours and words that evoke specific feelings. The brand uses pink to associate with femininity and playfulness. The word “secret” creates curiosity and allure. These elements make the brand more appealing and memorable to its target audience.
Starbucks
Sensory marketing is part of the neurobranding that Starbucks applies. The first thing one will likely detect when he enters a Starbucks is a fresh cup of ground coffee. This aroma creates a feeling of wanting to have coffee for the customers. Starbucks also employs attractive pictures in their ads to jog people’s memory of the feeling and taste of the products.
PayPal
PayPal changed its marketing message based on neurobranding research. They found that people prefer fast payment solutions over the safest ones. So, they started promoting PayPal as the fastest borderless payment option. This change led to a 400% increase in click-through rates, showing the power of understanding customer preferences.
Uniqlo
Uniqlo uses neuro branding to match clothes with customers' moods. They ran a campaign where visitors tried on EEG headsets and viewed different shirts. The EEG analysis helped determine which shirts matched different moods, making the shopping experience more personalised.
Nike
Nike is known for emotional marketing. What stands out when it comes to their ads is the featuring of athletes and inspirational statements evoking passion. For instance, during the World Cup 2018, Nike’s advertisement with Ronaldo, the Brazilian football striker, was preferred to other brands. This is evident in the use of emotional appeal in marketing.
Apple
Apple uses neurobranding to design its website layout. Their site is minimalist and visually appealing, with strategically placed text and images. This design makes it easy for customers to find information and feel comfortable using the site. Apple’s use of white space highlights its products and makes the website look clean and organised.
KFC
KFC uses several psychological triggers in its marketing. One notable tactic is price anchoring. They show the original price crossed out and a new, slightly lower price, making customers think they are getting a good deal. This simple trick helps increase sales. KFC also uses catchy phrases like “finger-licking good” to make their food sound irresistible.
ELSA
ELSA, a language learning app, uses the fear of missing out (FOMO) in its marketing. They send reminder emails with phrases that create a sense of urgency, like “Don’t let any more time pass by you.” This tactic encourages people to take action quickly and increases conversions.
Frito-Lay
Frito-Lay uses neurobranding to develop new products. They found that women love snacks but feel guilty about eating them. To address this, they introduced baked chips positioned as healthier options. This strategy helped attract more female customers.
Campbell
Campbell’s Soup is another company that applied neuromarketing to redesign their soup labels. They were in a position to design labels that were attractive to consumers since they examined how people’s brains responded to different label designs. This can help increase sales since individuals are always attracted by well-packed products.
Facebook has also used neuromarketing to understand how its ad system influences people's feelings and perceptions. By studying brain responses, they can see their ads' effectiveness and make improvements as needed. This helps Facebook create better ads that people will respond to positively.
Disney
Disney uses neurobranding to create movies that make people happy. They study what makes audiences feel good and use that knowledge to make their films more enjoyable. Disney’s movies often have fun stories and happy endings, which make viewers feel positive emotions. This emotional connection helps Disney keep its audience loyal and excited about new releases.
Ethical Concerns in Neurobranding: Is Neurobranding Legal?
In Neurobranding, we use fMRI, EEG, eye tracking and facial coding to understand how people respond to advertisements and products. It assists organisations in developing better marketing communication plans and improves consumers’ relationships with customers. However, neurobranding raises several legal and ethical concerns, particularly regarding its influence on decision-making and biometric data protection.
While neurobranding has many benefits, it raises significant ethical concerns, regarding manipulation and privacy. The data collected is highly personal, and there are worries about its use and access. Therefore, the legality of neurobranding techniques depends on their specific application and impact on consumer behaviour. Current legislation on personal data protection and unfair advertising practices needs to fully address the nuances of neuromarketing, suggesting a need for clearer regulations and specific provisions to protect consumers. Although not explicitly illegal, neuro branding's use raises legal and ethical concerns that existing laws do not yet fully address, necessitating future regulations to provide more explicit guidelines and protections.
Conclusion
Neurobranding is an effective means for building effective monumental brands. In this way, there is a cocktail of knowledge, feelings, and penchants that the brands can stimulate in the audience, especially if it is understood how the brain works. This results in better brand loyalty and enhanced marketing strategies hence more efficient marketing communications. So, whether it is a right simply the right colours, language or ICT technology, neurobranding assists brands in being differentiated from the other brands in the market. This not only makes the brand more attractive but also helps in the branding for long-term customer loyalty.