Neuromarketing goes a couple of steps further. Buyology is a popular book on this topic, written by Martin Lindstrom. It’s probably one of the best books on this topic, so far. Neuromarketing is the marriage between marketing and neuroscience. In a nutshell, how does the human brain react to different stimuli from commercials and products? What distinct areas are activated in the brain when a 25 year old man sees a Coke commercial? Neuromarketing will give you the answer to that. Based on the finding, neuromarketers will try to create a commercial with maximum impact on the human mind. With the main objective to make people love and hence buy more products.

Neurobranding is a different story. The topic is so unique and new that even Wikipedia has failed to explain it, so I had to write about it my self. Have a look at http://bit.ly/aWwz5i

In my view, the highest ranked company, according to neurobranding standards, is without any doubt Apple Computers. Another company that also posses immense neurobranding impact is Bang&Olufsen. To understand the primary difference between neuromarketing and neurobranding, we could look at Microsoft vs Apple. Microsoft might use (and have probably already used) neuromarketing as a marketing technique to understand their customers and hence build strong ads and commercials. From a neuromarketing point of view, Microsoft might have very successful ads and campaigns, but according to the science of neurobranding, Microsoft has failed big time. The number one reason for this, is the fact that the “image” of Microsoft, in the human mind, is not even close to Apple Computers.

Neurobranding investigates the colors, the people, the packages, the products, the technology, the look and feel, the music and sounds, the website, the rumors, the business model, the stories of Apple and mashes all that into one “big picture”. EVERYTHING is vital to neurobranding.

So what did they do?

As we all know there is something more than washing powder in our dishwasher, it’s called “Shining”. This shining liquid has been around for decades, it’s probably as old as the washing powder it self. It’s main purpose is to prevent water from staying on the dishes, so the dishes become “shining clean” without any water stains.

Customers soon realized that this shining liquid actually made all the dishes very dry and this was very appreciated by the majority of customers. It has gone so far that when we bought our washing machine the salesman actually told me to by “shining liquid” to get dry dishes. He didn’t say anything about “making my dishes shiny”.

P&G realized this fact among their customers so they made a “new” product that they call “Shining. Extra Dry“.

The “extra dry” is something they just added (bullshit) because they knew that it was appreciated by customers. They realized that they shouldn’t emphasize on the “shining” by on the “drying” instead.

This is how P&G develop their product portfolio =)

Then we decided to go to a place we have been to before. That might sound boring but listen to this.

When the functional competition is massive, within the restaurant business, how can someone be different? So I started to think about different factors/variables that could be modified or changed and thus be able to build a solid ground for differentiation.

I tried to play with the type of food, the quality of the food, the design of the food, the interior design, the price, and many other variables. But I didn’t seem to get something good out of this.

After reading many books on cognitive psychology, habits, emotions, neuroscience, neuromarketing, and others I found the vital variable… or variables!

We can be satisfied by a very good meal, the variable “taste”, and that is good. But it will not be a good differentiating variable. Since many places have very good food.

If you have 4 restaurants to choose from. They all serve fantastic food and they all have great interior design. They are all equally close/far to/from your current location. So how does your brain calculate now?We do have a reward system built into our brain. That’s what keep us going.

This is where neuromarketing and the science of cognitive psychology together with neuroscience comes into play.

When all the functional variables are equal, your limbic system (emotional brain) takes over. What happens now is that you will decide where you will go and you honestly think that you based your choice on rational calculations. But you did not do that!

You see, the conscious mind is not aware of the subconscious mind. We can’t “know” if we are affected by our subconscious or not. So when you say “I like the color blue”, you think that you base this stand on conscious thoughts. But the fact is that the conscious answer you just said is based on “inner calculations” that you brain made in a fraction of a second. Without you “knowing” anything about that.

So back to the restaurant story. When all the functional variables are equal your mind goes to emotions, habit and memory. So the strongest variable that people in the restaurant business must think about is customers “experience” while inside the restaurant. It’s not in the food or the interior design, it’s about the emotional and social impact imprinted in our mind.

We go to the place where we feel welcomed, helped, assisted, loved, smiled at, etc. Good restaurant owners know that what they need to think about, except from good food and lovely interiors, it’s how they welcome and treat their customers during the whole stay. A smile will help more than extra food on the plate. A question if “everything is alright”, “would you need anything else”, makes more sense to our brain than a nice table with modern chairs. And the concern has to be genuine since our inner mind knows when someone is faking! Our intuition is a very good lie detector, it can know if the owner is more interested in money than your satisfaction.

When we feel good somewhere, we tend to go back to that place, even if there might be other places serving better food. But remember that you need to distinguish between functional and emotional variables!

So we said “let’s go to that restaurant, they are always so nice to us…”

And if you check their website at salesbrain.net you will maybe think, “but if they are experts in neuromarketing, how come they have on of the worst websites on the internet”? I personally feel sick when I go to their website, maybe because I’m a design-fetishist? I did send them an email telling them about this. They MUST change it!

I don’t like to criticize others only share my subjective opinions and my recommendations to other people. So my recommendation is that if you want to know more about neuromarketing, do not go to salesbrain.net and don’t read “Neuromarketing” by Renvoisé & Morin only, read other books to.

Two books that touch the subjects, and that are very good, are “Buyology” by Martin Lindstrom and “Habit” by Neale Martin. I will elaborate on these books more later on.

I do want to apologize to Renvoisé and Morin, but I can’t keep quite. Please do something to your website =)

I don’t like to brag, but I could pick “the winner” from this competition before the jury said anything. Now you might wonder why is that?

