Psychology is a discipline that is applied in many areas: sport, school or companies.

Within this last context we find Psychology applied to Marketing , which is key to understanding how the human mind works and is essential to persuade consumers to purchase our products or services.

Keys to Psychology applied to Marketing and Advertising

Any good marketing strategy cannot forget how consumers think, what needs they have and what their motivations are. Therefore, Psychology is a basic pillar in the world of Marketing and Advertising.

In the following lines you can find 7 keys of Psychology applied to Marketing and Advertising .

1. Emotional Marketing

Emotional intelligence is one of the great paradigms of current psychology , since emotions affect our well-being and our behaviour in a decisive way. Most people think that the decisions we make are based on a rational analysis of the alternatives presented to us, an idea that the psychologist Antonio Damasio, in his book, “Descartes’ Mistake”, states that he does not share.

For Damasio, “emotions are crucial in almost all the decisions we make, because these, associated with previous experiences, set values to the options we are considering”. In other words, emotions create preferences that lead us to choose one option or another.

Emotional marketing is applied in branding , in customer loyalty strategies, in commercial stories, etc.

  • If you want to go deeper into this topic, you can do so in our article “Emotional Marketing: Getting to the Customer’s Heart”

2. Classical and instrumental conditioning

Classical and instrumental conditioning are two key concepts to understand behavioral psychology, and are present in our learning, our behavior and, of course, in the world of marketing.

The classic conditioning, made popular by John Watson with the help of Ivan Pavlov, can be observed in the world of advertising when situations or pleasant attributes are highlighted that are not necessarily linked to the characteristics of a product or service. It is not uncommon to come across similar products from different brands that provoke different emotional experiences for users through branding.

However, when the actual characteristics of the product and service are explained, the instrumental or operant conditioning model is used. That is, when a product really presents differences in quality with respect to its competitors, instrumental conditioning is effective. For example, by letting the product be tested or by giving away a sample of it.

3. Motivation

Motivation is an intrinsic force that guides us and allows us to maintain behaviours oriented towards achieving a goal or satisfying a need. Many psychologists have been interested in the study of motivation, since it is a basic principle in human behavior. Motivation also affects decision making.

For this reason it is applied in the field of Marketing, because understanding and influencing motivation will result in greater acquisition of products and services by consumers. For example, if we detect through a survey that a user is motivated to buy a vehicle, there is a greater probability that the user will be able to buy one of our products if we are in the automotive sector. This technique is widely used today. An example of this is the use of “cookies”, which allow us to track the habits and concerns of potential customers.

4. Zeigarnik effect: creating expectations and suspense

The Zeigarnik effect is closely related to expectations, and owes its name to Bluma Zeigarnik, a psychologist from the Gestalt School, who realized that unfinished tasks tend to generate discomfort and intrusive thoughts in us. In the world of marketing, the Zeigarnik Effect is a technique used to attract customers, which is used in different situations. For example, in movie trailers.

It is common to see in some television series a short summary of the next chapter at the end of the program , to create suspense and to provoke the need to know how the scenes that have been shown previously end. This is called “cliffhangers” and is based on the Zeigarnik effect.

5. Persuasion

The psychology of persuasion is one of the key elements of marketing . The purpose of this branch of social psychology is the study of human behaviour in order to understand what are the reasons that make people modify their behaviour under external influence. Although it is often confused with manipulation, persuasion is an art that consists of convincing people to act in a certain way.

There are a number of elements that are indispensable for effective persuasive communication. For example, reciprocity, scarcity, authority, consistency, sympathy and credibility.

  • You can learn more about this concept in our article: “Persuasion: definition and elements of the art of convincing”

6. Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing is a discipline that studies the mind, brain and consumer behavior and how to influence it to achieve more sales. Therefore, it brings scientific advances in Psychology and Neurosciences closer to the discipline of Marketing.

Understanding how attention, perception or memory works and how these processes affect people, their tastes, personality and needs, allows for more effective marketing. There are many applications of Neuromarketing, as you can see in our articles:

  • Neuromarketing has a great future
  • Neuromarketing: your brain knows what it wants to buy

7. Cognitive dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is a concept closely linked to social psychology . Psychologist Leon Festinger proposed this theory, which explains how people try to maintain their internal consistency. That is, we all have a strong inner need that pushes us to ensure that our beliefs, attitudes and behavior are consistent with each other. When this does not happen, discomfort and disharmony arise, something we strive to avoid.

For this reason it is applied in the field of Marketing, because understanding and influencing motivation will result in greater acquisition of products and services by consumers. For example, if we detect through a survey that a user is motivated to buy a vehicle, there is a greater probability that the user will be able to buy one of our products if we are in the automotive sector. This technique is widely used today. An example of this is the use of “cookies”, which allow us to track the habits and concerns of potential customers.