The Buying Brain: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind (18 page)

This particular client was of more than the usual interest to us because the product line was targeted to new mothers. One of the areas where we have P1: OTA/XYZ

P2: ABC

c08

JWBT296-Pradeep

June 7, 2010

6:39

Printer Name: Courier Westford, Westford, MA

The Mommy Brain Is Buying

81

done an enormous amount of neuromarketing research is the female brain, and a subset of that, the Mommy brain (reflected in the fact that you’re reading two chapters on those subjects). Combined with what we know about marketing on websites, it was an intriguing proposition that appealed to both the brain scientists and the parents among us.

We measured Moms’ subconscious responses to the website as a whole, and to the individual elements of the website. Eye-tracking gave us the necessary knowledge of what was attracting the strongest visual focus, and when we aligned that with the brainwave measurement data, we experienced what we frequently do when we conduct these studies. The answers and the solutions arise from the oceans of data and are distilled into very clear findings.

To cut to the chase, I’ll reveal what we recommended, and what the client saw in terms of results after these changes were made to the website.

r Reorient visuals so that images are on the left, and semantics on the right.

r Feature Moms using the product, and
especially sharing the experience with
other Moms
.

r Create a specific forum section where advice/tips are available from other website visitors.

r Rewrite key language to emphasize brand’s understanding of the new mother experience, and offer “moral” support/basic tips on time/stress management.

r Reduce the number of placements of the logo on individual pages.

r Replace some key graphics with imagery that includes pop-outs.

There were more recommendations that got into detailed areas of the website, but some involve proprietary client information, so I’ll outline what the top line results were:

r Website traffic spiked 26 percent in the first month following the redesign, and the growth curve continued ascending since (as I write this, the first full quarter’s results are not yet complete).

r Overall time spent on the website increased by 14 percent.

r Number of pages visited (click-throughs) increased by 37 percent.

r Online product sales volume jumped by 24 percent.

The combination of neurological knowledge about how the Mommy brain is fundamentally different in several critical respects, and how best to appeal to new mothers’ subconscious needs and wants, with the best practices we have P1: OTA/XYZ

P2: ABC

c08

JWBT296-Pradeep

June 7, 2010

6:39

Printer Name: Courier Westford, Westford, MA

82

The Buying Brain

for screen-based content and messaging enabled this company to restructure the website and exceed their earlier sales projections significantly.

Nothing is more important for a new mother than the health, happiness, and well-being of her family—especially her new child. Knowing how her brain functions at the subconscious level enabled us to respond to her in ways she finds relevant, useful, and worth her time and budget.

Building a Mommy Brain

Not so long ago, to be accused of having a “mommy brain” was something of an insult, a slang term coined as the surge of mothers flooded the workplace in unprecedented numbers in the 1960s. Perceived as forgetful and emotional, new mommies were derided at work and castigated at home. In fact,
best-selling author Betty Friedan once famously called homemakers with
children “walking corpses.”

Today, those tides have turned. Scientists have argued convincingly that the

“Mommy Brain” is largely responsible for our evolution and status at the top of Earth’s food chain (as soon as the first reptile stayed around to guard and feed her offspring, we were off to the races). And economists have confirmed that the hands that rock the cradles truly do rule the world.

Spending Power of Moms

Eighty-three million:
The estimated number of mothers in the United States in 2004.

Two billion:
The estimated number of mothers throughout the world.

Moms are
80 percent more likely to buy
a product from a
company
that recognizes
the multiple roles she plays in her life.

Nearly
one in every five people online is a mother between the
ages of 25 and 54,
with at least one child under 18 living at home.

Seventy percent
of moms say “advertisers are not acknowledging or recognizing their needs as mothers” in ads.

Ninety-four percent
of moms have purchased a product online.

Fifty-five percent
of mothers with infant children are in the labor force.

Surprisingly little research has been conducted on “the Mommy Brain” to date. Most of the research on structural changes of “Mommy Brains” comes P1: OTA/XYZ

P2: ABC

c08

JWBT296-Pradeep

June 7, 2010

6:39

Printer Name: Courier Westford, Westford, MA

The Mommy Brain Is Buying

83

from lab studies of rats and monkeys, whose brains, it turns out, are very much like ours. The information provided here is new, relevant, and offers exciting possibilities for reaching the Mommy Brain.

Obviously, all mommies have female brains, but not all females have mommy brains. So when we look at these two spectacular organs, what marks the difference? Supercharged new neural networks lay down throughout pregnancy, labor, childbirth, and caretaking enhance and influence every lobe of the mommy brain, making it the ideal organ for child development, and, by extension, species survival. What this means in simplest terms:
The Mommy
Brain changes to make her offspring her primary focus; she is no
longer looking out for number 1.

