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UX neurosciences

Why UX needs neuroscience

UX neuroscience packaging

Businesses rely more and more on experimentation to build their marketing strategies. Experimentation is a powerful way to gather objective and reliable data, and make informed decisions. This can be achieved with UX or A/B tests. In this post we explain why and how neuroscience can boost the efficiency of UX tests.

 

 

 

UX TESTS & EXPERIMENTATION

consumer tests neuroscience

In his recent book, Thomke explains how businesses that use experimentation procedures for their marketing strategy reach higher levels of efficiency and outperform their competitors.

 

UX (User eXperience) tests usually look like A/B tests. Typically, after alternative versions (A, B, n…) of a webpage, a product, or a message are designed their impact towards users are measured in normal use conditions. This procedure brings real informational value compared to the subjective verbal statements of traditional user studies.

 

 

UX and A/B tests provide a direct assessment of consumers’ behaviours and decisions. It is then likely that prior knowledge about consumers’ psychology and decision mechanisms can improve UX tests’ performance.

 

 

 

Prior knowledge about consumers’ psychology and decision mechanisms can improve UX tests’ performance Click To Tweet

 

 

UX: A STORY OF PEUGEOT AND RENAULT

 

Let us focus on an example to help you understand. Imagine that you are the head of marketing of a car retail company. You would like to change your website’s landing page as well as the cover page of your brochure. Photos of Renault or Peugeot cars are available. You thus perform A/B consumer tests to determine which photo generates the best impact on your customers. That impact can be measured by the proportion of online visitors entering your website, conversion rate, profits, the proportion of people asking for more information, or customer perception of quality or reliability.

 

 

UX neuroscience

Results are there! Your performance reaches 70% when a Peugeot car is displayed vs. 30% for Renault. Conclusion: Peugeot has a better impact on customers than Renault.

 

 

 

But there is something that our head of marketing does not know. A photo of a Mercedes-Benz car would have had an even higher impact on customers. Perception of quality and reliability would have jumped from 70% (for Peugeot) to 85% for Mercedes-Benz when all photos are compared altogether. A benefit of 15%!

 

 

Let us sum up. User eXperience (UX) can be considered as the experimental comparison between Peugeot and Renault. The neuroscience touch would be the addition of Mercedes-Benz. Using neuroscience, one can anticipate consumers’ psychology, then add alternative options with a predictable impact to A/B and UX tests. In the case displayed here, Mercedes-Benz is expected to have a higher impact than the two French brands, thus adding value to the UX test.

 

 

Neuroscience can help anticipate consumers’ psychology and add alternative options with a predictable impact to A/B and UX tests Click To Tweet

 

 

A/B TESTS & PACKAGING

 

Let us consider as an example a brand of sweets that renews its packaging. Its marketers have performed a consumer test. The effect of several versions of a chocolate bar’s package has been assessed. On some packages, the logo is displayed at the bottom. For others it is on the top. Packages’ backgrounds show different colours. Nutritional specifications are shown on one side or on the back. The ‘Organic’ logo has a small or big size… Consumer tests will undoubtfully identify the more effective package. That is to say, one package that generates stronger preferences and higher purchase intentions than the others.

 

 

UX neuroscience packaging

 

 

But neuroscience could boost the efficiency of this test. How? By reducing the number of alternative packages tested to those that are expected to affect consumers the most. Back to the chocolate bars. Scientific studies have shown that a vertical symmetry axis catches people’s attention less than an asymmetric design. An asymmetrical design could thus impact customers more positively.

 

 

UX: IDENTIFYING THE CAUSES OF PEOPLE’S BEHAVIOUR

 

UX neuroscience packaging

The second benefit of applying neuroscience to UX tests lies in the interpretation of experimentation’s outcomes. Often, the different options assessed in a UX test are created and selected following designers’ intuition. Unfortunately, UX tests rarely enable the identification of what causes the obtained results. This is where neuroscience and consumer psychology bring added value to UX tests.

 

 

 

Neuroscience brings meaning where UX tests highlight simple correlations. Understanding the psychological causes of the higher impact of a given landing page has benefits. Using moderating variables for instance (see the corresponding post here), enables us to develop an evidence- and data-based conceptual framework that is potentially generalizable to other contexts.

