Marketers Tap Into Our
Biology To Boost Sales
Erin O’Dwyer
Sydney Morning Herald
March 26, 2009
Come inside the supermarket of the future
As you walk through the fish department an atomiser squirts
out a fresh lemon aroma, stimulating your sense of smell
and taste. In the cut-flower section, hidden speakers are
pumping out tunes specially selected to put your brain in
the mood for romance, while the products in the aisles are a
pleasure to touch.
Retailers are waking up to how clinical our shopping
experiences have become and realising that putting the
sensation back into shopping is good for business.
Brand futurist Martin Lindstrom says as little as 50 years
ago buying groceries was an experience that thoroughly
stimulated all of the senses. Householders traipsed through
the clatter and colour of vegetable markets and bought their
meat in butcher shops that smelled of blood and sawdust.
‘Now the shopping journey is not stimulating and the
sensory experience is generic,’ he says. ‘It’s like we totally
forgot we are human beings and sales are going down
because shoppers are incredibly bored.’
Lindstrom should know. The Danish-born marketing guru
has spent three years and $7 million of advertisers’ money
trying to understand why we buy what we buy. His latest
book, Buyology, is a compelling account of a landmark
study that used neuroscience to scan the brain for the
‘buy button’.
But what shocked Lindstrom most was that what we hear
and what we smell are more powerful than what we see.
That’s bad news for the 83 per cent of advertisers who
create campaigns around visual appeal but good news
for companies wanting to understand why 60 per cent of
shoppers make decisions in less than four seconds.
‘Using ordinary research techniques we learned that the
most important sense was sight, then smell then sound,’
Lindstrom says. ‘Now when we scanned the brain we
found the most important is sound followed by smell
and then sight.’
In the US, some consumer groups want neuromarketing
banned. The controversial technique uses functional
magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) to measure brain
activity in response to television advertising.
To understand neuromarketing, imagine hundreds of
volunteers, all wearing black bathing caps, hooked up
to wires and watching commercials for everything from
Kit Kat chocolate to Volkswagen cars.
~ 6 ~
In essence, neuromarketing steps inside the consumer mind.
Lindstrom, however, says he has no intention of
brainwashing consumers. Instead he wants to understand
what makes us tick. He also wants to know why in the
US eight out of every 10 products fail and why worldwide,
75 per cent of all individual products fail.
His results show that we buy based on emotional decisions,
rather than rational ones. (This will come as no surprise to
anyone who has spent their last $200 on a dry-clean-only,
diamante-studded designer T-shirt.)
But what’s interesting is that our emotional brain overrides
our rational brain when triggered by sound and smell.
Sound, in particular, activates all sensory regions in the
brain.
‘You hear the sound, you smell the sound and you the
taste the sound,’ Lindstrom says. ‘Smell is also incredibly
powerful. Smell is the only sense that bypasses the rational
part in the brain. Even if the smell is fake, we can still feel
hungry.’
In other words, beware the emotional brain. Never go
shopping on an empty stomach or you will succumb to the
wafting smells of fresh-baked bread. Never use a shopping
trolley or you will buy 30 per cent more than with a basket.
And never take your children grocery shopping or you will
buy 40 per cent more than you would without them.
Emotional engagement, Lindstrom says, is king. And the
results back him up. Sex doesn’t sell the way it used to
because sexy images are everywhere. The Nokia ringtone
makes people feel physically sick because it reminds us
of the office. And big brands are like mini-religions, with
iPods, Harley-Davidsons and David Beckham creating
the same amount of brain activity as the Pope and Mother
Teresa.
Most alarming for television advertisers is that viewers are
increasingly unable to recall what they saw that morning,
let alone last week. As for product placement, forget it.
‘The biggest threat to advertisers is that our filter is so thick.’
Lindstrom says.
‘We see two million TV commercials throughout our life.
There is no way that we can remember all this stuff’.
And that is exactly why Lindstrom is predicting the back to
the future supermarket. The smells and sounds will be fake,
of course, but how is our emotional brain to know?
‘Each section of the supermarket is going to be an incredibly
seductive zone’ he says. ‘You think you’re immune but
guess what, you’re not. When you enter the supermarket,
you’re in their hands, 100 per cent.’
Buying and smelling
Small businesses take heed: to survive these tough economic
times, you must appeal to all five senses.
This comes as no surprise to Helena Blazina Elms, a stylist
for Sydney’s Chatswood Chase homeware store Shack.
The former interior designer describes her role as ‘sculpting
the space’ and she creates each display with smell, sight,
touch and sound in mind.
‘There are so many shops out there that you have to be
seduced into the store,’ she says. ‘We have a lot of scented
flowers and soaps in the store and at the moment I’ve got a
huge bowl of bright red proteas made from balsa wood in
the front of the store. They’ve got an incredible scent and
many people are drawn in because of it.’
Sydney fish market spokeswoman Louise Noch says retail
business is still strong because customers are drawn to the
‘theatre’ of the working fishing port, which in turn signifies
quality fresh produce at the lowest price.
‘When I say theatre I mean boats coming in, real fishermen
working hard and, of course, the smell’ he says.
‘Some people say it’s a bit offensive but a number of years
ago, when we did some community consultation, people
said, ‘Do not sanitise it.’ ‘It’s a unique destination.’
Despite the financial crisis, Baker’s Delight is on target to
achieve its strongest financial year on record.
General Manager Chris Caldwell said the company made
the most of appealing to all senses – the sight and smell of
fresh baked bread as well as counter top tasting.
‘It’s our biggest point of difference from the supermarkets’
he says. ‘Our products are baked fresh on site every day.’
‘Customers can see it come out of the oven and they smell
it come out of the oven. It’s a complete sensory experience.’
