EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT
NEUROMARKETING
BUT DIDN’T KNOW WHO TO ASK!
Extracts From A Fuller Paper
By
Dr David Lewis BSc (Hons), D.Phil. FISMA, FINSTD, C.Psychol
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR NEUROCO Ltd
For purchase details about the full report, please contact Neuroco
at 01932 844177 or e-mail info@neuroco.com
2
What is Neuromarketing ?
In a recent article On Measuring the Power of Communications, Dr Bruce Hall
commented that, over the last twenty-five years: “Copy-testing has not benefited
from significant innovation…Issues that emerged over half a century ago continue to
divide the industry.” (1)
During this same period of time researchers have discovered more about the
workings of the human brain than throughout the entire previous history of
psychology and neuroscience.
Their findings, combined with advances in technology and software
development, now make it possible to record and analyse what is going on in the
minds of consumers with a high degree of precision and sophistication.
The result is the new discipline of Neuromarketing, whose conclusions are
sufficiently reliable to take their place alongside more traditional market research
methodologies, offering both confirmation for their findings and invaluable
additional insights into the mental processes underlying consumer decision making
and behaviour.
As with neuroscience in general the ultimate goal of Neuromarketing is to
understand how the brain produces behaviour. Fundamentally, therefore,
Neuromarketing is a biological science. It is the study of how humans choose and
such choice is inescapably a biological process. Truly understanding how and why
humans make the choices they do will undoubtedly require a Neuromarketing
science.
(1) Journal of Advertising Research Vol 44. No 2. June 2oo4. pp 181 - 187
3
How is information about brain function obtained?
Two main forms of brain activity analysis are currently used in Neuromarketing
– fMRI and QEEG. Although at Neuroco we do not believe, for reasons which will be
explained in a moment, that fMRI will make a significant contribution to market
research, since it is currently being used for this purpose the approach will be briefly
described here.
The acronym fMRI stands for functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging a
technique which uses a powerful magnet and radio waves to create high resolution
images of the living brain.
Developed in the early 1990s fMRI is a variation of magnetic resonance imaging
which takes advantage of two phenomena. The first is that blood contains iron (the
oxygen-carrying part of haemoglobin) inside red blood cells and these atoms cause
small distortions in the magnetic field around them. Secondly, when any part of the
brain becomes active, the small blood vessels in that specific region dilate, causing
more blood to flow into that region so as to provide the additional oxygen and fuel
(glucose) required by these more active brain cells. As a result a large amount of
freshly oxygenated blood pours into any active regions of the brain reducing the
amount of oxygen-free (deoxy-) haemoglobin and causing a small change in the
magnetic field and, consequently, in the MRI signal, in the active region.
The result is usually displayed as a patchy area of colour, representing the brain
area activated, superimposed upon a conventional, high-resolution, grey-scale
image of the subject's brain. Although undoubtedly seductive the colourful brain
images produced are the result of high level computer processing and cannot be
interpreted “without a detailed understanding of the analytical methods by which
they are generated.” (2)
4
(2) Nature Neuroscience 7, page 683 (2004)
How has fMRI been used in Neuromarketing?
Although still not widely used, two well publicised examples are a study at
Baylor College of Medicine in Houston which showed that the brain registers a
preference for Coke or Pepsi similar to that chosen by the subjects in blind taste
tests.
In another study, conducted by Richard Silberstein a neuroscientist with the
Brain Sciences Institute at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne,
Australia, it would found that successful advertisements generate both high levels of
emotional engagement and long-term memory encoding.
How viable a technology is fMRI in Neuromarketing
While fMRI provides a detailed record of brain activity at any particular time the
procedure is fraught with problems when it comes to using it for the purposes of
commercial Neuromarketing research.
MRI scanners are large and cumbersome pieces of equipment which must be
used within specialist locations such as hospitals or clinics.
Only one volunteer can be tested at a time and for many the experience may
prove so disagreeable they are unable to continue. Although the process is
considered absolutely harmless the noise made by the machine causes many patients
to feel uncomfortable while any who are even mildly claustrophobic may panic.
Worldwide some 7 per cent of patients scheduled to receive a brain scan for
medical reasons prove unsuitable for this reason. Even when only mildly
apprehensive their heightened arousal seems likely to have a profound influence on
responses to commercial messages which have to be directed onto the volunteers’
very limited field of vision either using a mirror or goggles equipped with miniature
television screens.
5
The individual is instructed not to respond to what she, or he, sees and hears
with any sudden movement since this will distort the scan. All of which means, of
course, that the surroundings are highly artificial and seem likely to introduce a
significant bias into any results.
As a recent article in Nature Neuroscience commented, the results are:
"Invariably produced under controlled laboratory conditions and it is a major leap to
extrapolate to a genetically and culturally diverse population of people in an almost
infinite variety of real world situations."