 

 

 

 

 

Let us return to the chocolate bar example. Unfortunately, after launching the new asymmetric packaging, sales have dropped by 10%. To understand why, neuroscience can be helpful. Asymmetric packages indeed catches people’s attention more. Yet, they are also considered as harder to read by customers. The chocolate bar is also perceived as a low-quality product when inside an asymmetric package. This understanding of customers’ perceptions and what causes purchase behaviours will no doubt help the brand to further adjust its product and marketing strategy.

 

 

By anticipating how alternative marketing options affect consumers’ psychology and behaviour, neuroscience brings added value to UX tests. This is a powerful tool to help make informed product and marketing decisions.

 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr Morgan DAVID   

A former academic and behavioural sciences expert, Dr Morgan David is the founder and director of ANALYTICA, a consultancy agency based in the UK and in France. ANALYTICA uses the way our brain works to design better products and better services in the realm of neuromarketing, webmarketing, customer experience, sales strategy and pricing tactics. ANALYTICA created CogniSales, a neuromarketing sales service, CogniMenu, the first new-generation menu engineering service, Predicta Sports, a science-based talent identification tool for predictive recruitment in sports, and the neuromarketing service applied to packaging CogniPackaging.

 

 

photo ville nuit

Smart City & Behavioural Sciences: two sides of the same coin?

 

photo ville nuit

 

 

Why and how Smart City and behavioural sciences are meant to collaborate in the close future.

 

 

 

WHAT IS A SMART CITY?

 

Urbanization has never been spreading so quick. The percentage of people living in cities is increasing every day (50% worldwide and 77% in Europe). An ever-growing population living in reduced spaces becomes a real challenge. A geo-demographic conundrum lies in maintaining people’s life quality, as well as promoting a reasonable, ecological and sustained use of energy. Real-time data collecting, artificial intelligence, big data and connected objects are all technological innovations that bring a new dimension to this challenge: they create an information network from which decisions can eventually be taken.

 

 

Twenty-first century’s cities shall be built around their inhabitants’ habits, behaviours and needs Click To Tweet

 

 

Adjusting public transport to real-time busy periods, improving waste recycling, centralizing cities’ services for better efficiency, encouraging the production and use of sustainable energy, improving the co-existence of different ways of commuting… these are all issues which a Smart City is eventually supposed to provide adequate solutions.

 

 

USERS AT THE HEART OF THE SYSTEM

 

As Smart City enthusiasts put it, users’ behaviour is at the heart of the system. Smart Cities will be developed through them and for them. Twenty-first century’s cities shall be built around their inhabitants’ habits, behaviours and needs. Smart Cities will be democratic! Beyond the above-mentioned technological improvements, other more down-to-Earth issues are at stake: 1) understand users, their psychology and expectations to adequately answer their needs, and 2) reciprocally, for users to respond to a Smart City’s requirements, guiding them towards new habits.

 

 

Communicating is not influencing, proposing is not persuading Click To Tweet

 

A CRITICAL ROLE FOR BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES & NUDGES

 

photo main globe réseau

Understanding and predicting citizen’s behaviour is one thing. Favouring the adoption of new habits is another. Public projects commonly fail to stimulate citizens’ commitment mainly because communication agencies and public relations experts usually are unable to anticipate users’ psychology and behaviour. This is especially true for projects linked to waste recycling or sustainable energy use. Communicating is not influencing. Proposing is not persuading. Yet communication represents the launching platform for Smart City projects. It is not sufficient to provide recycling bins for citizens to use them. For guidelines to be followed, it is not sufficient to ask people to save water on a drought period, nor to save electricity during times of peak demand. The Smart City can eventually optimise our collective lifestyles if and only if users behave in a way that makes this optimisation possible. Without adherence or commitment from users, Smart Cities will simply fail.

 

The aim of a Smart City is by definition to promote efficient and sustainable collective interests. The question lies in how to translate these collective interests into individual motivations; without any effort of this sort, new habits promoted by the Smart City simply won’t be added to its citizens’ behavioural repertoires. There is a need for persuading users to modify their habits and adopt new ones. This can be achieved through associating the ergonomy of the Smart City to users’ psychology.

 

 

ENCOURAGING USER’S COMMITMENT & ADHERENCE

 

The good news is that behavioural sciences have uncovered many solutions intended to successfully influence behaviour: nudges, strategical communication, decision architecture or more traditional social psychology interventions all propose efficient techniques to encourage the creation of new norms and habits.