Permission to reproduce article granted by Erin O’Dwyer
Biology To Boost Sales
Erin O’Dwyer
Sydney Morning Herald
March 26, 2009
Come inside the supermarket of the future
As you walk through the fish department an atomiser squirts
out a fresh lemon aroma, stimulating your sense of smell
and taste. In the cut-flower section, hidden speakers are
pumping out tunes specially selected to put your brain in
the mood for romance, while the products in the aisles are a
pleasure to touch.
Retailers are waking up to how clinical our shopping
experiences have become and realising that putting the
sensation back into shopping is good for business.
Brand futurist Martin Lindstrom says as little as 50 years
ago buying groceries was an experience that thoroughly
stimulated all of the senses. Householders traipsed through
the clatter and colour of vegetable markets and bought their
meat in butcher shops that smelled of blood and sawdust.
‘Now the shopping journey is not stimulating and the
sensory experience is generic,’ he says. ‘It’s like we totally
forgot we are human beings and sales are going down
because shoppers are incredibly bored.’
Lindstrom should know. The Danish-born marketing guru
has spent three years and $7 million of advertisers’ money
trying to understand why we buy what we buy. His latest
book, Buyology, is a compelling account of a landmark
study that used neuroscience to scan the brain for the
‘buy button’.
But what shocked Lindstrom most was that what we hear
and what we smell are more powerful than what we see.
That’s bad news for the 83 per cent of advertisers who
create campaigns around visual appeal but good news
for companies wanting to understand why 60 per cent of
shoppers make decisions in less than four seconds.
‘Using ordinary research techniques we learned that the
most important sense was sight, then smell then sound,’
Lindstrom says. ‘Now when we scanned the brain we
found the most important is sound followed by smell
and then sight.’
In the US, some consumer groups want neuromarketing
banned. The controversial technique uses functional
magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) to measure brain
activity in response to television advertising.
To understand neuromarketing, imagine hundreds of
volunteers, all wearing black bathing caps, hooked up
to wires and watching commercials for everything from
Kit Kat chocolate to Volkswagen cars.
~ 6 ~
In essence, neuromarketing steps inside the consumer mind.
Lindstrom, however, says he has no intention of
brainwashing consumers. Instead he wants to understand
what makes us tick. He also wants to know why in the
US eight out of every 10 products fail and why worldwide,
75 per cent of all individual products fail.
His results show that we buy based on emotional decisions,
rather than rational ones. (This will come as no surprise to
anyone who has spent their last $200 on a dry-clean-only,
diamante-studded designer T-shirt.)
But what’s interesting is that our emotional brain overrides
our rational brain when triggered by sound and smell.
Sound, in particular, activates all sensory regions in the
brain.
‘You hear the sound, you smell the sound and you the
taste the sound,’ Lindstrom says. ‘Smell is also incredibly
powerful. Smell is the only sense that bypasses the rational
part in the brain. Even if the smell is fake, we can still feel
hungry.’
In other words, beware the emotional brain. Never go
shopping on an empty stomach or you will succumb to the
wafting smells of fresh-baked bread. Never use a shopping
trolley or you will buy 30 per cent more than with a basket.
And never take your children grocery shopping or you will
buy 40 per cent more than you would without them.
Emotional engagement, Lindstrom says, is king. And the
results back him up. Sex doesn’t sell the way it used to
because sexy images are everywhere. The Nokia ringtone
makes people feel physically sick because it reminds us
of the office. And big brands are like mini-religions, with
iPods, Harley-Davidsons and David Beckham creating
the same amount of brain activity as the Pope and Mother
Teresa.
Most alarming for television advertisers is that viewers are
increasingly unable to recall what they saw that morning,
let alone last week. As for product placement, forget it.
‘The biggest threat to advertisers is that our filter is so thick.’
Lindstrom says.
‘We see two million TV commercials throughout our life.
There is no way that we can remember all this stuff’.
And that is exactly why Lindstrom is predicting the back to
the future supermarket. The smells and sounds will be fake,
of course, but how is our emotional brain to know?
‘Each section of the supermarket is going to be an incredibly
seductive zone’ he says. ‘You think you’re immune but
guess what, you’re not. When you enter the supermarket,
you’re in their hands, 100 per cent.’
Buying and smelling
Small businesses take heed: to survive these tough economic
times, you must appeal to all five senses.
This comes as no surprise to Helena Blazina Elms, a stylist
for Sydney’s Chatswood Chase homeware store Shack.
The former interior designer describes her role as ‘sculpting
the space’ and she creates each display with smell, sight,
touch and sound in mind.
‘There are so many shops out there that you have to be
seduced into the store,’ she says. ‘We have a lot of scented
flowers and soaps in the store and at the moment I’ve got a
huge bowl of bright red proteas made from balsa wood in
the front of the store. They’ve got an incredible scent and
many people are drawn in because of it.’
Sydney fish market spokeswoman Louise Noch says retail
business is still strong because customers are drawn to the
‘theatre’ of the working fishing port, which in turn signifies
quality fresh produce at the lowest price.
‘When I say theatre I mean boats coming in, real fishermen
working hard and, of course, the smell’ he says.
‘Some people say it’s a bit offensive but a number of years
ago, when we did some community consultation, people
said, ‘Do not sanitise it.’ ‘It’s a unique destination.’
Despite the financial crisis, Baker’s Delight is on target to
achieve its strongest financial year on record.
General Manager Chris Caldwell said the company made
the most of appealing to all senses – the sight and smell of
fresh baked bread as well as counter top tasting.
‘It’s our biggest point of difference from the supermarkets’
he says. ‘Our products are baked fresh on site every day.’
‘Customers can see it come out of the oven and they smell
it come out of the oven. It’s a complete sensory experience.’
Permission to reproduce article granted by Erin O’Dwyer
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