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Why do you buy particular brands? I will always choose Coke over Pepsi. My friend drinks Grolsch beer and doesn’t even bother with Heineken, Amstel or Corona. We don't think much about these choices. But there are reasons why it happens.
Martin Lindstrom, in his new book Buyology shares the results of a three-year, $7 million study, in which he subjected 2,000 people to functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans to explore what, exactly, happens in our brains to make us choose particular brands.
Here are just a few examples of what the Buyology researchers found:
• Warning labels on cigarettes don't work. They stimulate activity in the part of a smoker's brain linked to cravings.
• Traditional TV advertisements no longer create lasting impressions. By age 66, most people with a TV will have seen nearly 2 million commercials. That makes it hard for an ad to increase a viewer's memory of a brand,
• Product placement only works when fully integrated. When a product is not integrated, such as FedEx packages appearing in the background of Casino Royale, there is no measurable effect with regard to viewer recollection of brand.
• Sex sells itself. Viewers of sexually suggestive ads did pay attention, but more to the sex than the ad. In one study, less than 1-in-10 men who saw a sexually suggestive ad could recall the product, while twice as many remembered the product in non-sexually suggestive ads.
• Successful branding functions are akin to religion. Scans using fMRI technology showed that some viewers had the same neurological response to strong brands that they did to religious iconography.
• Marketing isn't restricted to the visual. Many companies use smells to sell products. Fast-food restaurants and supermarket bakeries use artificial fresh-cooked food smells. Sounds also effect buying. A study (by whom? where?) showed shoppers purchased French or German wine depending on which nationality's music was playing on store speakers.
Do you know why you buy a particular brand?
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