Minding the Gaps: Neuromarketing in Action

How can we set ourselves apart, considering the neuroscience?

In an age that tugs at our attention from all directions, it’s easy to get lost in the endless stream of information. Like all decisions, consumer behaviors are essentially responses of the brain to certain stimuli. As cutting-edge technology advances and the field of neuroscience evolves, so do insights into effective marketing strategies that enable us to reach our desired audience. There is a gap in traditional marketing, since it is based on self-reported surveys. Therefore, it misses out on data from subconscious elements when it comes to what consumers purchase. Neuroscience helps businesses have a more accurate understanding of how potential customers’ brain activity reacts to the way we promote products (Gupta et al., 2025). 

Consider Color Psychology in Marketing and Design for Effective Packaging 

The colors help us associate with brands, and by using particular ones, we can increase quick recognition and stimulate memory recall even before seeing other visible information. They can influence a customer's subconscious attitudes, and even contribute to their perceived product quality (Mai et al., 2016). Commercials and advertisements often utilize color psychology to bridge brands with their products. Depending on which one you choose, it can bring value to a brand by cultural and relative association to other brands (Hwang & Kim, 2021). A 2006 study by Bottomley and Doyle states that identity can be associated with functional and sensory-social colors. Warmer and brighter colors cultivate an approachable or friendlier identity, while cool or dark colors elicit perceptions of professionalism, confidence, and trust.

Contrast is another key facet of maximizing color, and having text stand out in contrast to the background color helps ensure that your marketing is effective. Websites like Color Contrast Checker are quick guides that help us double-check the visibility of color palettes we use in PR materials. Furthermore, the same principle also applies to packaging, and to make products or logos more eye-catching, it is crucial to be mindful of the fonts. 

It is also important that, when starting, packaging doesn’t deviate too much from the rest of the brand identity, so that your products don’t get confused with another company’s. The product-related attributes are what signal the experimental, functional, and symbolic benefits to the buyer. Consistent and thoughtful branding in packaging design helps with association, contributes to recall, and cultivates a consumer-brand relationship (Underwood, 2003). 

Figure 2. 

Conceptual Framework on The Communicative Power of Product Packaging: Creating Brand Identity via Lived and Mediated Experience by Underwood (2003)

According to the conceptual framework of Underwood (2003), those benefits mentioned above are what lead to an eventual purchase, and it is through the interactions with these purchases that create the lived and mediated experiences that lead to brand identity.

Account for Decision Fatigue as a Barrier to Entry

With the amount of competition in growing industries, brands must distinguish themselves to make decisions easier for their customers. With information overload, people tend to default on previous purchases that had positive experiences, leaving a lot of unchosen alternatives. Thus, your local products must become easily recognizable, so buyers will be more likely to gravitate toward them despite this barrier to entry (The Chicago School, 2024).

Apply the Concept of Loss Aversion

When it comes to persuading customers, retailers often employ techniques like limited-time-only prices or limited-edition products. Loss aversion in marketing can be categorized based on three scarcity cues: supply-based, time-based, and demand-based (demand-induced) scarcity. When it comes to supply-based scarcity cues, they occur when there is limited supply, and this has “large effects on the purchase intentions of experiences.” As for time-based scarcity cues, they occur when products are framed through special prices offered during a brief period, which is said to be the most impactful for high involvement purchases.

Lastly, demand-based scarcity occurs when there are long lines, other customers having the same items in their carts, and empty shelves. This scarcity is most likely to work for utilitarian products, unlike the other two, which work better for hedonic products (Barton et al., 2022). 

With these in mind, local businesses can build strategies and apply them to the Philippine context, such as through sales during local holidays or cultural events. Thus, connecting to Filipinos on a deeper level.

To conclude...

Neuroscience research can be used in the creation of marketing strategies to effectively relay a company’s identity and promote customer-brand relations. By considering color psychology, taking into account decision fatigue as a barrier to entry, and applying the concept of loss aversion, we can meaningfully interact with our consumers. After all, at the end of the day, we want to ensure that we can add value to the lives of the people around us through the pursuit of our missions and visions. In order to achieve this, why not explore neuromarketing in action?

References

• Barton, B., Oppewal, H., & Zlatevska, N. (2022). Scarcity Tactics in marketing: a meta-analysis of Product Scarcity Effects on Consumer Purchase Intentions. Journal of Retailing, 98(4), 741–758. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2022.06.003

• Bottomley, P. (2006). The interactive effects of colors and products on perceptions of brand logo appropriateness. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277431498_The_interactive_effects_of_colors_and_products_on_perceptions_of_brand_logo_appropriateness

• Gupta, R., Kapoor, A. P., & Verma, H. V. (2025). Neuro-insights: a systematic review of neuromarketing perspectives across consumer buying stages. Frontiers in Neuroergonomics, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnrgo.2025.1542847

• Hwang, J., & Kim, S. (2021). The Effects of Packaging Design of Private Brands on consumers’ Responses. Psychology & Marketing, 39(4). https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21620

• Mai, R., Symmank, C., & Seeberg-Elverfeldt, B. (2016). Light and Pale Colors in Food Packaging: When Does This Package Cue Signal Superior Healthiness or Inferior Tastiness? Journal of Retailing, 92(4), 426–444. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2016.08.002

• School, T. C. (2024, March 13). What is Neuromarketing? Neuromarketing Techniques and Examples | The Chicago School. Insight Digital Magazine. https://www.thechicagoschool.edu/insight/psychology/neuromarketing-tools-techniques-examples/

• Underwood, R. L. (2003). The Communicative Power of Product Packaging: Creating Brand Identity via Lived and Mediated Experience. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 11(1), 62–76.