If you have never heard about Suggestive Selling, you probably don’t know how big brands companies have been using the latest Neuroscience research to improve their marketing and selling techniques.

neuroscience suggestive selling retail store design

This seductively lighted Abercrombie & Fitch’s  store is attempting to lure in older shoppers.

I am predicting that the use of Neuroscience research is going to become a number one trend in designing any interior within the next year.  We will see more designers paying attention to the human’s natural cognitive responses to the surrounding environment. This awareness will touch smaller retailers and other business owners as well.

neuroscience suggestive selling retail store design

Who do you think will attract this opening of a new Abercrombie & Fitch’s  store?

A famous branding specialist Martin Lindstrom in his book “Brandwashed” takes us on a tour of Whole Foods to show how our cognitive responses work: “As you descend the escalator you enter the realm of a freshly cut flowers. These are what advertisers call “symbolics” — unconscious suggestions. In this case, letting us know that what’s before us is bursting with freshness.”

Shopping is becoming an experience within a space. Wittner store at Chadstone shopping center in Melbourne, Australia.

Another example is the pleasing smell that accompanies the purchase of a new car which comes from a factory-installed aerosol can containing “new car” smell. Or that Kellogg’s trademarked “crunch” is generated in sound laboratories to create the sense of desired crispy texture. Or even a pair of recognizable Abercrombie & Fitch jeans stand out not by their look or cut but by their fragrance.

store interior design suggestive selling user experience

Bonnie Boutique, a ladies-wear and gift store in Oxford with provocative message on the wall “So Why Study?”

These are only a few examples of suggestive selling based on neuroscience. Neuroscience usually helps to implement Suggestive Selling for retail clients through graphics, text, product placement, circulation, colors, materials, lighting, smell and even music that you hear on the background.

store interior design suggestive selling user experience

Shockingly different, feminine and attractive store design of Fornarina in Las Vegas.

The Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) was formed in San Diego in the Spring of 2003 by the San Diego Chapter of the AIA (American Institute of Architects.) But their research has not been as in depth as research by some of the world leading marketing companies.  It is unfortunate that only marketing gurus can be financed to do research on how to generate larger sales for companies instead of architects learning how to design buildings that actually heal people. But at least all of the latest marketers’ findings have been published within a few years for architects and interior designers use.

retail store design user experience

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To ask us questions about your project or to get a free consultation from Mindful Design Consulting, click HERE.

Also, take a look at “Branding By Interior” e-book, the only book written on this subject at this time.  It brings insight on how you can turn your business into a market-dominating competitor by using some of the mentioned above cognitive responses.