Marketing takes science into account to draw attention to products

Alexandra Bochkova, principal researcher at the Pushkin Institute of Physics and Technology, spoke to Pravda.Ru magazine about why people did not buy the product they had planned in the store, but its more expensive counterpart; How marketers manage to get customers’ attention to certain products, and whether it is possible to learn to control their attention.

– Alexandra, how does marketing benefit from our attention?

Marketing takes into account the achievements of neuroscience and psychology in order to specifically appeal to your product. From the bright contrasting stripes, smiling children, women and youth on the packaging to more subtle things like colors that can be associated with something. Light food images or a bright window on the cleaning product packaging are used in the packaging design. Our involuntary attention includes love:

Contrasting and bright things,

light,

a movement,

loud noises,

human faces.

In the store, the most golden place is at eye level. This is where we look first. Something less interesting will be placed on the lower shelf or pushed to the top. But if we have something gray and uninteresting before our eyes, and let’s say there is something shiny at the level of the knee, we will notice the way up. This helps increase the likelihood of buying.

Can we use our attention to our advantage?

– Yes we can. Involuntary and voluntary attention can be thought of as a muscle. On the one hand, it can be trained (for example, practice to focus on work); On the other hand, it gets tired, so it is useful to change it from time to time. We will also help ourselves if we are not exposed to unnecessary distractions.

We should not put something loud or shiny and flashy where we need to look at our work, because that will distract us.