Neurohacking, Consumerism and Marketing

Let's begin this brief journey of investigation and insight, by stepping inside the magnificent realm of neurons to witness the process of consumption or consumerism or acquisition of goods and services, as it influences and rewires our brain circuits.

Consumption is a universal phenomenon. All humans consume varieties of products, many of which beyond actual necessity, because it activates the brain's reward center. And the more a certain product activates the reward center with its unique characteristics or its predominant social stature, the more that product gets chiseled into the long-term memory of the consumer, making it a fundamental part of the individual's psychological well being.

Thus the human mind grows a deep psychological bond with a product. And this bond can grow so strong in time that it would defend itself from all sorts of criticisms. It is the brain's way to maintain its internal purely individualistic well being. Hence, a strong psychological bond between the mind and a product slowly not only becomes invincible to criticisms, but also, develops its own cognitive immune system against such criticisms. And this very attachment or bond between a consumer and a product or service manifests as loyalty.

Now let's take a deep dive into the understanding of what exactly are the nature, basis and origin of this loyalty. It's not just brand loyalty - loyalty is rather a basic human instinct, which has been in our brain circuits, since our days in the jungle. Our ancestors had to be loyal to the leader of their community, of their tribes, in order to stay strong as a group of people, and this loyalty in turn increased their chances of survival.

This instinctual sentiment called loyalty still runs boldly in our nerves. And it manifests in different forms in the human society - loyalty to a political leader - loyalty to a celebrity - loyalty to a certain product or the creator of that product and so on. In short, if we the humans are influenced by something or someone in our life for a long a period of time, our brain automatically grows a sense of loyalty to that figure or brand or product.

And sometimes this sentiment can grow so strong that it begins to defy rational explanation. Which means that if a product can influence a person emotionally in their daily life and can continue to do so for a long period of time, then the consumer mind grows dependent on that product. Here it is all about sentiments - it has nothing to do with rational explanations or reasoning.

For example, if the people are shown advertisements of two similar products but from different brands, then which one do you think they will choose to buy, next time they go shopping? They are going to buy the one which had a more emotional impact on them in its advertisement. And to predict the impact of an advertisement or a product, based on neurological predispositions and real-time brain activities, is the purpose of our field of "Consumer Neuroscience" or in simple terms "Neuromarketing", which has already started to replace the traditional marketing models and methods and has helped countless companies, small and big, save a great deal of money and anxieties.

For example, it’s not just the advertisement that matters in a product's impact on the consumer brain, but also, something as subtle as the color scheme of a product's packaging matters a great deal. Each color triggers certain emotional responses in the human brain, so the color-scheme of the packaging of a product must match correctly with the product's nature and purpose. For instance, a bottle of drinking water, which represents serenity and satisfaction, must never be packaged in provocative colors such as red or dark colors such as black.

So, in short, the most effective and first step to present a product or service to people is to appeal to their emotional existence, for people are first emotional, then rational. And this emotional existence of ours is driven a great deal by our instinctual urge for consumption, and that too beyond necessity. And many companies actually unscrupulously target people's this urge for more to make a ridiculous and rather absurd amount of profit.

For example, most of Apple's revenue is predicated on selling people products and features that they do not actually need. But the glare of Apple's brand image blinds people of the very distinction between necessity and luxury. Here, please do not think of me as some Anti-Apple Android fanatic, or some advocate for the so-called minimalism. I am a scientist. I do not fall into those childish and empty categories. My purpose here has been to point out the significance and implications of consumerism and consumer loyalty in human life and society.

In most cases this loyalty is one-sided, that is, although the consumer stays loyalty to a brand for a long period of time, if not for life, the brand rarely stays loyal to its consumer - instead it treats its consumers as merely source of revenue, without paying much attention to product quality, consumer relationship and affordability. And this one-sided loyalty only leads to a financially uneven society. It is only when a company cares for its consumers as much as the consumers care for its products or services, can we create a healthy consumer culture - or else, corporate irresponsibility and consumer stupidity will only create a shallow, snobbish, insecure and ignoramus society. In short, consumerism is not bad, but reckless and mindless consumerism is not just bad, but downright injurious to the health of not just the individual, but of the entire society.