One of the smartest people alive on the planet today (I can’t speak for other planets like Tom Cruise might be able to) is Roger Dooley, of The Neuromarketing Blog and Dooley Direct, LLC, his consultancy. If you are involved in any way with HUMAN BEINGS (and most of us are [smile]) then you need to start reading every single thing Roger posts.
Roger was nice enough to allow me to ask him some questions about the intersection of our brains and wine. Enjoy!
What is “neuromarketing”?
I’ve heard various definitions, but the simplest one is “the use of neuroscience in marketing.” This can include, for example, the interpretation of fMRI brain scans to analyze how subjects respond to advertisements. From the standpoint of my writing, I broaden the definition to include behavioral research. What was traditionally called psychology is now gradually merging with neuroscience, or, if not actually merging, is being enhanced by the ability of neuroscience tools to look inside what used to be a “black box.” (See What is Neuromarketing?)
Are people more rational or emotional when it comes to buying stuff?
As with most decisions we make, buying decisions are a mix of emotions and rationality. This will vary greatly by product category. Some commodities, like salt or batteries, involve little emotion for most consumers. Other products, like autos, fragrances, Scotch, and wine, may incorporate significant emotional components.
The same products may be treated quite differently by different people. One person may consider tires to be an undifferentiated commodity and buy whatever is cheapest. A sports car enthusiast may look at expensive, high performance tires as a status symbol that his friends will admire and envy. A parent might look at tires as a safety feature to protect the family’s health.
Are there things that the evolution of our brains can teach us about marketing?
Most would consider our advanced cognitive processing to be the most evolved feature of our brains. However, both marketing and purchase decisions may be processed in simpler, less-evolved areas of our brain that are interested in basic questions like reproduction, sustenance, and status.
How come (even mediocre) wine tastes better when we drink it with friends?
There are probably several answers to this. Perhaps we simply pay less attention, and the wine is more of a social lubricant than an object of aroma and flavor analysis.
A neuromarketing explanation might be that our opinions are influenced by those around us. Experiments show that a subject may answer a question incorrectly when everyone else in a small group provides the same incorrect answer - even when the subject should know that answer is incorrect. So, in a group setting, if others seem to be enjoying the wine, the peer effect is likely to lead one to enjoy it as well.
That group dynamic could change quickly. If one of the group of friends tasted the wine and declared it to be awful, it’s likely that others might find defects, too. (The peer effect seems to be operative only when the other group members are all in agreement. Even a single dissenter can cause other group members to trust their senses.)
How come people are so driven by a double-digit wine ranking when wine is such a complex product? And why does a “90″ rating drive purchasing like an “89″ score just doesn’t?
People like simple rankings that let them compare products. Deciding between a “91″ and “85″ is simple. Trying to weigh the merits of wines with ratings in six categories (like aroma, finish, etc.) or non-numeric information (like tasting notes) is a LOT more difficult. Look at college rankings, for example - if there’s ever a product that can’t be reduced to a simple numeric scale, it’s a college education and undergraduate experience. Just about everyone would agree with that. Nevertheless, US News sells lots of magazines when they publish their ranking issue, and both parents and students pore over the list to decide where to apply.
As far as “90″ vs. “89″, I think the higher number suggests a different tier of wines (even though the absolute difference between 89 and 90 is minimal).
Do consumers at an online wine store show up with a different ‘psychology’ than consumers in a brick-n-mortar wine shop? What should Internet marketers keep in mind?
Internet marketers have a big advantage - they can easily test different ways to present a product, different features to emphasize, and different pricing strategies. Rather than trying to guess what a consumer might respond to, they should test. I spent years in direct marketing, and one thing I learned was that even the best-informed opinion is no substitute for directly measuring customer behavior.
Are there preferred ways that Internet wine marketers could organize or categorize wines to assist online visitors with exploring and making purchasing decisions?
Effective Internet marketers let customers do some of their own categorization. Many customers will want to view wines by varietal, for example. Some may want to view products by price range, or country of origin, or winery. Giving visitors some simple options to drill down to what they want quickly improves the chance of a sale.
Why does FREE Shipping seem to drive consumer behavior more than wine discounts?
As I described in my article, The Power of FREE!, the word “FREE” is uniquely powerful. One great example of that is Amazon.com’s experience with free shipping. Inadvertently, the French version of the offer had become “one franc” shipping, which, even though it was almost free, performed much worse than other offers.
A secondary effect might be that discounting the wine unconsciously signals that the wine is somehow not quite as good as it was before the price drop. In Danger in Discounts, I described research showing that people seemed to enjoy a discounted product less than the full priced product. Having said that, I’d also say that discounts can have very positive effects on buying decisions and, in most cases, the benefit of increased sales outweighs any lessening of enjoyment.
Why do people think expensive wines taste better?
People don’t just think expensive wines taste better, they actually DO taste better (as measured by brain scans) - even when the cheap and expensive wines are the exact same product. (See Why Expensive Wine Tastes Better.) Of course this happens because they expect more costly wine to taste better, which is what they have been taught for many years. The effect was similar when wine was said to be from California (good) or North Dakota (not so good).
The short answer is that our expectations influence our actual experience.
What makes websites or events “sticky” so that people interact, come back for more, and tell others?
My work involves building online communities, and there are no stickier sites than those with friendly and welcoming communities. Certainly sites with good content that is easy to find can also be sticky, but communities are ever-changing and always offer new points to interact with others.
I’d love to come to Indiana (that’s where you are, right?) and host an Israeli wine party for you and your pals. Let me know if you are interested. I’ll bring the wine!
Yes, I’m in the South Bend, IN, area - where are you?
I live in Evanston, IL - just north of Chicago…sounds like we need a road trip to see you, Roger! Thanks for talking with us!
On our 5th podcast we talk with Israeli Consul General for the Pacific Northwest David Akov.
