Effective marketing: it’s all in the mind

The power of print at a glance:

• Marketers must take unconscious measurement more seriously if they’re ever to understand their audience
• In an age of short-termism, physical media cements the brand name in a person’s mind, long-term

When Diana Lucaci founded True Impact in 2012, it was one of few companies in the world – and the first in Canada – to make creative, format and channel suggestions to marketers based on neuroscience research.

Six years later, and the likes of Unilever and Coca-Cola are turning to firms like hers to find out what makes consumers tick – in the hope that they can increase the effectiveness of their communications.

We spoke to Lucaci about the role of unconscious measurement, and the advantages of print media in engaging the brain beyond just the visual…

PP: Why, in your view, should marketers care about neuroscience?

DL: Savvy marketers understand that many purchasing decisions are made at an emotional level. For example, before believing facts and figures about a vehicles' performance, a customer must first trust the automotive brand. Unlike the marketer, the customer doesn't have performance specifications on their mind, 24/7. 

When it comes to grabbing attention via digital channels, the visual and auditory sense are primarily engaged. However, to really embed a brand into memory, marketers need to employ multiple tactics to engage the brain beyond the visual. Our research simply shows them how to do that. And in fact, we’ve found that a combination of sight, sound, scent and touch is much more effective at persuading a person, compared to simply a visual image. 

There’s a reason we remember our grandmother’s cooking or the smell of the first new car we purchased. We associate these senses with a time, a moment, a place, even a meaningful event. And that’s what makes them so powerful.

PP: How have attitudes to neuroscience in marketing changed over time?

DL: When we first started in 2012, the conversation around neuroscience was pretty basic. “There’s a brain, you can measure it, and it matters.” That’s about as far as it went. However, nowadays the questions are focused on performance. 

There’s an acknowledgment that, as a marketer, you’re missing a big piece of the puzzle if you do not know WHY people choose your brand. It's not enough to be reactive and report on WHAT happened. To be intentional and drive top level KPIs, marketers need to understand emotion through non-conscious measurement.

What I'm essentially saying is that our paradigm has shifted: customers are more than data, they are human. It’s why we use neuroscience research to optimise creative and help design marketing messages for real people. We and seek to understand how they react, intuitively and naturally, to brand experiences.

We use neuroscience and biometrics to complement conscious measurements, to supplement traditional, existing research and get that bit closer to how we think. And now we’re seeing many brands combining conscious and non-conscious insights to reach their audience.

PP: What do you mean by non-conscious measurement?

DL: People may tell you what they think, however they will act on how they feel. Emotions can be designed and engineered to align with brand objectives. High performing brands use non-conscious measurement as the first step toward creating experiences that resonate and convert.

First impression is key for determining what will enter awareness, and evaluation judgement. Within a fraction of a second, the brain decides whether or not to act. If you’re trying to create a message that’s going to be loved in that first second, you need to understand how the brain works; how to elicit that emotion from the get go.

Many times it is impossible to dislodge an idea or first impression, because the customer has already established a mental shortcut, an image and a set of values.

When it comes to the market research budget, a combination of surveys and non-conscious measurement is important for getting the big picture, aka. what people say and what they truly feel. It’s important to ask people what they think, to give them a chance to rationalise and consider the logic behind their decisions.

What is unavoidable in these circumstances is the tendency of a person to project a different image in front of others, to be influenced by the dominant voice in the room or to simply keep quiet if they're introverted. It’s much easier for everyone to roll with the consensus. You rarely cut through to how they feel, or why they feel a certain way.

PP: What effects can print media have on the brain?

DL: The advantage of physical media, and particularly print media, is that it helps increase memorability for a brand. If you’re sending out an email, your audience may see the headline and swipe to delete it. But as soon as something arrives in the mail or you hold it in your hands, the physical quality of the piece conveys a message and together with the design, it renders it more likely to be encoded into memory. 

Tactility is one of our most underrated senses. It’s hugely powerful. With direct mail, for example, you’re engaging the brain beyond just the visual, something a digital screen typically can’t do.

We judge the quality of an object by its firmness or texture. That first touch is critical for creating the evaluation of a product in our minds.

If we’re holding thin, flimsy paper, we instantly associate that with a value offer. But the moment we feel something thicker, richer, that’s satin or maybe embossed – we instantly understand that it’s a high investment offer. Physical mail is a shortcut to that 'first impression', and it happens in as little as 0.3 seconds.

PP: What’s the role of print in the campaign mix?

DL: Brand who wish to remain relevant always establish an emotional connection with their customers. It may be trust, friendship, love, etc. Every brand should care about creating an emotional connection with consumers. And in that context, print is a crucial part of the marketing mix.

It’s about forging a relationship. Physical media improves memorability and cements the brand in a person’s mind before they convert online or in store. Knowing its advantages, marketers need to think about optimising creative using neuroscience principles and watch their response rates go into the double digits.