January 2010 | accjjournal.com | 19
Dominic Carter The more
progressive
marketers among
us have begun to
talk about using
consumer “conversations”
as a prime source of market
information and inspiration.
Under this conversational
model, somewhat organic, even
anarchic communities are set
up online. Members are free
to swap stories and opinions
about the category, the brand
and themselves – working with
us to enhance a brand that is,
self-evidently, a part of their
life. Some have even gone as far
as to invite members to create
their own ads – with mixed
results that do not always
flatter. It’s part of so-called Web
2.0, and it's all about enlisting
consumers as partners and cocreators.
It's a brave new world
where the consumer is king,
and marketers have to fight for
every moment they give us.
These so-called conversations
are, undoubtedly, a positive
development in the way we
interact with our consumers
and our community, and it is
technology we have to thank
for them. But there is another
technology coming over the
horizon that doesn’t remotely
rely on speaking. Enter the
world of neuro-marketing. If,
like me, you have ever puzzled
over why consumers do the
things they do and are, at
times, so unpredictable, then
this is the technology for you.
Why trouble yourself with
questioning and listening to
people post-rationalize when
we are able to hook them
up to relatively unobtrusive
machines, read the electrical
patterns in their brain and infer
a decision-making process
that they themselves are not
even aware of? I write this
with my tongue perhaps not
fully in my cheek. Make no
mistake, this is not a fantasy
technology. It is being used
here and now in Japan to help
the most innovative marketers
hone their product offering and
advertising appeals.
The applications of
direct neural measurement
in marketing and
communications are many.
From fine tuning TV
commercials, to choosing
the most emotionally (and
neurally) harmonious media,
articles and programs to put
them in, to choosing how to
craft a knock-out persuasive
message, neurological
measurement brings a laser
level of insight that translates
into real world results.
But are we reaching a point
where we are unreasonably
intruding into the minds
of unwitting research
subjects? Have our subjects
really thought through how
involuntary the yielding of
their feedback is? Can they
really be giving informed
consent when they participate
in such an intimate process?
Are we getting to the point
where the consumer’s freedom
of choice is compromised? And
is the well-worn but flimsy
argument about people being
forced to do things they don’t
want to do through advertising
actually not so flimsy anymore?
What are the implications of
Crossing
over
this beyond marketing, into
politics?
If those ethical concerns are
valid ones, then this technology
will be a marketer’s dream.
The power of the technology
concerns me but, as a
researcher, I could never argue
against progress. At the end
of the day, we are looking at
a technology that promises
unheard of efficiencies in
marketing and communication
investment. In the current
economic climate there is no
way this will not be of interest
to business. I just hope we can
augment our more intrusive,
and, I might add, necessary,
efforts at consumer intimacy
with the respect that comes
through conversation.
Dominic Carter is the President
of Japan-based market research
agency Carter Associates.
www.carterassociates.net
Illustration by phil couzens
Neuro-marketing promises to reveal
what consumers really think
Are we getting to
the point where
the consumer’s
freedom of choice is
compromised?
Dominic Carter The more
progressive
marketers among
us have begun to
talk about using
consumer “conversations”
as a prime source of market
information and inspiration.
Under this conversational
model, somewhat organic, even
anarchic communities are set
up online. Members are free
to swap stories and opinions
about the category, the brand
and themselves – working with
us to enhance a brand that is,
self-evidently, a part of their
life. Some have even gone as far
as to invite members to create
their own ads – with mixed
results that do not always
flatter. It’s part of so-called Web
2.0, and it's all about enlisting
consumers as partners and cocreators.
It's a brave new world
where the consumer is king,
and marketers have to fight for
every moment they give us.
These so-called conversations
are, undoubtedly, a positive
development in the way we
interact with our consumers
and our community, and it is
technology we have to thank
for them. But there is another
technology coming over the
horizon that doesn’t remotely
rely on speaking. Enter the
world of neuro-marketing. If,
like me, you have ever puzzled
over why consumers do the
things they do and are, at
times, so unpredictable, then
this is the technology for you.
Why trouble yourself with
questioning and listening to
people post-rationalize when
we are able to hook them
up to relatively unobtrusive
machines, read the electrical
patterns in their brain and infer
a decision-making process
that they themselves are not
even aware of? I write this
with my tongue perhaps not
fully in my cheek. Make no
mistake, this is not a fantasy
technology. It is being used
here and now in Japan to help
the most innovative marketers
hone their product offering and
advertising appeals.
The applications of
direct neural measurement
in marketing and
communications are many.
From fine tuning TV
commercials, to choosing
the most emotionally (and
neurally) harmonious media,
articles and programs to put
them in, to choosing how to
craft a knock-out persuasive
message, neurological
measurement brings a laser
level of insight that translates
into real world results.
But are we reaching a point
where we are unreasonably
intruding into the minds
of unwitting research
subjects? Have our subjects
really thought through how
involuntary the yielding of
their feedback is? Can they
really be giving informed
consent when they participate
in such an intimate process?
Are we getting to the point
where the consumer’s freedom
of choice is compromised? And
is the well-worn but flimsy
argument about people being
forced to do things they don’t
want to do through advertising
actually not so flimsy anymore?
What are the implications of
Crossing
over
this beyond marketing, into
politics?
If those ethical concerns are
valid ones, then this technology
will be a marketer’s dream.
The power of the technology
concerns me but, as a
researcher, I could never argue
against progress. At the end
of the day, we are looking at
a technology that promises
unheard of efficiencies in
marketing and communication
investment. In the current
economic climate there is no
way this will not be of interest
to business. I just hope we can
augment our more intrusive,
and, I might add, necessary,
efforts at consumer intimacy
with the respect that comes
through conversation.
Dominic Carter is the President
of Japan-based market research
agency Carter Associates.
www.carterassociates.net
Illustration by phil couzens
Neuro-marketing promises to reveal
what consumers really think
Are we getting to
the point where
the consumer’s
freedom of choice is
compromised?
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