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A good example is a bag of potato chips. The bags have gotten bigger over the years, but the amount of potato chips in those bags hasn’t increased. The makers of our favorite snacks have used marketing research to appeal to our desire for a better deal. Our perception of reality is skewed by a clever marketing ploy.

Creating a Strong Brand Identity

Brand loyalty is also something we can understand better using science. Apple for example did a ton of research before they released they’re ground-breaking iPhone. They found that customers wanted a product that did everything and the iPhone delivered. They stuck with the Apple model of keeping tight control over their ecosystem and it’s paid off with a great deal of brand loyalty.

iPhone users are loyal to a fault. There may be other phones with better cameras or more storage, but they won’t switch no matter what. Any company that wants to overcome this kind of brand loyalty has to create an overwhelming argument for their product. Marketers have to use every tool available to them, including scientific approaches.

How Classical Conditioning Sells

Marketing is the science of persuasion and it’s a lot of hard work. Most of us are familiar with the classic scientific example of Pavlov’s dog. Humans are just as much creatures of habit as that dog was. In this case, Pavlov would ring a bell every time he fed his dog. Eventually the dog learned to associate the bell with food and would salivate even when there was no food present.

Marketers know through research that consumers exhibit similar behavior. They used this knowledge to develop advertising that appeals to our Pavlovian conditioning. The baby example we used earlier is a good example. If a product becomes associated with a smiling baby, there’s a good chance we’ll develop a positive opinion of that product.

Marketing Needs Science

Consumers these days are far more knowledgeable than they were in the past. They’ve also become very loyal to certain brands. If a marketing department wants to be able to change consumer behavior, they have to have a strong argument to convince them to make a switch. It’s only through a combination of traditional marketing techniques and applied scientific principles that they can achieve the success they’re looking for.