Neurocomsumer as a tool for improving the retail experience



by Rogério Gaspar

 

Why do we buy and how are we affected by brands when making our choices? Until recently, responses were obtained by traditional approaches based on behavioral and social sciences. Today, neuroscience crystallizes the study of different brain functions, offers a range of consumer behavior and shows that most purchasing decisions occur in the subconscious and can be stimulated by motivational triggers.

 

For Freud, consumption is the “expression of unconscious desires, […] an attempt to give vent to these desires that find partial satisfaction when linking to products that maintain a similar relationship with them.”

 

We live in the era of commoditization, where products and services hardly differ, everything is very similar, only having different labels. The market is being forced to make changes that have little precedence but significant consequences, and have to expose themselves to best practices and shortcuts to minimize risks and maximize results.

 

Most small retailers, with the exception of large chains and global brands, do not know their target audience perfectly – their tribe, and work only with market segmentation. Because they think they know, they directly influence the relationship with the brand, store design, marketing actions, customer service procedures and even the excess of visual information, and consequently the strategies do not always bring the expected result.

 

What is Neuroconsumer?

 

Neuroconsumer integrates the knowledge articulated in the triune NEUROARCHITECTURE | NEUROMARKETING | EXPERIENTIAL DESIGN, centered on consumer behavior applied to Retail Design.

 

It promotes a complete experience in the development and appropriation of retail spaces, exploiting multidisciplinary resources and skills that enable the creation of marketing strategies to stimulate cognitions and direct public attention. It helps to bring the consumer to the moment, generates a social connection and makes this methodology a way to provide a positive experience that improves people’s lives, with empathy and in an ethical way, in order to generate value for human beings.

 

A brief approach to the triune, foundation for Neuroconsumer:

  1. Neurorchitecture, one of the pillars still in full development, applies Neuroscience knowledge in relation to the built space and the human being in the search for understanding the behavioral reactions to that same environment. Neuroarquitecture applied to Retail Design seeks to stimulate the user’s cognitions and promote sensory and emotional actions with the exploration of the senses, creating a link between the brand and the consumer through this experience.
  2. Neuromarketing, another pillar of Neuroconsumer, consists of strategically connecting products, services, brands, and categories with the consumer’s mind. Neuroscience applied to Marketing has contributed a lot in the investigation of consumer behavior with scientific validations, through research using medical equipment and software developed for this purpose. Conventional methods do not obtain answers with true values, because our external actions or verbalizations are not always consistent and shade the real reactions of the brain in this process. Among other benefits, Neuromarketing can contribute to the understanding of the archetype meaning of the brand and by incorporating it as an asset, boost plans and actions with more assertiveness.
  3. Experimental Design incorporates aspects from several different disciplines, but at the most basic level, it is about creating an incredible experience for the client. Whenever someone interacts with your product or service, they produce an impression. Each point of customer contact influences how consumers feel about what you are offering. Experiential design is the art and science of shaping these moments, so that people feel good about the brand. It focuses on the customers and it must involve them, start a dialogue and the brand must offer the opportunity and passionate co-ownership, in addition, of course, to generate value.

 

The future and the experience of the consumer (CX)

The customer experience must be a powerful catalyst for change on the horizon. It is the inevitable competitive strategy in markets that have gone from products and services to complete experiences that customers enjoy. The CX (consumer experience) will benefit from an explosion of more progressive technologies, organizational and operational models and a fundamental change in the interface between a brand and a consumer.

The neuro and human sciences are dominant. A great dynamic predicts that the future of CX is to design for the human being using the combination of anthropology and neuroscience that allows humane personalized experiences. Cultural instincts and dopamine triggers will become the language of CX design. These resources will encourage intentional and unintended use to enhance the combination of anthropology, neuroscience, and AI/automation. Consolidated companies will use ethics experts to manage what is allowed and consistent for the brand.

 

Applicability of Neuroconsumer

The new scenario, with the inclusion of social networks and the recent digital escalation much before the expected, demonstrates that there is a change in behavior on the move. It is necessary to carry out a 360 ° study of the consumer, which involves scanning the behavioral profile of recent generations up to the silver generation and creating a narrative that contemplates “Generation C”, which is not a group defined by age, but which includes people who are always connected and have a powerful new form of consumption.

The NEUROCONSUMER methodology, which uses the knowledge articulated in the triune NEUROARCHITECTURE | NEUROMARKETING | EXPERENTIAL DESIGN, is being developed based on my experience in Retail Design in order to create new parameters and meet the needs of the retail market that still works in a conventional way. This contributes with positive results in the development of the creative process in a systematic approach to create stimuli and non-verbal communication, feeding the meaning of the brand and its respective marketing strategies with the retailer.

 


Sobre Rogério Gaspar:
Architect and Urbanist by the University of Guarulhos/SP | Specialist in Master in Architecture & Lighting by IPOG | Training in Lighting Designer, Visual Merchandising, and specialization in Colors, at Fine Arts University Center in São Paulo | Neurosciences Applied to Environments and Creation by FAAP | Researcher in Neuroscience and Consumer Behavior | Worked as a professor of architecture at UnG – University of Guarulhos | He is currently a lecturer invited by IPOG – Graduate Institute of the courses Master in Commercial Architecture: Project Practices and Interior Design: Setting and Space Production | Founder of FGASPAR Arquitetura, an office specialized in projects and execution in the segment of fast works for retail, he has in his portfolio more than 490 projects and works executed for important retail chains in the market | Holder of the Store Design Award by Alshop in 2016 | 32-year experience in Commercial Architecture | Research Manager of the Brazilian Color Committee | Consultant and Speaker | Associated with RDI | Currently developing a book focusing on the architecture area for retail.
Instagram: @rogerio_fernandes_gaspar




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