Consumer behavior: By flaunting expensive shoes and handbags, women effectively deter potential romantic rivals, according to a series of experiments by doctoral student Yajin Wang and Vladas Griskevicius of the University of Minnesota. For example, after each research participant was prompted to imagine another woman flirting with her partner, those who were instructed to envision being alone with their rivals spent 77% more of a small honorarium on a chance to win a gift card for a luxury-spending spree, suggesting that women whose relationships are threatened seek conspicuous goods only when the products can be seen by a potential rival. Other experiments show that the deterrent is effective, probably because women perceive a man as more devoted to his partner when she sports pricey products, the researchers say.
Your Brain Works Better When You Are Tired
If you’re trying to do creative work, you’ll actually have more luck when you’re more tired and your brain isn’t functioning as efficiently.
If you’re tired, your brain is not as good at filtering out distractions and focusing on a particular task. It’s also a lot less efficient at remembering connections between ideas or concepts. These are both good things when it comes to creative work, since this kind of work requires us to make new connections, be open to new ideas and think in new ways. So a tired, fuzzy brain is much more use to us when working on creative projects.
This Scientific American article explains how distractions can actually be a good thing for creative thinking:
Insight problems involve thinking outside the box. This is where susceptibility to “distraction” can be of benefit. At off-peak times we are less focused, and may consider a broader range of information. This wider scope gives us access to more alternatives and diverse interpretations, thus fostering innovation and insight.
What Would You Do Differently If You Could See Yourself 20 Years Older?
Undergraduates who had gazed at their 40-year-old selves in virtual “mirrors” were 74% less likely to cheat for extra cash on a subsequent trivia test, says a team led by Jean-Louis van Gelder of the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement and Hal E. Hershfield of NYU. This and another experiment suggest that one reason people make self-defeating choices such as engaging in unethical behavior is that their ability to imagine their future selves is limited. They’re less inclined to indulge in illegal acts if they can see vivid images of themselves such as the computer simulations presented by the researchers.
NeuroMarketing tip: Creating contrast in the Market
You need to create contrast between you and your competition. You also need to be approachable and not too serious.
Here is an example on achieving the 3 points above. It is a bank in Australia on their about us page
Why Women Should Ask Auto-Repair Shops for Discounts
Women who called auto-repair shops to inquire about getting a new radiator were quoted prices that averaged 6% higher than those offered to men, according to an experiment led by Meghan Busse of the Kellogg School at Northwestern University. Yet female callers who requested a price reduction were successful about 35% of the time, compared with just 25% for men. Shops may be caught off guard when women ask for discounts on car repairs, the researchers say.
Cosmetic Surgery Is Fueled by a Fear of Dying
People who were instructed to think about their own mortality were more receptive to the idea of having cosmetic surgery than those who weren’t (3.57 versus 2.96 on a seven-point scale), suggesting that fear of death is a motivator behind patients’ decisions to have tummy tucks, says Kim-Pong Tam of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. When people experience unconscious death terror, they tend to engage in behaviors that maintain their sense of symbolic immortality, even though cosmetic surgery itself can threaten people’s health or even their lives, he writes.
SOURCE: Existential motive underlying cosmetic surgery: A terror management analysis
Credit card or cash when marketing?
How you pay – credit card vs. cash – actually affects how you think about the products you are buying, according to new research published in the Journal of Consumer Research.
That, in turn, means that marketers need to review how they are marketing to credit and cash customers.
Spending money is always painful.
NeuroMarketing suggests that Cash customers pay more attention to price while credit card customers pay more attention to benefits.
This means the if you sell to credit card customers your marketing need to make clear what will be the benefits while if you are selling to cash customers compare how cost competitive is your product and show it as a bargain.
Smiles bring more sales
People talk a lot about how the market is not the same as before. Do they question that part of the reason is that when we leave our homes to shop we expect to have a nice experience? and that grumpy people is not part of what we think is a nice experience?
Don’t forget to tell your team members to smile. Smile sells.
Smiles can affect customer consumption and willingness to spend. Plus it is just nice.
Touch is part of marketing
A study showed that a light touch on a person’s shoulder made that person more willing to choose a riskier option when deciding between a riskier option when deciding between a sum of money or taking a chance on either getting a larger sum or not.
This has only worked with female touchers and worked for both male and female subjects.
We don’t tend to think about touch as part of marketing but it can be used too. After all, from all our senses touch is the only one that is received by any part of the body. It is extremely important to us.
What is your brand personality?
If done right, your brand can actually change the way your customers feel about themselves.
Many of us use brands to send a signal to others about our personality. Just ask an Apple fan.
Your job is to turn your brand personality into what your customers aspire to be.
Think about brands that make you feel special or tell something about your personality. How would you feel carrying a blue box from Tiffany? Or a Victoria Secret bag? Do you feel more glamorous? What is that telling about you?
The products and services we use do affect the way we feel about ourselves. I for one, if someone drags me to a Wall Mart (that is the only way you will see me inside that store), they will see how fast my mood can change. I feel bad every time.
Now, when I hold my Nikon camera, I feel proud, a renegade and free. It affects my behavior too.
It is really important to know wants and needs of your customers and a lot about their values and fears so you can create a brand that resonates with their personality.
During the Super Bowl 2013 Audi put a commercial that illustrates well the points above.