Buy Buttons and Neuro-Nudges

I have a love-hate relationship with the “buy button in the brain,” first popularized by my virtual friends Christophe Morin and Patrick Renvoise in their book, Neuromarketing: Understanding the Buy Buttons in Your Customer's Brain. The…

Persuade with Silky Smooth Copy

It shouldn't surprise Neuromarketing readers that choice of words is important when writing headlines, taglines, or copy, but brain scans show how specific words can have the same meaning but activate different areas of the brain. Emory…

Does Your Domain Say “Trust Me?”

Do web searchers pay attention to the domain where the link in the search results leads them? A few years ago, I would have said "no." For years, I've operated or advised websites that ranked at or near the top for various brand names,…

When Encouragement Can Hurt Your Child

Here's another rare foray into neuro-parenting. In How to Praise Your Child, I described research that showed telling your child he/she is smart could actually backfire and have negative effects on performance. It turns out there's…

Clicks Don’t Count!

As long as banner ads have been on websites, the number of clicks they garner has been the most important performance metric for an ad. Ads that get fewer clicks are canned in favor of those that get more. I questioned this (with Seth…

Are Marketers Sleazy?

One of the common questions I'm asked at conferences and by reporters is whether neuromarketing techniques are ethical, or whether they are just one more way to manipulate consumers into buying stuff they don't need. My response to this is…