How Your Reptile Brain Responds to Marketing

Patrick Renvoise / Co-Founder & Chief Neuromarketing Officer / SalesBrain

As the co-founder of SalesBrain, a neuromarketing agency, Patrick Renvoise has spent years helping global companies like Boeing, BMW and even NASA sell more and do more, by understanding the science of attention. We caught up with him in advance of his keynote at eMarketer Attention! 2015.

eMarketer: What’s one of the most fascinating things you’ve learned about the human brain and how we pay attention?

Patrick Renvoise: That it’s all about the reptilian brain! Many years ago I read in a neuroscience book that the reptilian brain was the center of attention and that it played a key role in our perception and ultimate decisions. It then took me several years to understand the implications for sales and marketing, but one day I had a big “aha” moment. Since we all know that we need to sell to the decision-maker then we should be able to relate every sales and marketing activities to our reptilian brain.

eMarketer: What inspired you to go into this very specific area that blends marketing and science?

Renvoise: For years I had been learning about sales and marketing, mostly by trial and error! But realizing that neuroscientists had established strong scientific foundations on the working principles of the brain and especially of the reptilian brain I decided to create a bridge between the world of neuroscience and the world of marketing. So I worked on defining a scientific yet easy-to-understand model—the model is called NeuroMap—for the business executive who does not have a PhD in neuroscience.

eMarketer: As a neuromarketer by day, what product or service really grabs your attention?

Renvoise: I am puzzled that companies such as Apple, Starbucks or Domino’s Pizza are so successful. Are their products that much better than those of their competitors? Do they really offer something unique and valuable that the consumer couldn’t get elsewhere? Is there something in their product that is superior from a feature/benefit standpoint?

“[I]t really grabs me that the success of these companies is linked to the human brain reaction to those decision drivers!”

Of course, the answer is no (although if you are a fan of one these companies your neocortex will be quick to justify your answer). So it’s all in their marketing. It’s all about their brand promise!

Many would agree that:

    For Apple it’s “cool to use”
    For Starbucks it’s “the third place,” a transitional environment between home and the office, according to Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO
    For Domino’s it’s “You have 30 minutes,” a perfect cure to a top pain of the home delivery pizza buyers which is the anxiety of not knowing when the pizza will arrive

So it really grabs me that the success of these companies is linked to the human brain reaction to those decision drivers!

eMarketer: What would you choose as the most successful example of neuromarketing in recent history?

Renvoise: It’s not one particular project that has gotten my attention—it’s the fact that neuromarketing is now used for many different applications such as package or web design, merchandising, movie trailer optimization, all the way to political campaigning. It’s the fact that neuromarketing is becoming ubiquitous!

eMarketer: How do you stay up-to-date on the latest advertising trends and technology? Do you have a favorite publication?

Renvoise: There is a lot of noise and very little signal in all these blogs and social media. Instead I prefer to read books or magazines where the authors have something valuable to communicate. My favorite magazine is Mind, and “Move Up,” the book I’m currently reading, talks about the role of the reptilian brain in shaping cultures that will move up…or down!

Courtesy of eMarketer