How Are Marketing and Psychology Similar?
Research shows a significant connection between people’s intentions and the marketing messages they see. A 2025 study of more than 800 consumers in the Journal of Product & Brand Management linked their thoughts and attitudes to the content and frequency of the marketing messages they encountered. It also showed the significant influence that those thoughts and attitudes had on their purchasing decisions.
That’s why psychology, the study of the mind and behavior, is so valuable in marketing. Marketing and psychology share a focus on understanding people’s thoughts and behaviors, making a bachelor’s degree in psychology a good choice for pursuing entry or advancement in marketing careers.
Where Do Marketing and Psychology Intersect?
Marketing aims to create and share messages that provide value to a targeted audience, encouraging them to take action.
Marketers need an understanding of how marketing content is likely to affect consumers’ thoughts and behaviors. This knowledge helps them develop marketing campaigns containing elements such as colors, pricing, photos, or written content that are likely to resonate with their audience and achieve the campaign’s goals.
Psychological Principles
This pairing of marketing and psychology, often called marketing psychology, draws on insights from psychology that help companies and organizations persuade people to respond to marketing by engaging with, trusting, or purchasing from a brand.
Marketing psychology incorporates a host of concepts related to human thoughts and behaviors. The following examples show how some of those principles might apply in marketing content:
Anchoring: Placing critical text or numbers at the beginning of messages because the mind is likely to base future decisions on these details
Action paralysis: Describing a single, clear outcome a product or service will provide to consumers to help ensure that the message doesn’t overwhelm the audience
Authority: Incorporating input about a product or organization from someone with expertise or experience, with the understanding that these comments typically influence attitudes
Loss aversion: Emphasizing the urgency of taking action based on the concept that people feel losses more strongly than gains
Scarcity: Promoting a limited time offer because perceived rarity makes a product or service seem more valuable to people
Customer Research
Successful marketing begins with understanding people’s needs and then developing strategies that speak to those needs. Research, data review, and experimentation with different tactics to determine their effectiveness with different audiences draw on skills commonly used in psychology, including those associated with research and data analysis.
How Do Marketing Professionals Use Psychology?
Effective marketers combine marketing and psychology, using psychology-based strategies along with research on consumers, competitors, and trends to design campaigns that encourage their targeted audience to act in a certain way. Below are three of the ways that marketers use psychological principles and strategies in their work.
Telling Stories
Marketers develop campaigns that incorporate storytelling, using narratives that elicit responses associated with psychological principles. This strategy draws on the tendency for people to connect products, companies, or organizations with outcomes illustrated through narratives and the emotions that those stories evoke.
Using Colors
Effective marketing commonly relies on strategic use of color, with brands selecting which hues to feature based on color psychology. A company that wants its marketing to convey excitement might feature red in its marketing, based on its knowledge of how people respond to different hues.
Providing Proof
Social proof, which comprises evidence of others’ experience with a product or service, is another marketing tactic that draws on psychological concepts. Because people often base their own opinions or behaviors on the authority of others, providing testimonials or positive reviews can build trust.
Benefits of a Degree in Psychology for a Career in Marketing
A degree in psychology can prepare students for a wide variety of careers that go beyond traditional psychologist roles.
Marketing is an example of a career outside psychology that can be a perfect fit for the degree. A psychology background can provide knowledge and experience that set the stage for a marketing career, helping students develop expertise in the following areas:
Behavior: Psychology degree programs generally center on the study of human behavior, which can give graduates a leg up in understanding and responding to the ways that people are likely to think and feel and applying psychological principles that guide those tendencies.
Research: A cornerstone of psychology is research and experimentation. Individuals with psychology degrees are well equipped to conduct the audience research, data analysis, and strategy experimentation that inform successful marketing campaigns.
Communication: Psychology majors understand how people are likely to react to different types of communication, making these graduates good candidates to develop targeted marketing communication strategies.
In some cases, psychology degree programs offer students the opportunity to take one or more classes in marketing as part of the curriculum, further preparing them to combine marketing and psychology in their careers.
Build Psychology Knowledge for Marketing Roles
Whether you aspire to a marketing career or already are a marketing professional, Wilson College Online’s Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Psychology degree program can help you develop the psychology knowledge you need.
The program offers courses in various types of psychology that can set the stage for marketing campaigns that inspire audiences to act. You’ll also have the option to study marketing management, helping you target your psychology expertise to the marketing field.
Additionally, the program’s asynchronous online courses provide the opportunity to complete classes at times and locations that accommodate your schedule.
Discover how the Wilson College Online B.A. in Psychology program can put you on the path to achieving your career goals.
Recommended Readings
Psychology Career Paths After Earning a Bachelor’s Degree
Sociology vs. Psychology: Key Similarities and Differences
What Does a Market Research Analyst Do?
Sources:
American Marketing Association, Definitions of Marketing
Crowdspring, Marketing Psychology: 21 Key Principles of Human Behavior
Intuit Mailchimp, “Marketing Psychology: Learn the Principles of Psychology in Marketing”
NeuroLaunch, Marketing Psychology: Leveraging Consumer Behavior for Effective Campaigns
Verywell Mind, “How Color Psychology Affects Moods, Feelings, and Behaviors”
