It never fails. Every quarter, I’ll hear someone say that the goal of a marketing campaign is to raise awareness about a product/cause/event. Yes, raising awareness is indeed a worthy objective. But is it truly ever a goal? For instance, if you were to ask me if I was aware of the Chevy Cobalt, I’d say of course. But if you were then to ask me if I’d ever test drive one, I’d say no and that, in fact, I don’t really know what one looks like other than it’s probably blue-ish. I truly doubt that my awareness of the Cobalt brand and complete indifference to its existence was the marketer’s aim. Read more…

Integrated Marketing Communication, Neuro-Marketing

I believe that North Americans, in general, like the concept of having free choice. They enjoy the concept of being able to decide on matters that will affect them. From what I can tell, this desire to choose starts at a young age. From my own life, I know my daughter enjoys picking the fruit she will eat for breakfast or the snack she will eat in the afternoon. While she usually sticks to picking apples and bananas, every now and then she’ll pick something out of the blue like, say, a raw egg. Now I know that eating a raw egg is not exactly the best dietary choice for a toddler, but she doesn’t know that. However, if I make her eat something else, she will start to pout and get upset she didn’t get to eat the raw egg. While I’m sure many parents can relate to this story, I wonder how many of them realize that as a people, we often act like this too. Read more…

Neuro-Marketing, Neuroscience

Craving pudding pops
Emotions are important. Cognitive ability can lead you to water, but it’s your emotions that will urge you to drink. Advertisers have known this for a long time. They know it is better to sell you the sizzle rather than the steak because they know it’s better to reach you on an emotional level than on a logical one. This fact is the reason that many advertisers choose to use celebrity spokespeople. Read more…

Neuro-Marketing, Neuroscience Nature vs. Nurture