consumer behavior

May 7, 2013December 23, 2016

Pricing mistakes and consumer behavior

A new study by researchers from Singapore and Yale revealed a pricing surprise: if two similar items were priced the same, subjects were much less likely to buy one than if their prices were slightly different!

A tiny price difference seems to make the similar products more alike, and increases the probability that a decision will be made and not deferred.

In one experiment, the researchers presented two groups of subjects with a choice. They gave all subjects a dollar with the option to buy gum or keep the money. Two similar types of gum were offered. One group saw both gum options priced at 63 cents, while the other saw one gum priced at 62 cents and the other at 64. This trivial difference caused 77% of the second group to buy vs. just 46% for the first group – a 67% boost!

In retail settings, similar products may be offered at the same price. But, rather than simplifying the choice for the consumer, doing so may actually increase the probability that the consumer will buy nothing at all.

May 6, 2013

The liking factor- NeuroMarketing

Create a “liking” effect with your audience.

What can you do to create a sense of commonality between you (or your company) and the customer?

What are your hobbies, values and beliefs? What about your ideal customer?

This is something easy to do if you really know who your ideal customer is.

Petsmart did this really well by posting pictures of their executives with their pets. I like them more now!

With this simple step they created a connection with their ideal clients.

The more we understand our customer’s brains and how they’re wired, the better we will be able to market to them and achieve success

May 3, 2013

Marketing to the brain

Look at these pictures:

They are both examples of good marketing. Why?

Because they both talk to emotions, to the brain of the consumer.

The first asks you to take a stand about your values. The other allows you to solve a problem.

Simple, effective marketing. You don’t need to be a NeurMarketer to see that this works.

Remember: People buy with the heart and justify with the brain. Not the opposite. 95% of our purchase decisions are made on a unconscious level.

The question is why homeless people can see this while entrepreneurs miss this point quite often. They get stuck in old ways of marketing an selling.

Maybe because they stay inside 4 walls or just in front of the computer and forget to really observe consumer behavior?

May 2, 2013

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.

April 27, 2013

The business of Experience

A few weeks ago I watched a film called The Game. In the film the character gets a special gift from his brother: He will participate in a game that offers real life experiences.

The film was good and I thought that I could see people buying this type of experience.

We buy experiences, much more so when we are boomers. (Actually one of the reasons restaurants are seeing less and less boomers is due to the fact that dining out many times lack any special experience).

Well, now there is a company that offers something similar:

Extreme Kidnapping is a company operated by Adam Thick, an entrepreneur and convicted counterfeiter from Oakland County, Michigan. For $500, Adam and his crew will abduct you at gunpoint and hold you hostage for four hours. A thousand bucks gets you ten hours, along with a bit of customized sadism.

Experiences are the newest, hottest luxury items.

As with any pricey upscale service, you have many choices for your Extreme Kidnapping. You can even select your kidnapper.

You can choose to have sexy kidnappers, be tortured etc.

For $500, Adam and his crew will abduct you at gunpoint and hold you hostage for four hours. A thousand bucks gets you ten hours, along with a bit of customized sadism.

After the kidnapping is over, you will get a customer satisfaction survey.

Now, I have a very hard time understanding why someone would ever want to be kidnapped but I get spending money to have a special experience.

We talked before about another company, Nexpedition selling experience in the travel industry.

There are some studies around this fact:

Contrary to what people predict, it’s not young and impulsive people who want to pay so much for these crazy experiences. It’s actually people who plan and are obsessed with being productive,” says Anat Keinan, who now teaches marketing at Harvard Business School.

Consumers buy into these unusual experiences because they are considered “collectible,” not because they’re pleasurable. The following five experiments confirmed that it is those who are fixated on productivity that tend to desire these collectible experiences.

A new study suggests that those who spend money to do things are happier than those who spend their money on possessions.

We could add to that routine, loneliness, less social interactions due to technology and a lot more reasons.

The fact is that people today buy experiences and we need to provide experiences.

Customer experience is fundamental to the success of every business. For most companies, in fact, customer experience is the single greatest predictor of whether customers will return — or defect to a competitor.

Every interaction with customers can be an experience. It can also incorporate some mystery and rituals as we talk in our irresistible business.

It does not have to be as radical as the example above, but you should pay attention to these types of businesses.

April 25, 2013

Make Customers Happier by Helping Them Accept Their Decisions

Research participants who covered a tray with a transparent lid after choosing a single chocolate from a large selection on the tray were more satisfied with their choices (6.03 versus 4.78 on a 7-point scale, on average) than people who didn’t cover the tray, says a team led by doctoral student Yangjie Gu of London Business School. Acts of “closure,” such as covering rejected alternatives, induce people to stop pondering missed opportunities. Companies might be able to increase satisfaction by taking simple steps to allow consumers to make peace with their decisions, the researchers say.

April 23, 2013December 23, 2016

Don’t let prospects multi task

I go to a lot of networking meetings. Most of the time I try to convince myself that it is not a waste of time. Unfortunately most meetings revolve around a meal and food distracts. The brain pays attention to one thing at a time and food is really interesting to us, therefore those meetings can be very ineffective when you are trying to get people’s attention. Unless you pay attention to NeuroMarketing.

Neuroscientists compare our attention focus to shining a spotlight on something: We see what is lit and we lose focus on everything else.

Marketers need to be sure they have their focused target’s attention where they want it.

Don’t let your customers multitask when you need their attention on your message.

One way to get people’s attention is to use motion. If something moves, the audience follows the movement. It is part of our survival skills. Point to your products when you present.

If your audience is distracted with food, use bigger motions to snap their attention.

April 21, 2013December 23, 2016

Very hot marketing

Do you offer beverages to your prospects and clients? In our offices we have what we call the Star Buzz where people can serve themselves of different beverages.

We have cold and hot beverages. Maybe we’ll change the options.

John Bargh of Yale found that the temperature of a beverage makes a difference in how one person judges another. The brain imaging studies show that hot and cold stimuli light up an area of the brain related to trust and cooperation.

The warm beverages affect our perception of other people and our own behavior as well.

According to Bargh, “Physical warmth can make us see others as warmer people, but also cause us to be warmer, more generous and trusting as well”.

February 17, 2013December 23, 2016

Consumer Behavior facts

Did you know?

Color increases brand recognition by 80%. Brand recognition direct links to consumer confidence. red, orange, black and royal blue attract impulse buyers

People go to Facebook to find out 2 things: does someone want to be my friend, and can I express myself?
They post on Facebook to do 2 things: to get others to appreciate them, or support them.

70% of people only use their tablet at home

85% of all brand purchases are made by women.

75% of consumers buy nothing (or buy less) if there are not enough employees at the store.

Over 30% of consumers are purchasing luxury goods to reward themselves

28% of luxury consumers said they got a good deal through Facebook or Twitter or a blog.

Consumers will watch videos 60% of the time they find them on retail sites

66% of consumers will watch a video twice if it is informative.