If you’re selling a home this year, you most likely have read all you can about staging and selling your home. But now there’s new data to show a better way of home sale marketing and get home buyers to your sale, and have them stay for longer periods of time when they visit! Get ready to deploy home sale neuromarketing!
Neuromarketing is consumer behavior studies that applies neuroscience to describe and predict how consumers will react to specific stimuli. Compared to standard consumer research, that solely collects consumer data via questionnaire, asking preferences and attitudes; neuromarketing research also collects neurological data via electroencephalographs (EEG) and electronic imaging (MRI, CAP, PET). The data is used to understand why consumers make certain decisions. The application of neuromarketing is used in eliciting specific reactions to guide consumers in making a decision. “Home sale neuromarketing” is implementing those techniques when selling your home.
The Neuromarketing Science & Business Association describes neuromarketing as:
…the use of modern brain science to measure the impact of marketing and advertising on consumers. Neuromarketing techniques are based on scientific principles about how humans really think and decide, which involves brain processes that our conscious minds aren’t aware of.
Neuromarketing studies which emotions are relevant in human decision making and uses this knowledge to improve marketing’s effectiveness. The knowledge is applied in product design, enhancing promotions and advertising, pricing, store design and the improving the consumer experience in a whole.
The field is on the intersection of marketing, neuro-economics, neuroscience, consumer neuroscience and cognitive psychology.
In her 2010 article for CRM Magazine (Are You Smarter Than a Neuromarketer? Companies have always aimed for the customer’s heart, but the head may make a better target; destinationcrm.com) Jessica Tsai explained the importance of neuromarketing through an interview with neuromarketing expert Martin Lindstrom. In real estate, there’s a saying “buyers are liars…” However Lindstrom told Tsai that consumers don’t intentionally lie; but don’t tell the truth because “they are unaware.” Neuromarketing gets through how buyers decide they need to act, and records actual neurological responses from the brain.
Real estate agents often advise their clients in preparing and marketing a home for sale by suggesting pseudo-scientific “rules of thumb.” For instance, many real estate agents advise their clients about colors schemes and home staging citing specific anecdotes. However, consumer research on home sales have contradicted much of the commonly accepted advice. Take for example the notion that home staging can make your home sell for money. Research conducted by Lane, Seiler, and Seiler (2015. The impact of staging conditions on residential real estate demand. Journal of Housing Research, 24:1; 21-35) concluded that home staging is not a factor in getting a higher sale price.
Neuromarketing research also contradicts some of the standard Realtor advice, and provides insight in how to better market your home.
A 1995 study by Mitchell, Kahn and Knasko (There’s Something in the Air: Effects of Congruent or Incongruent Ambient Odor on Consumer Decision Making; Journal of Consumer Research; 22, 229-238) clarified how scents affect buying decisions. Past studies concluded that pleasant odors did not entice consumers to buy, although increased lingering. However, their research demonstrated odors actually increase buying behavior – but the odor has to be congruent with the object being sold. So, rather than filling your home with various aromas by baking cookies (which makes buyers hungry) and using heavy scented air fresheners – focus on “fresh and clean” odors. Fresh and clean elicits a relaxation response which can be beneficial to the decision making process.
Home sale neuromarketing can also guide you in using color schemes and sounds to evoke positive emotions from home buyers that can help sell your home faster.
When it comes to color schemes and a home sale, stay away from trendy. Instead focus on schemes that grab a buyer’s attention but also evoke feelings of trust and relaxation. Roger Dooley (author of Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing) has talked about using colors to affect how buyers think and feel. The use of bold colors isn’t necessary to grab attention, but rather subtle hues of color schemes are enough to get home buyers to feel comfortable as well as envisioning themselves living in your home. Your agent’s clothing can make a difference too. He stated that, “…new research suggests that one clothing color could work better than others across the spectrum of sales situations….”
Neuromarketing research also has shown that background noises can influence perceptions and mood. Soothing music and or sounds may influence how a buyer perceives time, and may induce them to stay longer. Besides music, consider white-noise or other subtle soothing sounds that can fill the background while home buyers are viewing your home.
If you are implementing home sale neuromarketing techniques when preparing and selling your home, consider focusing on more than one sense modality. Recent research by Hagtvedt and Brasel (2016. Cross-Modal Communication: Sound Frequency Influences Consumer Responses to Color Lightness. Journal Of Marketing Research, 53:4, 551-562) has demonstrated that cross modality marketing (using odor, color, and sound) is exponentially more powerful in creating emotion than just focusing on one sense modality.
Original published at https://dankrell.com/blog/2017/02/03/home-sale-neuromarketing/
By Dan Krell
Copyright © 2017
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Disclaimer. This article is not intended to provide nor should it be relied upon for legal and financial advice. Readers should not rely solely on the information contained herein, as it does not purport to be comprehensive or render specific advice. Readers should consult with an attorney regarding local real estate laws and customs as they vary by state and jurisdiction. Using this article without permission is a violation of copyright laws.