In the ever-changing world of marketing that continuously revolves around people, data, technology and numbers, it didn’t come as a surprise to me when science has become very much associated with marketing. With the continuous effort of brands and marketers to identify what will best trigger a positive response from their audience, they have come into terms with more scientific means in building marketing campaigns that will raise the bar.
The human mind is so dynamic that marketers now felt it is insufficient to rely on old marketing strategies alone. They have begun to study how the mind responds, get a deeper understanding of people’s needs on an emotional and psychological level more than mastering their physiological needs. Things like personalisation, programmatic advertising and micro-targeting are becoming more familiar concepts from a marketing standpoint. But things are changing fast, and marketers have to make important decisions based on available data at any given time. Time is money. The less time it will take you to engage your target audience, it is less likely that you are losing them to your competitors and more likely for you to succeed in your conversion goals. That being said, marketers have begun to introduce more scientific principles into marketing practices.
In a simple context, marketers have, for a time, been exploring the concept of empathic marketing. Companies have been studying how to come up with "relatable content" - something that will validate their customers'' emotions or empathise with their situation. Researches on empathy show that acknowledging another person's frustrations and pains build trust in a relationship.
More advanced concepts delineate the idea of scientific marketing. Roger Dooley, in his book "Brainfluence", cites 100 actionable techniques in "neuromarketing" to boost conversations and achieve results. These techniques are based on serious brain research. Leading neuroscientists say that 95% of our thoughts, feelings and learnings happen subconsciously and only 5% of what happens is known to our conscious minds. So if marketers want winning strategies, they need to spend effort in understanding how their customers' brains work before even jumping into high-tech tools.
In the article, The New Marketing: Using the Scientific Method for Marketing Success published by Morgan Talib in LinkedIn, he shared that in a discussion with marketing practitioners from Fortune 500 brands in New Jersey, it came out that success in marketing analytics is not about tools. It's more of asking the right questions to begin with. Precisely, this is why we agree that scientific method will work with marketing. Morgan believes that the most viable approach to scientific marketing will involve these steps:
- Ask a Question
- Research the Question
- Develop Hypotheses
- Conduct Experiments
- Validate Experiments
- Perform Data Analysis
- Extract Insights from Analysis
- Communicate Results
- Conduct Additional Experiments
On a Podcast interview with Roger Dooley by Co-Schedule, Roger cited some examples of neuromarketing techniques already being practised and tested by marketers. These include Social Proof, Authority and Reciprocity. He also confirmed the effectiveness of Case studies.
Let's discuss a bit of each. Social Proof is the principle behind conforming to do something because everyone is already doing it. A perfect example of the principle of Authority is the influence of industry experts and celebrities endorsing brands. Reciprocity is more of returning favours. On the other hand case studies is best exemplified by stories - neuroscience and psychology research shows that stories are powerful and create lasting impressions on people. All these principles are hinged on the dynamism of human interaction. In other words, if brands can communicate to their audience in the most authentic way, they are more likely to succeed.
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