Neuromarketing

There are always new ways surfacing to try and figure out what the consumer wants. But In this case the newest way is neuromarketing. "It's easy for businesses to keep track of what we buy, but harder to figure out why. Enter a nascent field called neuromarketing, which uses the tools of neuroscience to determine why we prefer some products over others." says Carmen Nobel, Author of the article "What Neuroscience Tells Us About Consumer Desire." This method falls under the category of Decision Neuroscience, they are trying to figure out what makes consumers what a certain product over another.Large companies such as Frito-Lay have hired a neuromarketing firm to look into how consumers respond to Cheetos. So using EEG technology on a group of willing subjects, they discovered that consumers respond highly to the fact that their fingers turn orange with the cheese dust. They say that they consumers enjoy the "messiness" of the product.

There are concerns surrounding this new marketing idea, some firms market that they offer neuromarketing analysis, but in fact they do not have the correct expertise of technology to give proficient feedback. Like any new idea, this has its flaws and its critics.

Do you think the idea of neuromarketing is a good one? If you owned a company would you hire a neuromarketing firm to test how consumers respond to your products?

In Response to Christine...

If you were a business owner would you use Google's Customer Survey Tool to find out more about your consumers needs?  

If I was a business owner I would definitely consider using the new Google Customer Survey tool. I Think the tool would be very beneficial to business owner to know what their consumers really want. I would however limit my use of the tool, maybe only put it on one web page, or only use it on certain days of the week so that customers would not become annoyed by constantly being asked to answer questions when they visit the site. Their feedback would cost me very little, and it would give my company a head start to any competitors who may decide to not use this new tool. I know that many people have very little patience when they are searching the internet for ad's and other "pop-up's" but I think if we kept the use of the tool limited, it would not harm the customers view of the site or the company.


Would you become annoyed by the pop-up's asking you questions? or would you be willing to take a few minutes to answer?

Marketing for Non Profit Organizations

Marketing is a huge part of an any organization. But when it comes to non profit organizations, it becomes sometimes even more challenging. Non Profits often have a smaller budget for marketing and therefore they have to focus and be accurate when reaching their target audience. There is not room for error when trying to be people interested in non profit organizations. No matter what the organization has to offer, it is important to fist identify the target market. Then you can proceed to figure out how best to market to the audience. Many times fund raising can be done to increase the budget for the non profit, and the find raising itself can often bring awareness to the community about the organization.

Do you think it is more difficult for non profit organizations or for profit organizations to market?

Logos

A logo has always been an important part of any company. It helps people recognize their products, so if they like the products they know which company it is from. the Nike logo is a commonly known logo that everyone would be able to recognize. They have now developed a saying that goes along with their logo, "Just do it." The logo is on all of their products, but on some it is bigger than others. Some of their t-shirts, have the logo splashed across the entire front, and some have it only the size of a quarter on the side of the chest. It all comes down to the consumers preference. I think logos can be positive and negative. If the product is something that is popular and something everyone wants, it may be a positive thing to put a large logo on it. However if it is a store or a brand that is not "in" at the moment or something that is not commonly desired by others, they should refrain from putting a large logo on their products, because it is going to make consumers shy away from buying them. For example Aeropostals logo is on everything in their store, that is a brand that was "cute"but now is a little "young" and "outdated" although some of the clothing is still perfectly acceptable to wear. If they did not splash their logo on all of their clothing, people wouldn't feel like they were advertising a "child's" brand of clothing, and they would reach a larger target market.

Does the size of the logo make a difference to you when you're purchasing an item?

Marketing Surverys

Recently I have noticed and increasing number of marketing surveys. It seems as though whenever I shop online I am asked to complete a survey about how I liked shopping on their website, and how I felt about my purchases. I can understand why these are beneficial to companies, but I believe that they are seen more as an annoyance to customers. I know that I usually don't want to complete a survey after I have already spent all that time shopping and filling out my payment information. The last thing I usually want to do is answer more questions. I also wonder about how often companies really take these surveys into consideration. Do they really take any of the information we give them and make changes?

In Response to Professor Johnson...

Should John smith sell the names? Also, What in the Statement relates to John Smith's dilemma?

After reading the John Smith case I believe that he should NOT sell the names to the car company. At first I thought it may be a good idea because it would avoid making him lay off some of his employees. but after further thought I believe that he could come up with other ways of making money in order to keep his employees and still maintain good ethics. Selling those names to the car company is no honest, he would be breaking the trust of all those customers who gave their names, therefore creating a bad image for himself and his company. 

At the store I work at in the summer called Sundance Clothing Company in Chatham, MA we are always asking customers for their name and email addresses to send them coupons and advertisements. Every time we ask for their name we promise to not sell their email addresses to any other companies and to not abuse the privilege. If we were to turn around and sell those names, that would be a breach of trust, and our customers would not be able to rely on us as trust worthy people. A strong customer base is a huge part of the store, there are many returning customers who wont shop anywhere else, if we were to break their trust, they wouldn't trust the company, but they also wouldn't trust our opinions when trying to sell them clothing either. Trust is such an important part of of a businesses relation with its customers.

In the Statement of Ethics of the American Marketing Associations website, "Avoid knowing participation in conflicts of interest. Seek to protect the private information of customers, employees and partners." This is what applies to John Smiths dilemma. This falls under the category of fairness. It is unfair to customers to sell their private information to a company so they have the upper hand in selling them their new car. 

If you owned a company would you buy names and personal information of customers from a marketing agency so that you would have the upper hand in the market of a certain product? 

Marketing Will Not Persuade People to Buy a Product That is Not Selling

There are a few myths about marketing, one is that if you market a product that is not selling, it will not make it sell. Marketing is a good technique for products that is actually going to sell. However if a product is not something that consumers want to buy, it is not going to sell even with the best marketing strategies. Yes marketing could potentially boost sales of a product a small amount, but it will not make consumers buy something they do not really want or need. Marketing can be the most influential aspect of selling a product, but only if they product is something the consumer would need. If you invent a product with no use to consumers, even the best marketing will not help it sell. Marketing costs a lot of money, and if you are not marketing a profit from the product, and still buying advertising, your product or company will not succeed. The products or service has to be useful to the consumer before a marketing team can successfully market it to increase sales.

Do you agree with this marketing myth? Or do you believe that marketing can sell even the most useless product or service?