Recently, the renowned neurologist and author Oliver Sacks (see picture above) was on The Daily Show to promote his new book, Musicophilia. He talked about the unique ways that music stimulates the pleasure centers in the brain. 

His words reminded of why I named my blog Brain Sells.

To understand how and why advertising works, it's important to have a rudimentary understanding of how the brain works. The two topics are inextricably linked.

I am going to grossly simplify the explanation of this science, mostly because I am not intellectually qualified to do much more than that. Successful advertising plants a memory of a product, service, or business in the minds of people who are exposed to the message. If any of those people acquire a need or a desire for the product or service that was advertised, they recall the advertiser's message and seek them out to satisfy the need. In other words, if the prospect doesn't think of the advertiser, they can't think to go there.

What makes people remember one company over another? The three primary factors are message format, frequency, and consistency over time. I'll leave two of those for future topics, but I do want to address message format.

Thoughts that stimulate the pleasure and pain centers in the brain are most likely to become memories. If a commercial stimulates pleasure in the mind, that person will relate that pleasure to the product or service being advertised. An example would be a commercial for a jewelry store that says, "Just think of all the ways she might show her appreciation for a diamond." Woo-hoo!

The converse strategy would be to stimulate a painful thought and tie it to a failure to buy the product or service. For instance, an insurance commercial may pose the question, "If something were to happen to you today, what would become of your family tomorrow?" Ouch!

Ask yourself, "Do things like store hours, credit cards, years in business, phone numbers, or tired old advertising clichés stimulate my brain's pleasure centers?" No way. They do not, therefore, stimulate brain sells.  

To bring this full circle, I would like to point out why jingles have been so effective throughout the history of advertising. When you were a small child, you had memorized the lyrics to hundreds of songs before you ever learned to read. As Oliver Sacks points out, music stimulates the pleasure centers in the brain like nothing else. Music is memorable, so musical commercials make their message more memorable. There are lame jingles to be sure, but a good jingle is one of those gifts that keeps on giving.

If you can't get into someone's brain, you won't get their business. Stimulating people's minds is economic stimulus that you can count on.

I suddenly feel like listening to "Money" by Pink Floyd!

Later.