Council Post: How Is Psychology Applied In Advertising And Marketing?

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Psychology is the science that studies human behavior. As a discipline, it can be helpful to apply it to the world of advertising and marketing in order to help improve the sales of a product or service.

But what exactly does psychology in advertising and marketing consist of? What marketing strategies can companies take into account to reach their target audience?

Advertising psychology is a branch of psychology that studies the characteristics and effects of advertising on the public. As an interdisciplinary application, the interests of the consumer converge with psychology—always around variables that aim to explain and predict with greater accuracy the psychological tendencies of consumption, taking into account persuasion, influence and other means of communication.

Thanks to the conclusions they can draw, advertising psychology can help companies better understand their consumers and design and implement much more effective marketing campaigns.

Psychology has come a long way in recent decades, a reality that can help organizations better design strategies linked to this discipline, ultimately attracting the attention of an audience to your brand or product. These areas and strategies are numerous and include:

Neuromarketing focuses on the brain and how it works. It is concerned with measuring users' reactions to a stimulus and looking for mental or physical changes. It is a broader concept because it encompasses all brain functioning and is not only related to emotions. I think neuromarketing is key at a time when brands are focusing more than ever on customer and user behavior.

Persuasion is one of the basic elements of advertising. In fact, it is one of the most important factors that define advertising and make it possible to achieve the main objective: the sale. How can you best persuade in order to sell? When it comes to buying a good or service, users value and take into account many details. Not only do they pay attention to the product itself but also to everything that surrounds it. For example, a consumer considers the buying experience, the guarantees and the values conveyed by the brand. Make sure your organization puts all of these aspects together into a holistic strategy to persuade customers of your product or service's worth.

Cognitive dissonance is related to satisfaction. If we choose a product that does not satisfy us and that is not coherent, we feel bad. Cognitive dissonance is a strategy that helps the consumer to know how useful the product will be so that he/she feels satisfied and does not question the purchase.

Emotional marketing aims to create an emotional relationship between the brand and the public so that they feel it as their own. Have you ever wondered why you like the brands you like? It's probably because they awaken an emotion in you—some sort of feeling that leads you to it.

The Zeigarnik Effect is a strategy based on the creation of expectations. It does not work well if there is no motivation to achieve the objectives. This strategy is widely used in the world of television, for example, when an episode of a series ends and clips of the next episode are shown in order to create need and suspense.

Classic conditioning is a strategy based on highlighting attributes that are not always linked to the product or service advertised by the brand or company. Whereas, instrumental conditioning is one in which the real characteristics of the product or service are explained. The latter should be used whenever the product or service has superior characteristics to those of the main competitors.

Armed with the appropriate psychological advertising strategies, the following are steps you can take toward a successful advertising campaign:

• Foundational Characteristics: This part of the advertising campaign is where things like color, typography and visuals are chosen. These are the foundational elements of your campaign and should be based on some of the psychological effects and strategies I listed earlier.

• Repetition: For the success of an advertising campaign, it is necessary that the advertisement is repeated many times. Be mindful, though, to only repeat to an appropriate proportion so as not to burn out consumers.

• Price: Although the price is important, it is not necessarily the lowest price that sells the most. Things like the targeted consumer and positioning also have an influence here.

• Channel: This is the medium most used to transmit your advertisement; it can be traditional media or other channels such as social networks, e-commerce and email marketing. For a successful advertising campaign, it is necessary to pay attention to the transmission times and locations.

Which of the above psychology advertising strategies have you used or do you plan to use? Remember, select the most appropriate ones depending on the objectives you want to achieve.

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