Neuromarketing & Branding Trust Guest Lecture by Erik Schoppen

How do we make decisions in our consumer behavior, and how do we experience brands? The way we process cognitive information is key to understand consumer thinking and to predict future behaviors. However, the way we feel puts us into action. How is our behavior influenced by what we already know and trust?

Our behavior is largely determined by our emotions and motivations, it is therefore important to know which incentives encourage us (read the brain) to take action. Normally our choices are made emotionally first, and rationalized afterwards. Hence, the most memorable brands are created on clear beneficial and strong emotional value propositions, resulting in long-lasting brand relationships. The development of emotional value and social connections is therefore becoming increasingly important, because it influences our brand choices in the long term.

To understand the principles of this type of mental value creation you have to understand the human mind. Brand psychology, also called neurobranding or neuromarketing, is a relative new field that studies the consumers' physical and mental response to (marketing) stimuli, triggered by our unconscious biases. It provides insight into how we associate brands with our personal experiences, feelings and routines. A brand is a mental representation in the mind of the consumer, and developed well, it predicts consumer behavior. The challenge is to create a brand that consumers want to know and trust, so their mental representation of it will give a positive emotional response and evoke rewarding user behavior.

He lectures brand management, psychology, neuroscience (perception, cognition, behavior) at the Hanze University Groningen of Applied Science and University of Groningen. He is author of Build Bridge Bond - Building Sustainable Brand Trust and Leadership, and is co-author of the standard work Strategic brand management (4th BNL-edition). At the moment he is doing his Ph.D. research at the University of Groningen (Behavioral and Social Sciences), researching Sustainable Brand Trust. As a lecturer, consultant and speaker he built up a reputation for his strong performances, inspiring people and organizations with his clear vision of a sustainable future economy.

We, a group of students and teachers of University College Groningen, that follow the major Cognition and Behavior convene in our committee Psycho's. Together we organize lectures and activities that are related to our field of interest, cognition and behavior.

Come and join us for this lecture, the 25th of April at 19h30.