Modern marketing entails the embedded secrets of unconscious
branding. The book Unconscious Branding: How Neuroscience Can Empower (and
inspire) Marketing by Douglas van Praet delves into the influences of the
unconscious on human behavior and marketing effectiveness. The understanding of
neuroscience explains how feelings lead to choices that that result in product
sales.
Advertisers and product designers spend billions of dollars
every year on creating the right advertising mix to lure potential buyers to
their products. Hidden desires and needs seem to drive much of human behavior even
though we are often unaware of why we are purchasing products or how it
enhances our self-perception. Yet these unconscious forces are pulling us to
fulfill these undiscovered needs from morning until evening….perhaps even
beyond.
When Freud discovered
his sense of the unconscious, it had a vast effect on the climate of the times.
Now we are discovering a more accurate vision of the unconscious, of who we are
deep inside, and it’s going to have a wonderful and profound and humanizing
effect on our culture –David Brooks
The essence of all marketing is the feeling of being
appreciated. This appreciation is based in our need to be part of a biological
and cultural network that is connected together to ensure mutual survival. We
constantly seek to purchase items that raise our status and fulfill
subconscious cravings in order to raise our biological opportunities in society. Appealing
to these subconscious cravings encourages the fulfillment of deeply held needs
that are not manifested fully on the conscious plane.
The book will bring you three seven steps of designing a
successful marketing campaign. They include interrupting patterns, creating
comfort, leading the imagination, shifting feelings, satisfying the critical
mind, changing associations and taking action. In essence, the steps are
designed to draw people’s attention and then lead them from feeling to action
while satisfying any logical misgivings.
The book doesn’t appear to have a lot of research included
in the pages but it does provide some thought provoking explanations on
marketing. The theoretical research support is available to intelligentsia and it appears to be a
sound understanding of how the subconscious creates motivations and actions.
The concepts are broad so don’t expect any specific marketing success advice but it
does lead you into some useful concepts that can be beneficial for rounding out marketing plans.
Van Praet, D. (2012). Unconscious
Branding. NY: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN: 978-0-230-34179-1
Blog Ranking: 4.3/5
Price: $21
Website: http://unconsciousbranding.com/
