Current Topic: Strategy

Your brain forms preferences before you realize it 

Imagine scrolling through Instagram. One post shows a sleek glass skyscraper. Another shows an ancient temple garden surrounded by traditional architecture. Which one makes you pause? 

Conventional marketing assumptions suggest Generation Z prefers modern, urban, and technologically advanced imagery. However, neuroscience research tells a different story. 

Cheng et al., measured brain activity of Generation Z participants using Event-Related Potential (ERP) technology, traditional and spiritual heritage landscapes triggered significantly stronger neural responses than modern urban environments. Religious and folk heritage sites produced higher P200 responses, indicating stronger early attention capture within the first 200 milliseconds. They also generated larger Late Positive Potential (LPP) signals, reflecting deeper emotional engagement. Neural measurements show that emotional engagement develops much earlier in the decision-making process.

Imagine this: You’re scrolling through travel photos online. A bright coastal landscape catches your eye. You pause for a moment, zoom in, and look again. But when it’s time to choose your next trip, you pick somewhere else entirely. This small contradiction happens more often than marketers think.

A recent neuromarketing eye-tracking study from Rùben Pinhal and colleagues explored how people visually engage with destination images.

A Bouquet, a Bulldog, and a $3.50 Discovery

Picture this: three wine bottles on a shelf. One has a bulldog on the label. Another shows a simple grape cluster. The third features a delicate bouquet of flowers. Guess which one women are willing to pay $3.50 more for?

“Girl Math” in action

You’ve likely seen the videos: a $500 pair of designer boots is “practically free” because if you wear them every day for three years, they cost less than a cup of coffee. Imagine standing in your favorite boutique, boots in hand, mentally calculating the cost per wear while scrolling through TikTok. While the internet treats it as a joke to justify a shopping spree, it turns out that “Girl Math” is grounded in sophisticated behavioral economics. This isn’t just a trend; it’s a powerful psychological phenomenon known as Cost per Wear (CPW).

Finding a marketing goldmine in unexpected situations

Do you take negative feedback with a pinch of salt, or do you react with fervor even at the risk of losing goodwill and customers’ business? Most brands will find themselves the subject of questionable public scrutiny at some point or another, with unfiltered social media channels fuelling unwarranted insults. Common responses include denying the accusations, ignoring them completely, or accommodating to the situation, even apologizing for no real cause.