Powerful psychological techniques influence shopper behaviour and the science behind them is becoming more sophisticated, reports Rebecca Thomson.

Volkswagen’s 2012 Darth Vader ad tested poorly but was a great success with viewers

Ask a shopper what conditions will most likely make her buy something and she will probably focus on the obvious - product choice, good value or good service. But in many cases, she won’t be able to say what really made her spend, because most of the factors that prompted her to part with cash acted on her subconsciously.

From the positioning of products on shelves to the messaging in advertising, many of the most influential factors affecting shopping behaviour are below the level of consumers’ awareness.

Retailers have always worked hard at persuading people to buy, but developments in psychology and neuroscience research techniques over the last 10 years means the level of influence they can have over shoppers has increased.

Factors as seemingly innocuous as the font on packaging or the colour of the lid on a jar can have a profound impact on sales, and there is a burgeoning industry keen to help retailers delve deep into the minds of their consumers.

The brain factor

David Lewis’ book The Brain Sell looks at the scientific techniques that can be used to track and influence shoppers. He says analysis of these subconscious factors is more useful to retailers than market research techniques that rely on a shopper’s conscious opinion.

Lewis says: “We try to look at non-verbal techniques. So you don’t have to ask people what they think but understand what they intrinsically think. Looking into the non-conscious is incredibly important.”

Duncan Smith, managing director of Mindlab, a company founded by Lewis that works with retailers and brands to gain insight into their shoppers, adds: “When you ask people their opinion they will post-rationalise their decision. In reality what people say in answer to a question may not have gone through their minds before they made a decision.”

Stereotypes, assumptions and memory will colour their conscious response to questions, making their answers less than helpful to retailers, Lewis says. As he observes in his book: “Customers only become consciously aware of their buying decisions after they have made them, at which point they often seek to justify them, both to themselves and others, so distorting the true reason for that decision.”

Instead, Lewis and his peers argue, retailers may be better served by using neuroscience techniques to gain insight into how shoppers’ minds subconsciously operate. The possibilities are endless - the company has worked with TK Maxx and other value fashion leaders, for instance, on how consumers respond to pricing, and is at present working with a major pensions provider on the best way to encourage people to save more money.

Other questions these techniques could help answer include which of two mobile phone companies consumers think of as more innovative, or what emotions a new brand design generates.

The age of neuromarketing

Neuromarketing is the term that has emerged to describe this approach, although Lewis prefers the term neurometrics, and in 2012 he reports there were 250 companies worldwide providing these sorts of services.

Neuromarketing works in a variety of ways but the aim is to observe shoppers’ physical or mental reactions to situations, drawing conclusions based on them. This could mean measuring shoppers’ brainwaves during particular shopping tasks, enabling researchers to gain insight into their state of mind when they find a bargain, or their response to a certain commercial.

Researchers use two main methods. Quantified electroencephalography (QEEG) measures brain activity by recording and analysing electrical activity. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measures changes in blood flow to different parts of the brain, enabling researchers to detect the areas that are active during certain tasks.

Other tools include eye-tracking, plus devices that measure heart rate, breathing, muscle tension and temperature.

These can all be used in store or in the lab, and GPS can track a shopper through the store.

Decision drivers

So what can this sort of approach reveal? It varies widely and depends entirely on what each retailer wants to ask.

One study found that shoppers stayed longer in a bookshop if there was the smell of chocolate in the air - it didn’t have to be strong enough for them to consciously detect but a slight aroma increased dwell time.

Another study found that changing the font on a menu for tomato soup to an italicised version improved perception of the soup’s taste and freshness and made customers more likely to choose it.

Questions will depend on the retailer. Some will have specific queries, while others may be aware of an issue but won’t be able to quite articulate what it is.

Lewis says the overarching aim is to determine what obstacles are getting in the way of the ‘fluency’ of the shopping process. The objective, he says, is to make the whole process so easy that shoppers don’t need to think - the same way Amazon’s 1-Click service does.

“You don’t want the brain to work too hard when consumers are shopping. You want auto-pilot. As soon as we start to stop and think, we are having to burn up more energy and any delay can stop people buying things. The worst phrase any salesperson can hear is ‘I’ll think about it’.”

Lewis notes there are often tiny elements of the shopping process that stop people spending. “I’m always interested in looking for things that we haven’t realised might be an obstacle to people but which are subconscious.”

