More than just a coffee in a branded paper cup.

Close your eyes and imagine the sound of a grinder, the smell of fresh coffee, soft background music, and quiet conversations. For many people, they’d imagine themselves sitting in their local Gloria Jeans.

Gloria Jeans holds the largest market share of coffee shops in Australia. With major competitors Coffee Club, Michel’s Patisserie, and the small “corner” coffee stores coming behind.

So why do Australians like Gloria Jean’s so much?

Neuromarketing uses medical technologies such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to study the brain’s responses to marketing stimuli. fMRI measures changes in activity in parts of the brain and to learn why consumers make the decisions they do, and what part of the brain is telling them to do so.

This knowledge helps marketers to create products and services designed more effectively and marketing campaigns focused more on the brain’s response.Responses measure what the consumer reacts to, whether it was the colour of the packaging or the sound the box makes when shaken.

For example, researchers discovered that when the infant looks face on, viewers will be far more focused on the baby’s face to the detriment of focusing on the ad content. However, if the infant is directing its gaze at the product or text then the viewer will focus on the advertising content

5 Ways You Can Use Neuromarketing

1. Use Simple Fonts to Encourage Action

If you need to convince a customer, client, or donor to perform some kind of task, you should describe that task in a simple, easy to read font,

For all website related content, including forms. Instructions for the form fill should be in an easy to read font and simplified as much as possible.

2.  Make consumers remember with complex fonts

While simplifying and easy to read fonts can help consumers take action with instructions, memory recall is boosted with a complex font.

Be careful though! This doesn’t mean you should use a complex font for your logo, phone number, or tag line. Use this tactic for important information throughout your web copy only. A complex font will not only be more memorable, but grab more attention visually.

3. Use gaze to direct attention

Research has found that people will look at what the person in the ad is looking at. So, be sure to direct the face in your ad to look at what you’d like the viewer to focus on.

4. Gain trust with customers by showing trust

If you want your customers to really trust you they have to feel trusted as well.

• Offer a trial with few restrictions

• Establish credit without long forms or a lengthy screening process

5.  A smile goes a long way

Choose the smiling photo over the serious business man. Studies show from marketing research that a “mood boosting” image can affect customers’ willingness to spend.

A rise in consumer activism has seen new challenges and risks that brand managers often ignore. This new reality calls for new rules when managing brands and reputations.

So what is Consumer activism? Lexicon defines it as “The range of activities undertaken by consumers or NGOs to make demands or state their views about certain causes linked directly or indirectly to a company.”

These untrusting consumers may, in extreme cases, call for a boycott of a product or brand. There are a range of situations that could see a company targeted, such as, sourcing from suppliers who rely on child labour, to a their association with country or region. Simply, consumers these days now expect brands to join them in making the world a better place.

Targeted companies can choose to either fight back, ignore, or comply with the demands. If a brand is unsure of actions to take, Peter Hurst (2018) Brand Risk-Relevance Curve can be used, adopting one of the four steps along the continuum:

1. Quietly ground in values. Take note of the core beliefs and values held as an organisation. Ingrain these within the organisation as the internal moral compass. This will allow you to respond quickly and effectively when an unexpected issue occurs.
2. Publicly embrace purpose. Link your brand with a reason for being that is higher than your brand. These issues tend to be timeless and generally uncontroversial.
3. Take on timely issues. Insert your brand into discussions current issues. This does not mean you have to adopt a specific position.
4. Stake out a polar decision. Announce yourself to be on a side of a hot topic, there there is clear positions. This can bring you a higher following from those who agree with you. There is the risk of losing those consumers who disagree.

No matter what industry, there is a chance for consumer activism to affect you. Will you dig your head in the sand or face the issue?

The Consumer Culture Theory (CCT), as defined by Maas (2018), “..is a family of theoretical perspectives based on the study of consumption choices and behaviours, not from the traditional economic or psychological point of view but from the social and cultural side of things..”. The social and cultural side of consumption choices and behaviours address the dynamic relationship between consumer actions, the market place, and cultural meanings (Arnould, 2005).

CCT examines the way preferences, emotions and attitudes affect consumer buying behaviour. Social factors that affect this behaviour consist of Family members, references groups, and status within society. In contrast, cultural influences come from the values on an individual. These values are learned from people, usually parents, as a child, becoming their culture.

“Consumer culture is what consumers do and believe rather than an attribute of character.”(E Arnould & C Thompson 2018). Understanding the underlying factors of consumer behaviour, you understand human methodology and thought processes, which allows marketers to work with the current of consumers and not against it! (Maas, 2017)

Consumer Behaviour, “..is the study of the processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use or dispose of products, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy needs and desires.” as defined by Solomon, Russell-Bennett & Previte (2018)

Consumers have both vital (food, water, shelter) and emotional needs. Marketers use the study of Consumer Behaviour to identify opportunities to fulfill those needs.