Neuromarketing Book Summary - Neuromarketing Book explained in key points

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Neuromarketing summary

Name: Neuromarketing
Rating: 4.4 (77 reviews)
Author: Patrick Renvoisé & Christophe Morin

Patrick Renvoisé & Christophe Morin

Understanding the “Buy Buttons” in Your Customer’s Brain

4.4 (77 ratings)

19 mins

Topics

Sales Neuromarketing

Table of Contents

Neuromarketing
Summary of 8 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Use the workings of the brain to sell more.

Have you ever seen Mad Men? Probably you have. So you know that, in the past, advertising and marketing was a largely hit-and-miss affair. Ad men and women would spend hours trying to come up with attention-grabbing campaigns. Sometimes they’d work; sometimes they didn’t.

Today, however, things are completely different. Thanks to huge advances in neuroscience, we now have a much deeper understanding of how people’s brains work. We know why people react to stimuli, such as adverts or marketing pitches, and for the marketing profession, such information is pure gold. Don Draper or Peggy would have killed for such knowledge.

Fortunately, you needn’t get homicidal to unlock the secrets of the brain; you can simply read these blinks, which give a concise introduction to the use of neuromarketing.

In these blinks, you’ll discover

why you should try to have something in common with your prospect;
why you need to feel your customer’s pain; and
how to use grabbers to nab people’s attention.

If marketers want to grab our attention, they need to target the old brain.

When you decide to buy coffee on your way to work in the morning, do you ever consider why you made this choice? Did you rationally compare all prices of nearby competing cafes in order to get the best coffee for money? Or did you just feel like getting a cappuccino?

No matter which strategy you followed, when making that choice of where to get your coffee, you were using what is known as your old brain.

The old brain is your decision-making center; it assesses the information coming from the other two parts of the brain, the new part and the middle part.

The new part of the brain provides rational insights, like, “This latte provides the best value for my money.” The middle part handles emotions and “gut feelings.”

Marketers need to appeal to the old brain if they want to increase sales. So what can they do to ensure they reach it?

One way not to reach it is language. Humankind didn’t develop spoken words until a mere 40,000 years ago. Written language is even younger, developed around 10,000 years ago. The old brain, in contrast, is 450 million years old – and rational language can’t adequately capture its attention.

You’ll have to be more clever than that to reach the old brain.

For example, we know that the old brain is self-centered, caring only about its own prosperity and survival. Therefore, good marketers always concentrate on how their products will improve the lives of those who purchase them.

The old brain is also lazy. It only focuses on the beginning and the end of something, rather than the middle. So if you want to sell, make sure that the beginning and end of your ad are bold and attention-grabbing. This way, people will actually remember them.

Appealing to the old brain is crucial, and the following blinks detail different methods for attracting its attention.

With the right preparation, you can prime your material such that it appeals to the old brain.

In order to optimize the message you plan on delivering to the old brain, you’ll need to do some prep work. Here are three steps that’ll help you prepare most effectively.

Start by diagnosing the pain. Be attentive and listen to your customer, and they will give you insight into their pain – that is, the reason they desperately need your product.

Build and deliver your message in a way that appeals to the old brain.

Having primed your communication campaign with the preparatory steps outlined in the previous blink, it’s now time to focus on some practical ways to structure your message – ways that intrigue and entice the old brain.

First, make use of the following building blocks when constructing your message:

No matter what you are presenting, you should always try to appeal to the old brain.

Though there are many forms of marketing and advertising, one of the most common is the presentation, where you convince people – face-to-face – to consider, and hopefully purchase, your product. As with other forms of marketing, it’s absolutely essential that you concentrate on communicating to the old brain when making a presentation.

The secret to a great presentation lies in immediately grabbing the audience’s attention. To make a great impression, you need grabbers, techniques that nab your audience’s attention. Here are a few that you can try:

Close any deal by handling customer objections with confidence.

Have you ever had doubts before signing the paperwork for, say, a new car? Doubt is human, and thus a completely natural part of any selling process. In fact, as a salesperson, it’s a good sign when your customer expresses doubt: it means they’re actually considering the purchase.

But you can’t leave doubt unchecked, so you’ll need strategies to handle these last-minute objections.

If you want people to trust you, you have to be credible.

Would you immediately trust someone that you met on the street? Of course not. You need a reason to trust them. Sales presentations are no different: you need credibility if you want to earn your customers’ trust and close the deal.

Credibility isn’t something that can be faked, and people will know if you are being disingenuous. Luckily, even if you lack credibility, there are things you can do to make yourself more credible.

Use vivid language and emotional stories to make your message memorable and sticky.

Think of your marketing message like a cupcake: the real substance of your message (like that spongy cupcake) is enticing in and of itself, but if you really want to grab someone’s attention, you’ll need to add some sprinkles. It’s easy to do this in your sales presentations.

One way is to adjust your language according to the old brain’s preferences. For example, use the word “you” as often as possible, as the old brain likes to be talked to directly.

Communicating with the old brain can also help you sell yourself in job interviews.

The old brain developed hundreds of millions of years ago, long before advertising existed – but not before decision-making existed. You can appeal to the old brain any time you need to convince someone of something, like during a job interview.

Ultimately, a job interview is a sales situation in which you sell yourself to the potential customers, the interviewers.

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What is Neuromarketing about?

By drawing from brain research and innovative marketing techniques, Neuromarketing (2002) offers insights into how we make buying decisions. Understanding the brain’s ancient decision-making processes will equip you with the tools necessary to close deals and motivate people.

Best quote from Neuromarketing

Your Selling Probability = Pain x Claim x Gain x (Old Brain)³

—Patrick Renvoisé & Christophe Morin

Who should read Neuromarketing?

Anyone in sales and marketing
People interested in how our brain affects our decisions
Those wanting to become more influential

About the Author

Patrick Renvoisé is co-founder and president of SalesBrain; during his career, he’s closed deals worth more than $2 billion.

Christophe Morin is also a co-founder of SalesBrain, as well as a marketing expert. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Media Psychology.

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