consumer psychology

It begins, as so many things do, with a confession. To admit that marketing is about influencing human behaviour—Holly Pound’s phrase, not mine—is, in certain circles, rather like declaring a secret fondness for cheesy rom-coms and obscure jazz. Yet this is the world we inhabit: a society in which the art of persuasion has become less the province of snake-oil salesmen and more the daily occupation of well-heeled professionals with PowerPoint decks, fMRI scans, and a penchant for the Oxford comma. The modern marketer, a curious hybrid of amateur neuroscientist and corporate dramaturge, now perambulates the corridors of commerce with the quiet confidence of someone who knows which neural buttons to press.