Neuromarketing makes the art of persuasion more effective

For years, scientific and managerial literature has been dealing with the most effective strategies to capture and managethe attention of the public in an environment increasingly characterised by information overload. The human brain struggles to pay attention to the thousands of advertisements to which we are all exposed every day.

The first to talk about the 'economics of attention' was the American Nobel Prize winner Herbert Alexander Simon in the 1970s. The basic assumption, in continuity with the concept of 'cognitive load' elaborated by psychologist George A. Miller already in the mid-1950s, was that the more information there is, the more attention there is scarcity. This latter resource is consumed, in fact, in direct proportion to theconsumption of content by consumers. This is a complex dynamic made even more evident by the digital ecosystem, since with it the possibility of creating and distributing messages increases, especially through narrative solutions of an audiovisual matrix.

Attention is a valuable resource, precisely because it is limited. It is especially so in relation to the corporate world, Thomas Davenport and John Beck already stated at the turn of the century in a book written for Il Sole 24 Ore. Attention is lost as quickly as it is gained. Considering marketing 4.0, 5.0 and 6.0 according to Kotler's classification, i.e. the marketing of connected relationships and that centred on the use of artificial intelligence and the Metaverse, it becomes necessary for companies to act in the direction of easier traceability of contents, their authenticity and personalisation.

In this regard, Song, Guo et al. argued in a recently published scientific paper that the advent of the Internet of Everything is in itself a condition that can revolutionise neuromarketing techniques, allowing for real-time adjustments based on the opinions expressed by consumers, resulting in improved effectiveness of advertising. Neurological data is used, in short, to create customised messages that have a stronger impact on certain types of consumers. For this reason, it is now possible to create highly targeted and impactful marketing campaigns. Campaigns that improve engagement levels and increase conversion rates.

Neuromarketing comes to the rescue, therefore, in the challenge of attention. Bhardwaj, Seema, Surya Bahadur Thapa and Aradhana Gandhi in a 2024 paper published in 'Cogent Business & Management' explained which factors mostinfluence the decision-making process and the conversion of purchase intention into actual purchasing behaviour. For these scholars, there are two groups of factors: intrinsic factors related to consumers and extrinsic factors rooted in the surrounding environment.