Average Stats for New Moms

Diaper Changes:
7,300 by baby’s second birthday
Sleep Deprivation:
700 hours in the first year
Giving Attention:
One preschooler requires mom’s attention once every four minutes or 210 times/day. Multiply by number of children until time required per hour exceeds minutes contained in twenty four hours!

Daytime Disruption:
Brand new babies often have trouble with day/night distinction.

Sleep, eat, sleep, eat
. . .
:
New baby’s maximum sleep time is limited to the amount their stomachs can contain; most need to eat every three to four hours.

Baby Supplies
: Cost of baby basics will run to $7,000 before baby’s first birthday.

Brain Changes Begin in Pregnancy

Long before she holds her baby in her arms, a woman’s brain begins a complex series of changes, preparing her for the new arrival: r Progesterone can spike from 100 to 1,000 times its normal level; the sedating effects are similar to Valium.

r Cortisol levels will rise to make expectant mothers much more vigilant about safety, nutrition, her surroundings, and potential threats.

Thirst and hunger centers are activated as her blood volume doubles to support the growing baby. She finds it difficult to eat or drink enough and P1: OTA/XYZ

P2: ABC

c08

JWBT296-Pradeep

June 7, 2010

6:39

Printer Name: Courier Westford, Westford, MA

84

The Buying Brain

finds herself preoccupied with finding and consuming food and water. Distinct preferences and aversions also develop during this time, and can be long-term, lasting for decades. Strong aversions to nonfood toxins such as gasoline also work to protect the developing fetus. On the other hand, the diet of the pregnant mother will influence the dietary choices of the infant years after his or her birth. For example, infants who are exposed to mom’s taste for garlic or apricots
in utero
often develop lifelong preferences for them.

Oxytocin production begins, making the expectant Mom sleepier, increasing her need to rest and eat more.

By the end of her third trimester, her brain goes through relatively large-scale
changes, preparing to lay down a superhighway of enhanced neural connections.

Neurogenesis—or new neuron creation—is enhanced and includes changes to
portions of the brain that will last the rest of her life.

According to new research by Kinsley and Lambert:

“
Mothers are faster, braver, and more efficient than other females. They have to be.
Achieving an objective such as providing food quickly allows mothers
to return to and protect their babies.”

New Mommies Are Made—and “Born”

While the effect of “mommyhood” is profound across most mammalian species, it’s magnified among humans. That makes sense because
childhood
lasts longer in humans than in any other species
. For a
decade or even
two
, human mothers must use all of their resources to stand between a developing child and a dangerous world. As a result, caretaking—and the new neuron creation and connections it engenders—has more time to set down a permanent path in mothers’ brains. A neuroscience adage ensures us that

“Neurons that fire together wire together.” Learning in the high-stakes environment of new motherhood is the most effective way to create new neural pathways. We don’t learn if we don’t care. And evidence and evolution clearly show that nobody cares more than moms.

Because of this high-stakes environment, changes occur in the maternal brain faster and with more permanence than at any other time of life.

Of course, the ultimate reason Mommies’ brains become different is the reason any evolutionary benefit occurs: Mommy brains increase the likelihood of survival of healthy babies and, through them, the survival of the species.

P1: OTA/XYZ

P2: ABC

c08

JWBT296-Pradeep

June 7, 2010

6:39

Printer Name: Courier Westford, Westford, MA

The Mommy Brain Is Buying

85

We all have or know mothers who are preternaturally intuitive, wizards at getting things done, and founts of fun and knowledge. That’s because they undergo real, measurable, physical changes in their brains that enhance their performance in caring for their babies.

As neuroscientist Craig Kinsley says, “birth and caring for offspring literally
reshape the brain [into] a more complex organ that can accommodate an increasingly
demanding environment.”

Benefits of a Mommy Brain

Childbirth is a uniquely powerful catalyst for brain
changes.
Neurogenesis occurs for the first and only time in an adult brain with a purpose other than to replace dying neurons. Mommy brains are enhanced: faster, higher-functioning than before. So marketing to mommies is a different prospect than marketing to any other group.

Each mommy will also form familial, life-saving social networks, remembering whom she can count on and whom she can’t. She must develop trusting relationships in her “tribe” so she’s covered after childbirth, with small children, and during times of sickness and stress.

Again, this is a prime opportunity for your brand, product, service, or store to become part of this powerful group. When my first children were born (twin girls), a local bakery invited neonatal care and lactation experts to speak to New Mommy groups. The mothers and infants who went to these fabulous meetings received real, valuable information, great food, camaraderie, laughs, and the tremendous joy of being among others with new babies. We still go to that bakery as often as we can and recommend the group to every new mother we know.

Her enhanced prefrontal cortex gives her the ability to control emotions.

Early in evolution, mothers likely needed to appease groups, intruders, and the alpha male. This was a matter of life and death for her and her children.

Modern mothers must navigate a similar, but less life-threatening labyrinth of work, home, in-laws, school, community obligations, and friends.