SIX MAJOR BRANDS THAT USED NEUROMARKETING TO THEIR ADVANTAGE

Creating an ad and running a successful campaign is a risky gambit. Neuromarketing is now being used by innovative marketers to assist brands in increasing sales. With this valuable information, they can make more informed decisions about pricing, ad creation, and even product development.

These companies have mastered the use of neuromarketing to increase sales:

• YAHOO

When Yahoo was about to launch their new branding campaign in order to attract more users to the search engine, they created an advertisement featuring people from all over the world dancing. They screened this upbeat 60-second television commercial using EEG (or electroencephalogram), which measures brain-cell activity over fractions of a second using sensors placed on the subject's scalp. They were confident in this creative before ever airing the ad online or on TV because it performed well in neuro tests, ranking high in areas of emotion and memory.

• FRITO-LAY

Using neuro testing, even the best-laid plans can be changed on the fly. Frito-Lay discovered this prior to the launch of a potato chip product, saving them millions of dollars. The study discovered that subjects reacted negatively to the brand's shiny bags with chip photos. The company quickly shifted to matte packaging, typing, and imaging, all of which were deemed positive in testing. Frito-gleaming Lay's bags of snacks vanished from the market, while their profits skyrocketed.

• HEWLETT-PACKARD

HP's commercial for the HP Sprocket, or portable smart phone photo printer, depicted a father attempting to capture the attention of his adolescent daughter, to little avail, he believes. He is overwhelmed by the end of the commercial when he discovers that the photos he has been printing out of them over the years are displayed in her room. People who saw the ad responded empathetically, and their emotions were gauged even before they could tell the marketers that they were moved by the spot, according to neuromarketing. Oxytocin is a hormone that helps us empathize with others, and if your creative triggers this, it will help your audience engage with and care about your brand.

• HYUNDAI

Knowing the power of neuromarketing, the car manufacturer invited customers to try out some early prototypes and used EEG testing of brain signals to gain a better understanding of preferences and the type of stimulation that ultimately enticed them to buy. Hyundai used this information to improve the exterior design of its vehicles in order to increase sales.

• PAYPAL

eBay's online payment service discovered neuromarketing to be extremely beneficial in enticing customers to use its service. One of the most important findings was that focusing on USPs for convenience and speed, which scored high on the brain response, was more valuable than focusing on elements like security and safety. Knowing this, they tailored their ads and drove traffic to the site, demonstrating once again that neuromarketing can be used to boost sales.

• CHEETOS

Frito-Lay used neuromarketing with the popular Cheetos brand, employing both EEG and focus groups to assess the impact of an advertisement in which a woman played a prank on a friend by putting orange snacks in a dryer with white clothing. Although the focus group participants said they disliked the commercial and the prank, an EEG study on the same participants found the polar opposite to be true. They liked the ad but were hesitant to say so in front of their peers for fear of being perceived as mean-spirited.

The Cheetos scenario corresponds to a 2018 Super Bowl ad study. Using technology to measure a group of participants' neurochemical reactions to over a dozen ads that aired during the big game in a focus group. They then compared it to the Ad Meter ranking of the commercials from USA Today. Surprisingly, the group results were diametrically opposed to the Ad Meter scores. The ad with the highest level of emotional engagement in the group was voted the least popular by USA Today.

Why? While the brain cannot shield how an advertisement affects a viewer, participants in focus groups are more likely to conceal their true feelings about the commercial due to groupthink and to please the authority figures running the study. Neuromarketing is not deceptive, and as demonstrated above, it can be used to increase sales.