Yes, I have now extended my neuromarketing practice to offer Neuromerchandising (a term I have coined and trademarked) for retailers. In fact, I am making a presentation over lunch on November 30, ‘07, in Toronto. I have served retail business leaders for years and it is a favorite space for me–where consumers are directly accessible to the brand.
Neuromerchandising involves all the sensory elements–what works within different retail contexts to elicit positive reactions. And it’s more. It’s also about archetypal meaning, storytelling, employee paralanguage and non-verbal language. There are too many elements left out by retail environment designers that reach deeper and bring in better results.
It never ceases to amaze me how predictable, dull and streamlined retail establishments remain.
Last weekend I visited a store named Hollister, a California surfer apparel store targeted at teens, under the management of Abercrombie and Fitch. Finally! a retailer who understood lighting and texture. Drama, depth-of-field, colour, sound, storytelling, employee behavior–it was one of the best retail environments I have seen in Canada yet. Mind you, the setting would not apply in another context such as pharmaceutical or automotive maintenance–but the cues and stimuli were excellent. And product was flying off the shelf.
Retailers need to stop thinking cost per square foot as a driver of design but rather emotional quotient per square foot “EQPSF”.
October 7, 2007 at 10:43UTC
To the student who just sent a post–I am sorry I accidentally erased it. Yes, neuromarkerting is real. The way 99% of marketing is conducted today is disconnected from our humans actually think. It is critical for success for all marketing leaders to grasp this practice. At them moment, Marketing is “babel”–corporate language and human language that are as different as Mandarin is to English. But here is where I recommend you make a difference. Enter this field with a moral precedent. Use the knowledge to communicate better–and not to manipulate. No consumer wishes to be tricked or tranced into buying a product. When you discover what makes a consumer “tick” in relation to a brand, approach this with humility and reverence in your representations. Therein is the only true “silver bullet” (the one that tethers people to a brand because of its authentic, unimpeachable meaning) everyone in business has been seeking for time immemorial.
November 25, 2008 at 10:43UTC
Marie,
does all innovation happen in Toronto?
I have added the concept of Persona, which I label NeuroPersona so it doesn’t get ignored in the NeuroMarketing parade.
This construct is simple and based on the concept of a Persona mask highlighted from a long multi-cultural perspective at http://numerati.wordpress.com
The NeuroPersona perspective is at http://neuropersona.wordpress.com and is meant to either complement or replace the use of MRI and EEG (yawn) which takes the concept of segmentation to the cranium.
The Persona or NeuroPersona, depending on what is top of mind–or in the age of Google, top of find–allows you to embed brand stories to Personae or Personae stories within brands.
I am working in Financial Services and Media right now to explore the opportunity for NeuroMarketing based on NeuroPersona and wonder how your clients are dealing with the Neuro ‘thing’.
Cheers,
Nick
http://www.scenario2.com