Neuro-packaging, Google Brain, Brutal Landing Page Reviews… Roger’s Picks

Here’s the best stuff we found this week, feel free to add your own pick o’the week in a comment!

Consumers pay little attention to packaging, and even many product makers consider it a minor part of the marketing mix. For retail products, though, packaging is critically important to in-store results – the package has to make the sale. Noreen O’Leary (@NoreenOLeary) discusses how neuromarketing techniques are used to boost product appeal in How Package Designers Use Science to Influence Your Subconscious Mind.

You’ve heard of the “minimum viable product” concept – the idea of not waiting to perfect a product before introducing it to the market and evaluating the response from customers. Branding expert Denise Lee Yohn (@deniseleeyohn) extends that money and time-saving concept to brand development in her Minimum Viable Brand post.

If you rely on your ability to be creative, the Internet may not be your friend. Rather than a source of inspiration,it may be an idea-killer. Anthony W. Richardson (@WebFugitive) explores the concept in How the Internet, Dopamine and your Brain are Working Together to Screw Your Potential. (and what you can do about it).

Abandoned ecommerce shopping carts are the biggest example of wasted marketing I can think of. More than a trillion dollars in sales are lost to this scourge each year. Marketing Charts (@marketingcharts) gives you a starting point to cut this waste by listing Online Shoppers’ Top Reasons For Abandoning A Shopping Cart.

Sometimes the best way to learn is by watching what other people do wrong. If you want to improve your landing pages, Oli Gardner (@oligardner) has some tough love for you. Check his 22 Brutally Honest Landing Page Critiques and hope that your site isn’t one of the examples of what not to do.

Word of mouth is one of the most effective marketing techniques it leverages trust and social proof to convey a powerful message. Nir Eyal (@nireyal) features a guest post from author Jonah Berger (@j1berger) to answer the question, What Triggers Word of Mouth?

Seth Godin (@ThisIsSethsBlog) always manages to say more in a few sentences than most writers convey in a book chapter. A great example is his post, Micro marketing and the called bluff. It’s short, sweet, and powerful.

The other day I wrote about the potency of first impressions, even when later information contradicts them. Though we think of in-person impressions, how often is your first impression actually coming from a social profile? David DiSalvo (@Neuronarrative) talks about the research and the relevance to social media in Your Profile Photo Is A Liar.

Your brain on Google? One of the deeper thinkers in the digital marketing space is my friend Gord Hotchkiss (@outofmygord). In his new post, Pros And Cons Of A Fuel-Efficient Brain, Gord shows us how our lazy brains interact with digital tools like Google to change our behavior and even our memories.

My Stuff

The latest episode of The Brainfluence Podcast features communications expert Dr. Nick Morgan (@DrNickMorgan). Nick and I discuss how body language, gesture, and voice can help or hurt one’s ability to convey a message. Head to Episode #11: Power Cues and Non-Conscious Communication with Dr Nick Morgan to learn what to do before you step to the podium or ask for a raise. As usual, the resources we talk about are listed, and there’s a full text transcript.

Can you believe we already have Ten Episodes of The Brainfluence Podcast? (That isn’t even counting the Nick Morgan episode I just described.) This post has a quick summary and link to the show notes page for all the episodes. Remember, you can subscribe to The Brainfluence Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Podbay.FM or your player of choice.

Here’s a true story about how a company squandered a chance to earn a lifetime customer by gambling on a phony upgrade offer. Earlier in this post I talked about first impressions and how difficult they are to reverse. The car rental company I describe in Upsells, Upgrades, And Building Customer Trust probably won’t ever reverse the impression they made.

In case you missed it, last week’s picks include some great user experience links, content marketing, growth hacking, and more. Find it here: Fighting Friction, Evil Persuasion, & More – Roger’s Picks.

Remember, you can help thousands of fellow readers by sharing your own great find in a comment!