For many years there has been a misconception hanging around that we only use 10% of our brain at any one time to process conscious thought. This statistic is wholly misunderstood. 10% of our brain is made up from neurons whilst the other 90% is glial cells. The real question should be what percentage of behaviour is occurring at the level of the subconscious. Our conscious awareness is merely the tip of the iceberg.

Traditionally marketing research looks at the conscious mind, asking customers or potential customers about adverts and their purchasing experience in general. Although vital, this research limits insight in to what actually satisfies and makes purchasers tick. Neuromarketing researches more deeply than this, learning how to effectively market to the deeper levels of our mind that motivate real decision making. Why is this so commonly overlooked? In marketing effectiveness is king and there is nothing sinister about that if your product or service adds positive value. Marketing needs every chance it can to connect with the people you can satisfy.

Neuromarketing comes in to its own by creating a fundamental connection with your audience and consumer base.The research does this by testing with EEGs and fMRIs while they are engaged with marketing and services and products. Through this type of testing scientists and neuromarketers are able to identify what areas of the brain have been stimulated from priming, engagement, emotion and through to decision taking. This level of science can ascertain what is going on in the mind as people are moved through the product or communication experience.

So much of our mind operates below our awareness and although there is much fear mongering about, this is not necessarily something to be looked at negatively. Imagine if it didn’t. What a burden it would be to have to think about every breath you take or had to remember how to write every time you picked up a pen.It is truly a gift that we can run on autopilot. As a result of our auto-piloting skills we also experience irrational reactions to things because during our evolution they posed significant threats to us.

Strategic neuromarketing incorporates neuroscientific knowledge in to business strategy and marketing. It ensures marketing appeals directly to the behaviour that operates below our awareness as well as the conscious mind. Both parts of ourselves need to be in coherence if motivation is to transcend in to action. Big headlines may grab the attention but in particular environments may be less effective than an attractive face with dilated pupils staring back at you. Language, and therefore words, operate in the mind as an abstract representation whilst vision is a more direct communication in the brain requiring less translating. Our human brains are hardwired as the social animals we are and recognise faces instantly and clearly, A memory is only as good as its initial imprint and so the clarity is a key component of effective marketing.Dilated pupils and an attractive face engages the brains mirror neuron system (mns) and our sexual attention, because this is how our brains have evolved.

Strategic neuromarketing takes advantage of the fact that men can be more focused, while females are better at multitasking. It looks at how the whole mind works to inform how you can engage your core market more effectively. It appeals to our social programming ans uses causation between senses and memory to form associations. Smell, music and feeling associate with memories to create evocative and pleasant experiences that promote action and a place in your customers mind. Neuromarketing places simple ads in a sea of complicated design to silence the amygdala and not frustrate your customers natural instinctive need to makes sense of a situation. Neuromarketing is a framework to use your current marketing techniques more effectively.