QEEG – Quantified Electroencephalography:
Interest in using QEEG for market research goes back to at least the early
‘seventies.
The difference between these early studies and the approach which I have
developed over the past twenty years lies in the ease with which information can be
both obtained and analysed.
Evidence from brain imaging methods such a Electroencephalography (QEEG)
and event-related potentials (ERP) analysis, topographic QEEG and statistical
probability mapping has unequivocally established that aspects of consumer
cognition and emotional responses to commercial messages, occurring below the
level of conscious awareness, can be successfully monitored in real time and
analysed with sufficient depth and accuracy to provide an invaluable window on
their inner decision making processes.
Of all the imaging modalities currently being employed in the fledgling field of
Neuromarketing QEEG, is the most practical, convenient and cost effective using
relatively simple and compact equipment capable of quantitatively assessing brain
activity with a high degree of sensitivity and temporal resolution.
6
If it is so powerful why has Neuromarketing been so slow to establish
itself in market research?
There seem to be three main reasons. First, the early studies, which were based
on visual inspection of conventional EEG paper traces, were viewed as too nonspecific
to be of any genuine commercial value. Second, a majority of recent
academic papers reporting significant results have been published mainly in
specialized electrophysiological or brain research journals which, unsurprisingly, are
not generally read by market researchers. Finally there is the suspicion, discussed
below, that there is something sinister about measuring brain activity directly rather
than through the filters of questionnaires, surveys and focus groups.
How does Neuromarketing fit in with more traditional research
methods?
Despite its undoubted power and ability to provide unique insights, on a real
time basis, into brain function during exposure to commercial messages of all types,
it is not my contention that QEEG – in the light of current knowledge - should be
seen as in any way replacing current research methodologies. Rather it should be
seen as offering an adjunctive tool capable of providing market researchers,
advertisers and brand managers with invaluable additional information that could
not be obtained by other procedures.
While Neuromarketing should be regarded as an adjunct to, rather a
replacement for, established market research techniques, it has the ability to open
windows on the human mind that would otherwise remain closed to even the most
determined and skilled inspection.
7
As cognitive psychologists George Lakoff and Rafael Nunez rightly point out:
“Most of our thought is unconscious – that is, fundamentally inaccessible to our
direct, conscious introspection. Most everyday thinking occurs too fast and at too
low a level in the mind to be accessible. Most cognitions happen backstage.”
(Lakoff & Nunez, 2000)
What ethical issues are involved?
In the minds of some, Neuromarketing raises disturbing questions about the
extent to which advertising agencies, market researchers and their clients should be
allowed to invade the privacy of consumers and the supposed power this will give
them to manipulate purchasing decisions.
Gary Ruskin, who heads Commercial Alert, the Portland, Oregon based
consumer rights organisation founded by Ralph Nader, for example, is reported as
saying: “Even a small increase in advertising efficiency could boost advertisingrelated
diseases such as obesity.” (3)
Alarmist comments such as these combined with sometimes overly sensational
press stories have served to heighten the Orwellian distrust felt by some about these
procedures. Such fears unfounded fears arise from a misunderstanding of the
complexity of the human brain and the limits of current technology.
As I wrote recently in Research, the journal of the Market Research Society:
“No reputable neuroscientist would claim that we are capable of either explaining
or predicting real world decision making and the idea that the procedure will enable
us to identify a “buy-button” in the brain is utterly implausible.” (4)
Contrary to a popular belief, therefore, Neuromarketing will never allow
unscrupulous companies or individuals to manipulate the minds of consumers or
make it possible to devise an “irresistible sales pitch” for products they neither like
nor need.
8
What it can do, however, is to improve the ways in which companies create and
disseminate their commercial messages so as to make them more immediately
interesting, appealing and valuable to the target audience.
In the words of US Neuromarketing specialist Joey Reiman: “Our goal is to
change company, not consumer, behaviour.” (4)
(3) Cited in “They Know What You Want” by Emily Singer, New Scientist, 31 July, 2004.
pp 36-37
(4) Research, August 2004. Issue 459. Pages 16-17
(5) New Scientist, 31 July, 2004.
What services does Neuroco offer ?
The many types of market research information which Neuroco is able to
provide include:
1] Identifying which one of several early edits - or animate versions - of a TV is
most likely to be memorable and generate positive emotions towards the brand.
2] Reveal the extent to which viewers are processing the information in an
advertisement logically and analytically or imaginatively emotionally.
3] Indicate the extent to which viewer attention is maintained at the point of
branding in a radio or television commercial occurs.
4] Track subconscious responses to different package designs.
5] When used in conjunction with eye-tracking equipment identify which
specific aspects of flat art advertising, such as a billboard or magazine display, is
most and least engaging attention.
6] Measure the extent to which accompanying music adds to or subtracts from
the overall intended message.
7] Reveal what is happening in the consumers mind as he, or she, studies
different design features for a new product, new idea of a car, a computer or hi-fi.
