The Rituals of Brand Loyalty

Call them rituals or habits or quirky behaviors. Associating a quirky behavior with a brand can have a powerful effect on the way we experience that brand.

One of the most famous associations of course is Corona beer and lime. It's just a given that a Corona bottle will be served with a wedge of lime even though there is no logical reason why. And a Corona without the lime... well, it's just not the same.

According to research, not only do brand rituals enhance the experience, it also adds value to the product. Consumers will spend more for a brand with an associated ritual because they feel like they are getting a premium product.

Marketers commonly use industry data, market research, and focus groups to build awareness for a brand or product and ultimately increase sales. Now, they can also use the science of neuromarketing to study and explain why consumers buy or not.

Neuromarketing is a communication field that applies neuropsychology to marketing research, studying consumers' sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli. Although the field is relatively new, it can provide valuable information to any campaign or event. What truly influences how people feel about a product or a brand? An eye-grabbing advertisement, a catchy slogan, an infectious jingle? Or are our buying decisions impacted by cognitive processes so deep in our subconscious that we’re barely aware of them?

From neuromarketing research, we’ve learned that rituals help us form emotional connections with products and brands and make them memorable. Once we find a ritual that we like, the brain likes the familiarity and ultimately that translates into loyalty.

Most of us are creatures of habit and part of that has to do with our implicit memory. Implicit memory is sometimes referred to as unconscious memory or automatic memory. Implicit memory uses past experiences to remember things without thinking about them. The performance of implicit memory is enabled by previous experiences, no matter how long ago those experiences occurred. And brands can tap into that and the power of ritual to make you a loyal customer.

Now you know.

Learn more about how neuromarketing can influence consumer behavior!

#neuromarketing #brainboost #neuroscience #consumerbehavior

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