3rd AFCEA Europe Student Conference ‘People, Projects and Perceptions - even thinking is participation!’

26 October 2010The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London, United Kingdom

Marketing vs. Anti-Marketing

Anna Ketsetzioglou

DEREE - The American College of Greece

Actions and Basic Questions

to Ourselves When we Buy

Something!

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What marketers are doing:• Cover a need we already have or create a

new one for us!• “Playing” with our senses and emotions• Make us feel “individual”, superior and

“different”• Make us feel part of a successful group or

team (social communication)• Increase pleasure when we buy something

and fear when we lack some other product• Give us more credibility and trustworthiness

for brand products.3

Most of our purchases are made unconsciously and many times we do

not even know the true reasons behind them.

Our brain needs only 2,5 sec. to decide if we are going to purchase something.

Since Neuromarketing entered our lives, many mysteries and unconscious

behaviors are explained from the reactions inside our brains.

Technology has uncovered the truth! 4

Our feelings are more powerful than our logic.

How many times you are not able to explain your reactions at particular

situations and time? How many times did you rationalize your

feelings about something you did?

How marketing can manipulate the way our brain works and what can we do to resist our tendency for over-consumption?

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The myth about Shopping Therapy is Not a Myth!

(dopamine molecules)

The “neurotransmitter” Dopamine is central to the human brain networked operations,

governing motivation and a sense of reward, pleasure or depression and

fear!

•affects us in both anticipating

a reward and actually getting

one.

Dopamine:

•triggers fear and creates

dread as well as delight!

Dopamine pathways

According to research, while purchasing a product or service, our brain’s Dopamine rises to extremely

high levels and a feeling of REWARD and HAPPINESS is released during

the purchase.

However, after the purchase, it drops drastically and this is the reason we

often REGRET the purchase (i.e. when leaving the store).

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How many times, during shopping, have you subconsciously put yourself in the

shoes of the person you are observing?

How many times do you feel empathy for someone you do not even know?

The answer to many unconscious actions and feelings we experience lies in

Mirror Neurons .

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Mirror neurons are responsible for the ability of our brain to Feel and Do what

others are experiencing around us.

Functions:• Imitation • Empathy

• Mind Reading (understanding intension)

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Mirror Neurons are founded in the Premotor and Inferior posterior parietal cortexes.

Mirror neurons make our brain and us feel like the others around us.

We put our self in the others’ position.

We want what they have and we do what they do!

.12

Because of this, people tend to

imitate the actions in their

surrounding environment and thus feel

being a part of the team

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How many times did you buy something for preventing a bad, harmful or unpleasant situation that might exist in the future?

When was the last time someone advised you to buy a product because without this purchase

you would have problems in controlling your life?

Fear is generated when we feel threatened by something beyond our control!

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And a Third Fact:

The area of our brain which is responsible mostly for our fear is

Amygdala.

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Amygdala controls brain functions such as:

•Fear responses and panic attacks•Secretion of hormones•Arousal•Formulation of bad emotional memories

Sensory functions are more powerful than our logic!

Since our defending wall for advertising and marketing has got higher, marketers try to target our feeling and the combination of

ours senses! (smell, hear, see, touch and taste)

Smell is our protogenic and most powerful sense we have.

The (appropriate) combination of smell with sound can make us act differently.

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Here are some Basic Questions, that when asked, they trigger opposite

brain reactions and influence Dopamine, Mirror neurons and

Amydgala, aiming to maximize our resistance to

over-consumerism.

We can use the same marketers’ tools for our Protection!

• Why am I buying this? Does it really cover a real need?

• Shall I buy this and then regret it later?

• Are my emotions driving my movements?

• Do I want to imitate others’ behaviors?

• Do I feel that I belong to that group?

• Do I really buy this because I believe it is modern and it will rise my personal or social status?

• Why am I buying this and not someone else’s product instead? 19

• Am I spending more money just because the product has a brand

name?

• Do I feel addicted to a specific brand name or product because the brand permeates

in my brain, through mass media programs, “success” and celebrities?

• Do I have the illusion of comfort and

affiliation for a specific group?20

And finally:

Do I want to be Do I want to be something I am not, something I am not,

simply because simply because Marketing wants it Marketing wants it ??

Thank you for your attention

annkets@hotmail.com