Neuromarketing

In his 1982 article, “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals,” Jib Fowles informs readers of various psychological human needs, defined as appeals. These appeals are used in advertising, to persuade consumers to purchase a product. Due to the prevalence of advertisements in today’s society, consumers have learned to block out advertisements. By using any of the fifteen appeals such as the need for sex, or the need for affiliation, companies can get into consumers’ minds, with hopes of selling their products. In other words, by appealing to consumers desires, the chance of marketing success

In this video, Mark discusses the interaction between our ‘primitive brain’ and our ‘neo-cortex’, explaining how the two work together to form opinions of other people. How does Mark’s explanation of this interaction between our primitive brain and neo-cortex help us to understand the following quotation from our course textbook? “Changing a buyer’s attitudes and beliefs is the most difficult challenge a salesperson faces.”

Now that I am able to draw a parallel with something I am familiar with, Greek organizations, I understand the importance behind religious rituals. Although it can be easy to question the practices as an outsider, I know first-hand what it feels like to be better connected with other members and the institution as a whole through participating in ritual. I now realize that although some aspects of ritual might seem to be extreme, individuals often come out on the other end with a greater sense of purpose and devotion. As individuals participate in ritual, group morale is often augmented; just like a baseball player’s confidence and enthusiasm might be improved through participating in a daily routine. Reading Gmelch and Sosis’s articles consecutively allowed me to better understand the common elements of a given ritual. Gmelch’s article helped me attribute a humanistic aspect to religious ritual, since I previously understood sports superstition at a deeper level. By combining an idea with which I was familiar with an idea I did not have extensive knowledge of, my understanding of both topics

The truth is that as consumers we are prone to being taken advantage of and more specifically, ripped off. How this occurs is quite simple. It is the technique of persuasion that forces people to do things, believe things and in this case purchase things that are not necessary. Tactics to persuade people can range from rhetoric devices to the structure of the message itself. Rhetoric devices, such as logos and pathos, and the structure of the message come together to ultimately persuade people to buy into things that they normally wouldn’t buy. Pathos appeals to emotion and logos describes the idea of logical reasoning. Then comes the structure of the message itself which enhances an idea to its full potential. The main purpose of these techniques in literature is to serve as writing strategies to convey an idea in words. Two examples of authors utilizing writing strategies to persuade readers that stores and advertisers manipulate shoppers take place in “The Science of Shopping” by Malcolm Gladwell and “Attention, Shoppers: Store Is Tracking Your Cell” by Clifford and Hardy. The author of “Attention Shoppers” uses the writing strategies of pathos, logos and the structure of the writing better than the author of “The Science of Shopping” to persuade readers that stores and advertisers are manipulating shoppers.

Today’s society is faced with a plethora of media appealing to their emotional state by advertising the basic human need, to eat. The images that we see each and every day of our lives appear in media such as, magazines, billboards, television, during movies, and on the internet. These images are artfully recorded as film or photographs in such an advanced way that they tempt and tease our senses, inviting us to purchase and eat such a wonderful product (Cyberpat.com, 2013). Our senses are bombarded with messages constantly and are extremely sensitive to the messages they receive. The sense of sight and sense of smell are particularly sensitive and have a special connection with the processing of messages that affect the emotions Croy, Schirato and Webb, 2004). This is often referred to as The Hedonic Experiential Model. It is refers to the way consumers process information based on the concept that purchasing decision may be spur of the moment or irrational. This model reflects the emotions of the consumer, which more than likely, have been influenced by advertising or visual propaganda. (Clow) It is with little wonder that advertising or mass media propaganda, are expressed utilising the senses, and in particular, the sense of sight (Alden and Steenkamp et al., 1999).

The author of the article shows the reader how marketers try to persuade the consumer to buy the products or items. In the article, the author tries to make the reader feel comforted with his use of strong use of diction. Throughout the article, the author uses words like “sore-footed” “soothes” and “pseudoscience” to describe to

Your ritual has been disrupted and something seems off all day. Rituals bring structure and consistency into our lives. Without this structure or consistency, a person will not recognize what are the important things in life, the important things about a routine or tradition.

