Mindful of success: Neuromarketing methods may also be better at predicting the success of adverts than current
methods.
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.
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 savvies 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.