 

smart city behavioural sciencesIt does not come as a surprise that currently these disciplines are largely ignored by strategic planners and agencies. Indeed, these groups commonly tend to focus more on the aesthetic aspects of communication campaigns than on core messages and how they are framed. I argue that Smart Cities’ stakes are too high to ignore users’ psychology and not put it at the centre of the thinking process. Encouraging citizens to adopt new habits is a subtle and crucial process. Behavioural sciences genuinely provides necessary and reliable tools to make it a success.

 

In 2014, the governments of 51 countries worldwide were using or planning to use a range of behavioural science techniques, including nudges, for public innovation projects. In the UK for instance, David Cameron’s government set up a Behavioural Interventions Team from 2010 onwards.

 

These past initiatives now provide useful feedback about how Smart Cities can benefit from behavioural sciences’ techniques. Cities have a chance to be smart only if the professionals involved in their development rely on rigorous approaches and knowledge about how people think, take decisions and act. This represents a critical turning point for the creation of tomorrow’s user-powered and sustainable urban centres.

 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

 

Dr Morgan DAVID   

A former academic and behavioural sciences expert, Dr Morgan David is the founder and director of ANALYTICA, a consultancy agency based in the UK and in France. ANALYTICA uses the way our brain works to design better products and better services in the realm of neuromarketing, public innovation, communication & customer experience. ANALYTICA is the creator of CogniSales and of CogniMenu, the first neuromarketing service of new-generation menu engineering aimed at improving restaurants’ sales.

 

 

neuro-marketing menu engineering

What is menu engineering?

photo bar menu engineering

 

Your restaurant’s menu is your number 1 generator of meals’ sales. Menus and display boards have unexploited sales potential which menu engineering can optimise. Largely ignored by traditional marketers, this innovative tool generates a substantial improvement in restaurants’ average orders and margins. What is menu engineering, then? And how does it work?

 

 

Menu engineering is a technique that reinvents restaurants’ menus and display boards to optimise their sales. We are not talking about replacing current meals, their composition, or the restaurant’s philosophy! Chefs and restaurant owners are the best people to propose meals and services that suit their vision, while menu engineering uses neuromarketing, price optimisation and customer-experience. Once employed, these techniques lead to a powerful and efficient change in a menu’s structure, its layout and the way pieces of information are displayed on it.

 

Previous-generation menu engineering aims to categorize different meals and beverages based on their contribution margin and their popularity. This way you can easily identify the most profitable meals and also those that require more selling effort.

 

figure menu engineering

 

Yet, it is essential to go beyond this limited phase of identification to apply a corresponding tactic that will improve your margins and average orders. How can new-generation menu engineering improve these two essential dimensions of your profits? By developing and reinventing your menu and display boards through four tactics:

 

 

1/ PRICE OPTIMISATION

 

Optimising prices allows you to increase margins and to avoid losing sales opportunities. Decreasing the price of a meal does not automatically translate into more sales. Conversely, raising the price of a meal will not automatically decrease sales. Fast-food and gourmet restaurants follow different rules regarding pricing strategy and price presentation. By carefully analysing any meals’ profitability to determine a price optimisation tactic, you will 1) reach a wider variety of clients, and 2) avoid losing sales opportunities and revenue related to sub-optimal pricing.

 

meals cognimenu menu engineering

Discover CogniMenu, the 1st new-generation menu engineering service in the UK!

 

2/ NEUROMARKETING

 

So far you have improved margins by optimising prices. The second step will consist of guiding your customers towards the most profitable meals and beverages. To this end, neuromarketing is crucial for your price optimisation strategy to be a success. Also called ‘customer psychology’, neuromarketing uses the way our brain takes decisions to guide your customers in their choice of a meal. By increasing the popularity of meals with the highest margins, neuromarketing generates higher profits. This is achieved through reinventing the way information is laid out on your menus and display boards, and through improving their structure.

 

 

meals menu engineering

 

3/ STRUCTURE

 

The structure of your menu or display boards is the cornerstone of your menu engineering strategy. Price optimisation and neuromarketing requires restructuring your menu to achieve efficiency. The structure and organisation of your menu are crucial to guide your customers in their choice of meals. A carefully-built structure will also contribute to a better customer experience.

 

meals menu engineering

 

4/ CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

 

Unsatisfactory customer experience results in less sales and missed repeat business. I better repeat this twice for emphasis: you need to understand your customers’ needs to please them and generate successful sales. For these reasons your menu has to follow basic ergonomic principles. For example, information on your menu and boards must be displayed in a way that customers’ brains will process with ease and accuracy. That may sound simple, but many menus and display boards are nothing but puzzles to be solved by your customers. Most menus do not anticipate customers’ queries and automatic reasoning. The fluency with which information can be explored by your customers is a crucial determinant of their satisfaction.