What if I told you that it’s easy to tell which idea will fly and which will fail. If the idea “gets to you”, then it’s a good idea that you will be willing to pay for when the idea has been realized in the market.

But if you just go “that’s a good idea, it could sell, it’s innovative…”, then the business will fail. Or at least not become a multi-billion dollar business.

You need to remember thought that this is not the case for all types of ideas, think about Google Search. It’s a cool idea, Alta Vista did it before, so what’s up with Google? Technically superior, maybe that’s it? Or that the team represented a “brand” that every young geek wanted to be a part of, so every young geek started to use Google?

But even if it’s a complex business like “Discovering the DNA”, you could make it “get to people” by saying “I have unveiled the greatest mystery in the history of biology”. People are not “in to” genetics, DNA or the reproduction of cells.

So to conclude this short post. Anything and everything must be really “delight and cool” if it’s flourish in the days of tomorrow. It’s no longer about technicality or functionality, it’s about “simplicity of emotions” and targeting the “habitual mind” or the “dinosaur brain”.

Get people hooked and let them talk about you. Stop advertising!

So what’s going on? Is the worlds second most powerful car brand saying “no” to their customers and yet they are worth more than Mercedes and Volkswagen together? What happened to “listen to your customers”?

David Oglivy once said “Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes a genius, faith, and perseverance to create a brand”. Every brand is built with experiences. The key is to craft those experiences so they create delight for the people who determine the meaning and value of your brand – your customers.

People from any type of business must understand the fact that “marketing is a crucial part of the product itself”, as Steve Jobs once said. I would like to say that “marketing must radiate the inner soul of the product itself”. So marketing is nothing separate from the product. If your product is good, but your marketing is bad, then your whole business will be very bad! And very interestingly, if your marketing is really good, but your product is “so so”, then your business will still be very good.

It all depends on the message and emotional experience of the customer. Why is “simple and easy” good for business? Why do we say “less is more”? Why is the Web 2.0 giving us less colors and buttons to play with? What are the neurological foundations for these facts?

Well the equation, in a nutshell, is simple: the faster the brain understands a message or function, the more it will like it. Attraction between a message and a customer is thus build on simplicity, not complexity. If you find yourself using commas or “ands” to write your tagline, you may need more focus!

Have you though about your name recently? You don’t want to change it? Isn’t too long and too complex, which makes it hard to remember? I know that my boss will kill me if he read this but according to neuromarketing research a name such as “Huddle” is more attractive to the human mind than “Projectplace International”. It all comes down to the essence and power of simplicity.

The human mind is very energy efficient and thus environmentally friendly. It want to use as little energy as possible so it always looks for the simpler stuff in this world. Complex names like “Personal Media Devices” or “Projectplace” will sooner or later be shortened to “PMD” and “PP”. This is not a deliberate act, but an automatic one. Created by the brains algorithms.

When Albert Einstein said “everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler”, he was talking to marketers. They just don’t know that. In fact, he didn’t say that to marketers, but the same principle goes through mathematical equations in theoretical physics and brand development. Any complex mathematical equation is not regarded as good, by heavy weight mathematicians like Einstein. The same goes for brand gurus!

Remembers this. Every strong brand is built by a community and nothing else. A brand is not created from functions, ROI or turnover. You need to focus on building a community around your company to make it a powerful brand that people will talk about and love, not just use. Think of yourself as a woman. Are you a beloved wife or just a prostitute being used by thousands of customers? The latter is making money, and if your are happy with that then good for you, but if you want to make even more money and at the same time be loved by your customers, then try to be the first one. A beloved wife.

And another, weird commercial.

No comments on this one. “You dream of punching small animals?”

And Coke off course…

People, or sales people are mad. They know nothing about sales!

I would make her become in love with me, before I show her the product. I’m the “link” between the consumer and the “brand”. I’m vital, essential, I’m the core! The same goes for CR people. Make the consumer love you! Make them love you so much that they want to buy you a drink or invite for dinner at their place tonight! Smile, touch them, flirt, show your ass, do anything good!

Don’t tell me you cant do that. You know you can. You can do it at the disco! Huh…

But the reason why sales/CR people have “bad manners” is because they don’t appreciate their job. You need love what you are doing, otherwise it will be a pile of shit after you leave the office!

Forcing people to buy… what’s going on with companies these days? Are they so desperate? If you need to sell more, stop doing what you are doing. Now! Don’t think a “rubbish” decoration will make people look at you or your products! Understand the consumer, and everyone will come in herds! Mirror neurons will do the rest!

This post is some kind of “outburst” of mine. I can’t see how it fits with my other blog entries? But who gives a F***!

What is a meatball sundae? It’s something messy, disgusting and ineffective, the result of combining two perfectly good things that don’t go together. Meatballs are the basic staples, the things people need, the stuff that used to be marketed quite well with TV and other mass market techniques.

The topping is new marketing: MySpace, websites, YouTube, and all of the magic that CEOs wish would shine atop their companies. The problem? New marketing is lousy at selling meatballs. When confronted with the myriad opportunities presented by new marketing, people usually ask ‘How can we make this stuff work for us?’

This, as Seth Godin explains in his remarkable new book, is exactly the wrong question. Mapping out 14 trends that are completely remaking what it means to be a marketer – and by extension transforming what we make and how we make it – Godin shows how the question for any thriving 21st century business must be: ‘How can we alter our business to become an organization that thrives on new marketing?’ Meatball Sundae is an essential guide to the fundamental shift taking place in the marketing and business world, and shows you how to align your business to it.