While it’s certainly true that businesses can have a great amount of success with their digital marketing efforts, there’s still something to be said about the lasting impact of physical materials like business cards or plastic postcards. But it isn’t just intuition that tells us physical materials stand the test of time – there’s literally science behind it. One recent neuromarketing study reveals just how long-lasting this type of collateral truly is.
The Power of Physical Materials: Breaking Things Down
The aforementioned study was conducted by Temple University’s Center for Neural Decision Making, and it dove deep into the different types of responses generated by physical collateral versus their digital counterparts. Overall, they looked at three core concepts: exposure (meaning how someone responded to an ad), memory (meaning how the brain remembered the ad), and action (what the person did after seeing it).
The study was conclusive: not only did people spend far more time with physical collateral than they did digital ones, but they remembered them better over longer periods of time, too. But the most important revelation of all was that physical materials literally triggered activity in the area of the brain that is responsible for value and desirability when it comes to the products we buy.
This part of the brain (called the ventral striatum), gets people excited about what they’re seeing and because of that, it’s commonly associated with a person’s intent to purchase.
Most interestingly, the people who participated in the study claimed that they had similar preferences (and enthusiasm about buying) regardless of whether they saw a product via a digital ad or a physical one. But at the same time, the brain’s the greater amounts of activity suggested that the physical ads were far more effective in all three ways outlined above.
So what that means is that even if people don’t realize it, physical marketing is able to tap into something that not only sticks around, but that increases motivation to purchase, too. This is true regardless of whether someone explicitly realizes it! Make no mistake, that is absolutely something a marketer like yourself should take advantage of.
If you’d like to find out more information about the lasting impact of physical marketing over its digital counterpart, or if you have any additional questions about how the right partner can help take your own efforts to bold new heights, please don’t delay – contact us today.