He points out in The Brain Sell that around half of people’s day-to-day thinking is automatic, and most of their daily actions are performed in a mindless rather than a mindful way.

The results of tapping into this can be significant - in one study cited in the book, the packaging of a carrot cake described the product in two different ways. In the first, it was pitched as a healthy product, in the second, it was described as a naughty-but-nice treat. Both labels included calorie information. Participants in the study ended up eating 40% more of the healthy-eating packaged cake, because they assumed it was OK to indulge in what was
promoted as a healthy product.

Mindful of success

Neuromarketing methods may also be better at predicting the success of adverts than current methods. Lewis says Volkswagen’s 2012 advert featuring a young boy dressed up as Darth Vader tested badly with focus groups, but was hugely successful with audiences, suggesting it appealed more on a subconscious level.

In 1984 Apple turned to director Ridley Scott to create an advert for its new Mac computer, to run during the coveted Super Bowl half-time slot. The advert was not received well by Apple’s board of directors and they even tried, unsuccessfully, to cancel it. But the ad went on to become one of the most successful of all time, suggesting adverts chime with a subconscious part of people’s minds, rather than always being objectively effective.

The number of messages, products and images a shopper interacts with every day is in the hundreds and growing as digital technology continues to change the way people interact.

Lewis says the brain responds by minimising the amount of energy it needs to expend on shopping decisions - thinking rationally about every purchase is an energy-intensive process.

The opportunity for retailers is to do the thinking for shoppers - make it as easy as possible to choose a product or engineer an emotion around it that will make it seem a straightforward choice.

While this idea seems simple, it is of course anything but - every year billions are poured into influencing customers around the world, and as digital technology develops and social networks grow it will get more complicated. But while their savviness should never be underestimated, shoppers can be easily influenced on a subconscious level - and the methods brands can use to do so will keep increasing.

Shaping shopper behaviour - how the subconscious rules

Shoppers use six mental shortcuts to shape most of their buying decisions:

1. Warmth People feel secure and happy in warm environments, meaning retailers need to provide stores that are warm enough to provide a good feeling about shopping but cool enough to ensure shoppers are energetic. The notion of warmth also extends to the idea of belonging - brands are often focused on representing a particular social group and consumers who relate to that feel welcomed and comfortable.

2. Habit This plays a major role in how most people shop. Shopping with familiar brands and retailers takes up far less mental energy than with new or unfamiliar products. This provides an explanation for the efficacy of repeating the name of a product or brand multiple times in advertising.

3. Striving for acceptance Lots of shoppers watch what others do and subconsciously do the same. This derives from a need to be accepted and people’s predilection to define themselves according to social groups.

There is a catch though - shoppers want to see ‘people like me’ using a product.

If the wrong type of person is seen using it, it will put others off. This is crucial for some brands. The Brain Sell author David Lewis reports being asked to determine how best not to appeal to blue-collar workers by one luxury brand, while Abercrombie & Fitch attracted widespread attention in 2011 after it offered to pay a cast member of MTV reality show Jersey Shore not to wear its clothes.

4. Anchoring This relies on the notion that if someone is presented with a low number at the beginning of a situation, they will then proceed to ascribe lower values to everything following that first figure. Lewis uses the example of judges given a hypothetical criminal to sentence - in a study, each was told to roll a dice before sentencing and those who rolled lower numbers ended up giving significantly lower sentences. So if a grocer ensures key products such as eggs, bread and milk are low priced, a consumer is more likely to think of that retailer as good value, irrespective of the prices of other products.

5. Availability Many purchasing decisions are based on how available a product appears to be and this can be influenced by advertising. Consumers assume that what they are most able to bring to mind must be the most important and significant, meaning brands that are easily remembered are often those that are considered the best. This explains the importance of creating a strong story around a product and making it easily remembered.

6. Expended effort While the web has made it easier for shoppers to research products, most people don’t want to spend more time than is necessary on day-to-day items and will buy in relative ignorance. The brain constantly looks for ways to conserve energy and will often take the easiest path available. This can make shoppers more susceptible to the techniques employed by retailers to influence them.

  • The Brain Sell by David Lewis will be published by Nicholas Brealey and available to buy from September 27 priced at £14.99