Your Brain on Black Friday

It’s Complete Chaos! 

People are crashing the door in droves, barely able to fit into the entrance of the store, as the scenery resembles that of a game of leap frog with shoppers looking to do whatever to takes to race and grab the items that are on sale on this particular day!

A $20 waffle maker that’s half off?  Or an 60 inch HDTV that’s on sale for less than a microwave?  It DOESN’T matter!

The demand and popularity of the items are all the same, regardless of what it is and one of the few days of the year when this does occur is on one of the biggest shopping days of the year – BLACK FRIDAY!

So, what’s really going on here?

How’s it even possible to get seemingly logical shoppers all crazed up about a half off $20 waffle maker to the point where you can find videos on Youtube of shoppers getting into shoving matches and even fist fights to secure these everyday products as though they were limited edition luxury items?

To answer this question, we need to look at some of the neuromarketing strategies that are at work of driving up the demand of everyday items to the elevated level that influences gigantic crowds to line up outside of the store hours before it even opens, which then leads to the shopping rush that ensues once the doors open.

The first step is understanding what are cognitive biases?

Simply put, a cognitive bias is a systematic pattern of thinking, operating at the subconscious level in the primal brain, that can result in decision making that deviates from logical thinking.

That can explain why you see videos of mayhem as large crowds of shoppers race frantically to grab everyday affordable items as though they were limited edition luxury items.

So, let’s look at a few of these cognitive biases that businesses can use to boost their sales on Black Friday:

1 – Loss Aversion Bias

This is just another fancy way of saying “Fear Of Missing Out” or FOMO.

This cognitive bias refers to the phenomena that humans are primitively hardwired to be much more averse to losing something compared to the potential of gaining something of equal value.  In other words, the pain experienced of losing something greatly outweighs the pleasure of gaining that same thing for most people.

FOMO is a highly used neuromarketing strategy by lots of businesses on Black Friday.  It often shows up in the form of offering free trials, limited -time offers, and implementing the scarcity tactic of offering the item in a limited quantity.  If a business can combine all these variables together, then this will make this neuromarketing strategy much more powerful.

On Black Friday, the Fear of Missing Out on a fantastic deal is one big reason why crowds of people line up for hours outside of stores and fight over  products that they can usually buy the next day without breaking their bank and going through all the mayhem on that day.

2 – Bandwagon Bias

Humans like to have the security of knowing that they’ve made the right choices in life, and this is particularly relevant when it comes to making the correct shopping choices as well.

Most often, a powerful indicator that an individual uses to come to this conclusion is by looking at the people around them to see if others are doing the same things that they are doing.

So, when a person sees hundreds of people lining up outside of a store before opening hours, especially if it’s their friends and family that are willing to do this, then people are more likely to jump on the bandwagon and imitate the behavior of the crowd.

The perception becomes:  If everyone is doing it, then it must be the right thing to do.

For businesses, creating the bandwagon effect will create a strong demand and heightened popularity for their products and services.  This can lead to a burst of costumer sales and if done properly, can also result in an increase conversion of loyal customers and repeat sales in the future.

3 – The Reciprocity Bias

So Black Friday is already full of unbelievable deals.  But what can you do to even further stand out from your competitors in the minds of your customers?

Implement the reciprocity neuromarketing strategy.

Businesses can do this in 2 ways:

The First way to to offer a free sample leading up to Black Friday.  This will prime your customers to see the value of shopping at your business when they receive something tangible.  The free sample provides a memorable experience where some customers will want to reciprocate the kind gesture by choosing to shop at your business over your competitors.

The second way is to offer a free bonus gift as a special reward for shopping at your business.  Who doesn’t love a free gift as an extra perk for buying something?

Most people certainly appreciate this kind of effort from businesses.  It makes the customer feel extra special as well.  As a result, when the customer becomes sales-ready in the future, they will think about you before any other business.

So, by offering free samples or free bonus gifts to customers, a business can position themselves as the “Top of mind” choice.

This is super important in becoming an industry leader since the primal brain of your customers do not like to be taxed with the extra work of thinking too much when making choices, so by being the first to come to mind solution gives your business a big advantage.

These are just a few of the neuromarketing strategies that you can apply to your business today to boost sales.

But, if you’d like to talk to us about how we can help you really supercharge your marketing campaigns with creative neuromarketing strategies and eliminate the guess work out of the process, contact us today!

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