 

meals menu engineering

 

Are the menus or display boards of your restaurant optimised? Find out with the brand-new and FREE tool developed for you by CogniMenu, the 1st new-generation menu engineering service in the UK! Click here or on the link below to analyze your menu!

www.cabinet-analytica.fr/en/assess-your-menu/

 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr Morgan DAVID   

A former academic and behavioural sciences expert, Dr Morgan David is the founder and director of ANALYTICA, a consultancy agency based in the UK and in France. ANALYTICA uses the way our brain works to design better products and better services in the realm of neuromarketing, webmarketing, customer experience, sales strategy and pricing tactics. ANALYTICA created CogniSales, a neuromarketing sales service, CogniMenu, the first new-generation menu engineering service, Predicta Sports, a science-based talent identification tool for predictive recruitment in sports, and the neuromarketing service applied to packaging CogniPackaging.

 

 

neuromarketing marketing morgan david

What is neuromarketing?

Offering great services and great products is rarely enough to generate sales. The reason for this lies in our brain. As functional as it is, our brain does not always act in a rational way!

 

 

 

Our brain uses precise rules when collecting, processing information and eventually taking decisions. Neuromarketing consists of taking into account these decision rules, along with the way our brain works, to optimise customer experience and encourage purchases. Emphasis can thus be put on products and services that provide you with the highest margins and profits.

 

Neuromarketing is not magical! Techniques used are based on rigorous scientific evidence from psychology, and their efficiency has been proven to improve selling strategy. Neuromarketing is a great, reliable and efficient tool to increase sales, margins, and your customers’ satisfaction and loyalty.

 

SOME EXAMPLES

 

  • One of the most famous examples of neuromarketing are prices ending with the number 9. Labelling a product at £49 will appear more cost-effective in customers’ eyes and generate more sales than the same product labelled at £50. This is true, but not in every case. It has been proven that a price ending with zero, such as £50, increases customers’ quality perception of the corresponding product, thereby increasing purchase intent. Context indeed matters: a technique that is efficient to boost sales at a given point of purchase may not be as efficient at another one. It is neuromarketing experts’ work to adjust these techniques in a subtle and individualized way as a function of your needs and of your business’ peculiarities.

 

  • Another application consists of taking into account the way our brain makes choices: we mostly compare different options in a relative way, rarely an absolute way. For instance, a pair of shoes labelled at £40 will be perceived as a more of a deal when compared with another pair labelled at £50, than when compared with a third one at £30, and when on its own. This effect can be used to promote products and favour their purchase.

 

 

Neuromarketing and consumer psychology applied to packaging

 

 

  • Another technique linked to pricing consists of splitting the cost of a service to increase client loyalty. It has for instance been shown that people paying a monthly membership to a gym trained more regularly than people paying membership on an annual basis. Annual memberships decreased loyalty to the gym and to the brand, but also the consumption of side-products, such as food, drinks and sports equipment, sold in the facilities. In this situation, a monthly membership strategy seems like a more beneficial pricing strategy.

 

 

Neuromarketing is an efficient and easily applicable tool to boost sales Click To Tweet

 

 

Again, what is relevant and efficient for one business might not be the same for another one. The act of buying is known as being psychologically ‘painful’ for customers. Reducing the number of buying instances should in some cases be favoured. For instance, insurance companies could provide their clients with offers including several options at a given price rather than enabling them to add costly options separately.

 

To conclude, neuromarketing is an efficient and easily applicable tool to boost sales. Its associated techniques, when applied by experts, will lead to major improvements in customers’ satisfaction and loyalty, and increases in profits and margins.

 

 

—————————-

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

 

Dr. Morgan DAVID   

A former academic and behavioural sciences expert, Dr. Morgan David is the founder and director of ANALYTICA, a consultancy agency based in the UK and in France. ANALYTICA uses the way our brain works to design better products and better services in the realm of neuromarketing, webmarketing, customer experience, sales strategy and pricing tactics. ANALYTICA is the creator of CogniSalesCogniMenu, the first neuromarketing service of new-generation menu engineering aimed at improving restaurants’ sales, and the neuromarketing service applied to packaging CogniPackaging. Morgan David is the founder of Predicta Football, the 1st science-based talent identification tool for predictive recruitment in football.