Rituals connect something beyond the person through the shared sentiments and meaning that they create. Rituals are meaningful to the person and to the society as

People are so set in their ways sometimes that there is no way of showing them that they do not have to partake in these rituals. That life will go on without hesitation, the only impact rituals have are on the people who perform them. Jackson’s short story gives an insight on what rituals tend to be like, and how there is no hesitation in anyone’s mind on whether

For many years society has followed traditions in order to maintain their customs or beliefs alive. Often traditions change as society evolves, but what happens when society continues to follow traditions blindly without questioning its purpose? According to research scholars V. Anuviyan and M. A. Krishnan, “Rituals [and traditions] have been blindly followed without any regard to its effects. This has led to harmful and often fatal consequences” ( 23).

As humans one attempts to hold on to what makes us feel ecstatic and at peace and one looks for this to the ends of Earth because it is what makes one feel complete. Martin Lindstrom in the article,“Buyology”, observes and explains the connection between consumers and their emotions. Lindstrom uses the widely and popular Coca-cola and Pepsi rivalry to illustrate the connection, specifically analyzing the Pepsi Challenge. The Pepsi challenge was a blind test, in which people were given two cups and asked which one they preferred. To further support and emphasize his claim Lindstrom utilizes rhetorical strategies. With the use of ethos, logos, and irony Lindstrom is able to properly convey how companies focus on what

Emotions run the world: many buy the “perfect dress” to feel confident, others run for fun, and others sleep as their sadness increases. Thus, in a world where emotions lead, mankind struggles to reason. Dr. Mark G. Baxter, a neuroscientist at Harvard University, and Dr. Elisabeth A. Murray, a Senior Investigator at the National Institute of Mental Health, are perfect examples of why many professionals in the science and medical field should start to investigate the amygdala, an “almond-shaped group of nuclein” associated with emotion, due to it being one of the most important parts of the brain as it is what defines what people do in their everyday basis. Nature, one of the most respected journals in the scientific community, published Dr. Baxter and Dr. Murray’s “The Amygdala and Reward” on July 2002 Nature Publishing Group arguing through ethos and logical appeals that the amygdala processes reward in the brain as well a negative emotions. Both neuroscientists prove the importance of understanding the connections between reward and emotions by analyzing their experiments performed on moneys and other primates, and including facts and statistics from other scientists and doctors. This well crafted article conscientiously analyzes how the amygdala’s role in stimulus-reward learning might be just as important as its role in processing negative fear and conditioning by providing credibility, reliability, logic, and reason to the audience.

Buyology is the finished product of Lindstrom’s three year, $7 million dollar research project. Using an fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) on 2,000 volunteers from various countries, Lindstrom and his team studied the brain patterns while the volunteers encountered ads, logos, commercials, and products. The fMRI revealed the part or parts of the brain most stimulated by all sorts of advertising.

Consumerism is a description of society’s lifestyle in which many people embrace to achieve their goals by acquiring goods that they clearly do not need (Stearns, 7). The idea that the market is shaped by the choice of the consumers’ needs and wants can be defined as a consumer sovereignty (Goodwin, Nelson, Ackerman, Weisskopf, 2). This belief is based on the assumption that the consumer knows what it wants. Contrary to this logic, marketers convince us that the consumer does not know what they want. The consumer has to be told what they want or be persuaded by advertising items in a matter that demonstrates the reason a product makes their life easier or will improve their life instantly. As one of the most successful entrepreneurs,

In David Howes’ article, “HYPERESTHESIA, or, The Sensual Logic of Late Capitalism,” Howes explains how capitalists today are focusing on multisensory marketing to fully evoke a sensual experience when one walks into a store or passes by a product (Howes 2005: 298) . This way, the shopper will be more alert and therefore, be more inclined to purchase goods. This phenomenon is known as hyperesthesia, which is the heightened experience of senses. This experience fully engulfs one’s sight, smell, hearing, taste, or touch, which can cause an overwhelming yet unforgettable sensation. Some critics have viewed this hypersensuality as an excessive notion to seduce consumers into purchasing goods; however others