The Buying Brain: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind

Chapter 14. The Buying Brain and Packaging

At the end of this chapter, you'll know and be able to use the following:

• How well-understood and marketplace-proven neuroscientific principles can be put to use to create the most effective new package designs, or improve existing ones

• The set of specific Neurological Best Practices to apply during the package design process

• How neurological testing enables companies to perfect the use of package design as a core element of brand positioning—especially in highly competitive categories

The Problem: Declining Market Share

It's about the most frustrating thing that can happen to a brand: launch a new product that establishes a new subcategory, watch sales shoot up, only to watch them drop down as your largest competitor launches a similar product that eats up your market share. Needless to say, our client was not pleased.

Since these were similar products with similar market share, the client decided to focus on an area they could change quickly: the package. Besides, they suspected that the competitor's package was better, more appealing at the shelf and with better messaging about the new product. Their question: How did the brain view their package next to the competitor's?

Your Brain Is a Hunter

It is, in fact, a highly trained hunting machine, the likes of which the world has never seen. Hundreds of thousands of years and countless trillions upon trillions of evolutionary advances have honed the organ inside your skull into an ideal pursuit ...