'Them vs. Us' Marketing

Loyalty is a very powerful marketing tool to build your brand and its empire. Apple has used the same marketing tactic for years that has allowed their brand to grow to its position today. 

Scientific testing has proved that humans have a deep, unconscious longing to belong and fit in. Naturally, we want to be accepted and loved.  Because humans want to fit in we develop loyalty to to groups. By developing this loyalty to a group, we will then become emotionally attached to our group and in result set boundaries to distinguish that we are separate from other groups. Because we are naturally programmed to have this reasoning, Apple has found a marketing approach that has embraced this hardwired human characteristic. 

By allowing its users to develop a distinct division between 'them' (the PC users) and 'us' (the Mac users), Apple has created its own group with a sense of loyalty and making them prone to purchase their other products. For the past 30 years, Apple has made a distinction that we are different, we are not every other computer, we are Macs. Their video advertising has always shown the division between its users and the general public, reinstating this differences between its users and 'everyone else'. If you watch their videos ads you will see that there is little to no information on the actual product but just the reinforcement that their is a difference and the difference is you are either a robot just like everyone else or you a Mac. 

Some take-away's on how you can use the "Them vs. Us" Neuromarketing approach:

(1) Make a division : Find something that makes your business unique and different from your competitors. Teach your audience to embrace this difference and to be loyal to the difference. 

(2) Believe in your message : False advertising is not a foundation you should build your marketing strategy or your business on. But advertise relevant and TRUE statements about your brand. Make your audience believe in your message. Use different strategies to target your audience and show them that they fall in your business' division. 

(3) Embrace the separation : If you can create the division to your targeted audience telling them that they are different than the other groups they will believe in your message. Remind them of the difference, tell and show them directly and indirectly how they fall in your distinct group. Doing so will allow them to affiliate with your brand, increase your validity, and improve their status as a member of your 'group'.  

Google Releases New Version of Maps!

Google has been busy with the release of the new Google Plus as well as the new version of Google Maps.  Users who opt-in to the new Google Maps will now rate businesses on a scale that ranges from one to five stars. The system maintains the precision of the former 30 point scale while improving the readability and accessibility of the business listings. Your customers will be able to find up-to-date, accurate information on your business faster than ever. As a business owner, you’ll notice that past ratings have been mapped to the five star system so you won't lose any of your reviews or rankings.
These updates will continue to roll out on Google Maps, Google Maps for Mobile, Google search results and Google+ Local in upcoming months. Zagat reviews are still available throughout Google, and you’ll continue to see Zagat throughout Google products with editorial reviews and curated lists awarded to notable places

Google is mapping individual ratings to the star system using the following framework:

 

Previous rating scale	Five star system
Poor-Fair	2
Good	3
Very Good	4
Excellent	5

 

Your business’s overall rating is calculated from both old and new customer reviews as a 1.0 to 5.0 star rating. Old dimension ratings like “service” and “decor” will contribute to the overall rating. The new algorithm takes into account statistical uncertainty in the straight average of user scores to make the scores more reliable for places with only a few ratings. 

 

If you have yet to set-up your Google Plus/Places page or need help with other local organic listings please feel free to call me at (954)281-9995
 

Subconscious Directional Cues

 

Tuesday, May 14, 2013 was the SFIMA Pubcon Summit in Davie, Florida. Some of the world's leading Internet marketers gave presentations on SEO, SEM, and Social Media Marketing. One of the most interesting presentation was given on Conversion Rate Optimization. In the lecture, they gave examples of how clear logos, toll-free phone numbers and visible shopping carts can give a boost in sales. They also showed that a strong return policy (if your site is E-Commerce) or a strong sense of Customer Service will help the audience to convert more easily. When you are trying to convince your audience to convert you should use 'directional cues'. This caught my attention when the subject was introduced because directional cues are a form of Neuromarketing. There are two forms of directional cues: (1) Implicit and (2) Explicit.

 

Implicit Directional Cues are those that are implied such as direction of view, color, visual weighting, prioritization, repetition of color, size or shape that engages your audience more. Explicit Directional Cues are very direct, they have arrows, lines, or curves showing them 'this is where your eyes should be'.

 

Although explicit directional cues are useful and obviously engage your audience they can sometimes be too overbearing. This is why it is important to constantly be testing your landing page to see what engages your audience most. Test your site using both implicit and explicit directional cues. For implicit use people then objects, what does your audience convert more on? If it is people, then test a single person or a family? A male or a female? White or ethnic? Older or Younger? The greatest 'take-away' that I had from the SFIMA Pubcon Summit was a quote by Paul Ryazanov that said "In God we trust, everything else we test". I believe that in marketing and especially Neuromarketing this is true.

 

Call my office 954-281-9995 or email me at BDiaz@Tandem-Interactive.com if you would like to have a meeting with me on some ideas for Landing Page Optimization or Conversion Rate Optimization using directional cues and Neuromarketing.

Does Pricing affect Sales?

Many of us have all seen the typical $9.99 price on items, but what researchers have shown is that this type of pricing tends to sell more often. Neuromarketing has shown that items that are priced just under an even amount sell more of that item, in example $9.99 or $497.95 rather than $10.00 or $500.00. Big companies and marketers like Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Sears have spent money testing the pricing therapy to see if slight savings (a few pennies or a dollar) would impact substantial sales, and the result is YES! 

One of the studies researched was for real estate pricing. Studies showed that houses priced with an odd number, Roger Dooley's example of $494,500 rather than $500,000 would sell at closer numbers to their asking price then the even numbered price. 

The keys that research has shown is that:

• Consumers respond better to numbers that are odd rather than even

• Avoid round numbers, an item priced at $499 will sell more than at $502.50 even though the difference is slight

• Consumers shown items without dollar signs or decimals spend significantly more ($12.00 compared to 12)