In the marketing world, challenges exist, especially when marketers have to evolve with the changing technological advances. They must align with changing consumer behavior as they seek better ways to understand their preferences, attitudes, and motivations. Participating in this course provided a unique glimpse into the future of marketing. A key takeaway from this marketing course was that integrating psychology and neuroscience in marketing is relevant in digging into the minds of consumers and comprehending how they think and react in particular situations. By understanding the human mind, marketers are better placed to anticipate changes in consumer behavior and introduce strategies that enable their activities to be more successful and effective than before.
My excitement about neuromarketing tools was unmatched, primarily since I have been a victim of subconscious stimuli and purchased products and services I was unaware I needed or wanted to begin with. I was surprised by using emotions, pattern recognition, and memories to articulate decisions and judgments. For instance, encountering small emotional rewards whereby the marketer conditions a consumer by using minute emotions through television advertisements that are entertaining or have narratives was enlightening. It underlined the necessity of content creation whereby influencers position products and services in their daily lives, taking care not to emphasize their marketing activities. Instead, the consumer is unconsciously linked to the brand, service, or product by focusing on the qualities of their lifestyles or personalities. Therefore, this approach that focuses on context over content is attuned to the laziness of the mind and allows emotions of delight, intrigue, or excitement to creep in.
As a budding entrepreneur interested in developing skin care products, understanding how social media influences our sense of identity and personality is critical. We spend many hours on online platforms, and creating artificial images of ourselves has become the norm and a deceiving way to engage people in our circles. As a marketer, this aspect offers merits and demerits. On the one hand, one can tailor advertisements to fit the online profiles and engagements they achieve on the platforms. However, if they are false, the marketer is ineffective in securing authentic engagements necessary to achieve sales and profit. Such findings and perspectives warrant an intense engagement with social media marketing to flesh out the fake profiles or identities and outline the unique behaviors that reveal the authentic self.
In the era of big data, marketers are increasingly encouraged to use data collected to understand and respond to consumer needs. Such methods can provoke customers in ways that encourage purchases, upsell and inspire brand loyalty. I would apply biometrics in my marketing campaigns, especially since it facilities automated data collection. Gone are instances when brands use self-reported data, which offers cases of bias and denies brands opportunities to capture and collect raw data. In the beauty industry, understanding the instantaneous reactions to a product or service is necessary. Arguably, beauty is external, and the need to create a superficial perspective of a person’s face or body takes precedence. In my experiences with beauty products, one may have to hold their morals or ethical perspectives on what is considered beautiful since consumers desire to look good and portray attitudes or moods that make others envy them. Thus, using biometric-based marketing would be the best strategy to achieve this.
Biometric marketing is lucrative for my future business because it helps set up viral content that aligns with consumers’ reactions to external stimuli such as acoustics, verbal and visual. For instance, a marketer can identify or recognize certain emotions without seeking consumer information regarding their feelings. Therefore, if a marketer discovers that a certain video, ideology or phrase creates excitement in consumers, they can use this tactic to stimulate desire and awareness, ensuring that they entice their brands, services or products into the subconscious mindsets of consumers. As a marketer, segmenting, targeting, and positioning are necessary to achieve the desired objectives. Using biometric marketing is enticing because it allows deeper information about a consumer and how best to engage them. By understanding the emotional states of a consumer towards particular offerings, it is easier and more effective to establish promotions geared towards individual consumer profiles or personalities, confident that they will make purchases or interact with the brand. However, it would be necessary to establish ethical frameworks for collecting such data to ensure data integrity and protect consumer privacy.
Having examined the workings of multisensory marketing, I was intrigued by its novelty in creating and triggering multiple sensations in consumers. The approach is similar to overloading the mind with messages that align an individual’s conscious and subconscious thoughts to a brand, service or product. As the course outlined, its influence on behavior, judgment, and perception is consistent with establishing positive brand associations that cut out the superficial effects visual advertisement has on individuals. When marketing beauty products, one may want to create consumer perceptions that continually resonate with positive associations with a brand. When you think of Sephora or Fenty Beauty, positive perceptions immediately crop up since the latter makes you think of Rihanna and her flawless beauty. In contrast, the former makes you imagine the unique black-and-white store designs that stretch the consumer’s imagination. Thus, for my future business, I would focus on packaging beauty products, ensuring they capture different layers of the characteristics they offer. In such dynamics, establishing a creative design and layout for the physical stores, website, and product packaging is a worthwhile proposition to ensure that customers are bombarded with positive associations about the brand. Therefore, by considering the recall and familiarity of sensory branding, there are opportunities to trigger emotional responses and attachments in consumers when they think of a certain brand, service, or product.
Overall, this marketing course has provided me with better insights regarding the adoption of psychology and neuroscience in marketing, which provides deeper insights into consumers’ minds. A key question, however, is the implications of neuroscience marketing to ethics. My interest in the beauty sector underlies a moral framework whereby pursuing superficial traits such as physical beauty may cross the line. We have witnessed instances where brands have manipulated consumers into believing that a certain product or service will make them look younger, whiter, or darker, depending on their fancy. Neuroscience marketing allows an even more intimate comprehension of consumer needs. Diving into consumers’ subconscious needs and wants blurs the lines of reasons between influencing consumers or manipulating them into making purchases. This concern can be dealt with by performing more research on neuroscience marketing, especially its implications for the privacy and rights of consumers. By achieving a semblance of legitimacy in applying these marketing strategies, marketers can build trust with customers and establish authentic and transparent marketing processes that underline a sustainable framework for themselves and the consumers they serve.
