The rapid development of technology allows you to create almost any product instantly. Now the most difficult task is not to produce, but to sell, and sell a lot, a lot, even more! Obviously, the usual product demonstration no longer works, more sophisticated technologies are needed. Marketers got books on neuropsychology and now they skillfully press the right buttons, stimulating the production of the hormones serotonin and dopamine. Do you think that you are shopping carefully and thoughtfully? Let's figure out how our desires are controlled by sales managers and advertisers.
- Serotonin & dopamine — neurotransmitters in service of marketers
- How Marketers Make Us Buy
- How to not become a victim of neuromarketing
Serotonin & dopamine — Neurotransmitters at the service of marketers
Our subconscious controls us, and hormones control our subconscious. Their influence is enormous, by and large, mankind has passed its development path thanks to them. Of particular importance are two modest neurotransmitters — serotonin and dopamine. How do they affect our actions and mood?
Dopamine is often referred to as the hormone of joy, pleasure, etc. Although this is not true, dopamine is more likely to be called the hormone of anticipation. It is he who promises us enormous and incredible happiness if we achieve our goal. This hormone just pushes you forward, at one time it made you get up and go kill a mammoth, seek a female, expand your habitat. Now he makes us buy tasty products, status things, new cars. The promise of happiness, the anticipation of pleasure — this is a powerful incentive and marketers are well aware of this.
The true hormone of happiness — It's more like serotonin. It is he that is produced when the goal is achieved, the desired — here it is, who is well done — I well done. Serotonin creates a feeling of "I feel good," and it also increases self-confidence. That is, having achieved what we want, we don’t just get pleasure, we increase our own status in our own eyes, and this is a very necessary feeling and the brain will strive to repeat it. How? By releasing dopamine, of course! This is how desires are fixed, and if the thing / food / activity has already contributed to the production of serotonin, we will strive to get them again.
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How marketers make us buy
Unfortunately, serotonin and dopamine help sell everything. In including things that kill us: drugs, alcohol, cigarettes. Happiness is not provided for by the laws of survival, but achieving it — Yes. And if nicotine increases dopamine levels, don't care that it's toxic, the brain will still give signals "smoke".
So, for example, computer games beckon us with the promise of victory, moving to a new level, achieving some kind of status. This is a direct stimulation of the production of dopamine, which makes us look for ways to achieve the goal (shoot tanks or grow vegetables on virtual farms). Unpredictability, understatement, bonuses and encouragements only increase interest and warm up the desire to reach the end.
Any victory in the game entails the production of serotonin, which means we will strive to repeat the experience and win again. Gambling games (simulators of races or fights, roulette, cards) also contribute to the production of adrenaline, which mobilizes the psyche and literally does not let you break away, blocking any external stimuli. Therefore, at least stones can fall around an enthusiastic gamer, he is all in the game, he has not that.
Serotonin and dopamine also control the purchase of status items, and otherwise nobody would be waiting in line for the new iPhone. In such cases, several mechanisms are involved at once: exclusivity (this thing is not for everyone, you are one of the best), a limited number (only 5000 copies will go on sale, have time to buy), and isolation (only in our phone has a special matrix/screen/camera). Everything that increases social weight is desirable, as it helps to achieve more, and this is what contributes to the development of the species from the point of view of evolution.
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How not to become a victim of neuromarketing
Actually, advertising is getting thinner and more effective, it is extremely difficult not to succumb to it So, for example, red subconsciously attracts attention, visually brings closer and highlights the object. Therefore, skimming through the catalogs and advertising inscriptions, we hold our eyes on it and can not change it in any way. Sounds, smells, images — Neuromarketers have long identified our sensitive points by clicking on which make us buy.
The best way to resist control — realize it. Ask yourself the question "why am I doing this" as often as possible, and perhaps the answer will surprise you. Why am I on social media? I am engaged in self-presentation, I raise my status in the eyes of virtual people. Why would you like to try this drink? It has a red label and the advertising something positive flickered. Look for control points and then the magic of advertising will not have power over you.
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