Making it Stick: Improving Effectiveness of Communication Messages and Materials Using Neuromarketing

In the public transportation and commuter assistance program (CAP) sectors, marketing has often focused on the end-product – that of getting the message out and restoring and growing ridership. However, in the drive to get the word out, a better understanding of what goes into the communication material, its ability to persuade and be rele-vant is overlooked. Pretesting of communication materials is not often done, and if in the rare instance it is com-pleted, the reliance is on self-reported survey measures, which are systematic but suffer from various sources of bias. To counter these biases, the use of neuromarketing techniques which look to consumer attentiveness, emotional response and decision-making should be considered. Through the use of eye-tracking, eye-gaze mapping, and mar-ket research, this study sought to evaluate existing communication materials and understand commuter’s subcon-scious engagement and response. Using a community-engaged approach, we narrowed a field of 121 materials down to 15 with seven distinct calls to actions. The materials were tested, revised, and retested using neuromarket-ing techniques. The effectiveness of the materials increased with regard to clarity of call to action, relevancy, ability to persuade and intention to change. This case study illustrates the process used, the results and recommendations, which include - using simple and clear messages, taking advantage of classic gaze patterns, improving flow through formatting, and placing logos and QR codes away from messages. This paper illustrates the importance of testing messages prior to large-scale dissemination to improve effectiveness and to use techniques that counter response bias