9
8] Show whether a target group is more likely to prove receptive to visual or
auditory messages.
9] Indicate the colour most likely to be successful with a new product.
10] Demonstrate the extent to which a window display will capture the attention
of passers-by and generate a desire to make a purchase.
11] Reveal subconscious responses to a new fragrance, aroma or flavour.
12] Confirm findings from other types of market research, such as focus groups,
surveys and “interest lever” studies.
Ends.
For purchase details about the full report, please contact Neuroco
at 01932 844177 or e-mail info@neuroco.com
NEUROMARKETING
BUT DIDN’T KNOW WHO TO ASK!
Extracts From A Fuller Paper
By
Dr David Lewis BSc (Hons), D.Phil. FISMA, FINSTD, C.Psychol
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR NEUROCO Ltd
For purchase details about the full report, please contact Neuroco
at 01932 844177 or e-mail info@neuroco.com
2
What is Neuromarketing ?
In a recent article On Measuring the Power of Communications, Dr Bruce Hall
commented that, over the last twenty-five years: “Copy-testing has not benefited
from significant innovation…Issues that emerged over half a century ago continue to
divide the industry.” (1)
During this same period of time researchers have discovered more about the
workings of the human brain than throughout the entire previous history of
psychology and neuroscience.
Their findings, combined with advances in technology and software
development, now make it possible to record and analyse what is going on in the
minds of consumers with a high degree of precision and sophistication.
The result is the new discipline of Neuromarketing, whose conclusions are
sufficiently reliable to take their place alongside more traditional market research
methodologies, offering both confirmation for their findings and invaluable
additional insights into the mental processes underlying consumer decision making
and behaviour.
As with neuroscience in general the ultimate goal of Neuromarketing is to
understand how the brain produces behaviour. Fundamentally, therefore,
Neuromarketing is a biological science. It is the study of how humans choose and
such choice is inescapably a biological process. Truly understanding how and why
humans make the choices they do will undoubtedly require a Neuromarketing
science.
(1) Journal of Advertising Research Vol 44. No 2. June 2oo4. pp 181 - 187
3
How is information about brain function obtained?
Two main forms of brain activity analysis are currently used in Neuromarketing
– fMRI and QEEG. Although at Neuroco we do not believe, for reasons which will be
explained in a moment, that fMRI will make a significant contribution to market
research, since it is currently being used for this purpose the approach will be briefly
described here.
The acronym fMRI stands for functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging a
technique which uses a powerful magnet and radio waves to create high resolution
images of the living brain.
Developed in the early 1990s fMRI is a variation of magnetic resonance imaging
which takes advantage of two phenomena. The first is that blood contains iron (the
oxygen-carrying part of haemoglobin) inside red blood cells and these atoms cause
small distortions in the magnetic field around them. Secondly, when any part of the
brain becomes active, the small blood vessels in that specific region dilate, causing
more blood to flow into that region so as to provide the additional oxygen and fuel
(glucose) required by these more active brain cells. As a result a large amount of
freshly oxygenated blood pours into any active regions of the brain reducing the
amount of oxygen-free (deoxy-) haemoglobin and causing a small change in the
magnetic field and, consequently, in the MRI signal, in the active region.
The result is usually displayed as a patchy area of colour, representing the brain
area activated, superimposed upon a conventional, high-resolution, grey-scale
image of the subject's brain. Although undoubtedly seductive the colourful brain
images produced are the result of high level computer processing and cannot be
interpreted “without a detailed understanding of the analytical methods by which
they are generated.” (2)
4
(2) Nature Neuroscience 7, page 683 (2004)
How has fMRI been used in Neuromarketing?
Although still not widely used, two well publicised examples are a study at
Baylor College of Medicine in Houston which showed that the brain registers a
preference for Coke or Pepsi similar to that chosen by the subjects in blind taste
tests.
In another study, conducted by Richard Silberstein a neuroscientist with the
Brain Sciences Institute at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne,
Australia, it would found that successful advertisements generate both high levels of
emotional engagement and long-term memory encoding.
How viable a technology is fMRI in Neuromarketing
While fMRI provides a detailed record of brain activity at any particular time the
procedure is fraught with problems when it comes to using it for the purposes of
commercial Neuromarketing research.
MRI scanners are large and cumbersome pieces of equipment which must be
used within specialist locations such as hospitals or clinics.
Only one volunteer can be tested at a time and for many the experience may
prove so disagreeable they are unable to continue. Although the process is
considered absolutely harmless the noise made by the machine causes many patients
to feel uncomfortable while any who are even mildly claustrophobic may panic.
Worldwide some 7 per cent of patients scheduled to receive a brain scan for
medical reasons prove unsuitable for this reason. Even when only mildly
apprehensive their heightened arousal seems likely to have a profound influence on
responses to commercial messages which have to be directed onto the volunteers’
very limited field of vision either using a mirror or goggles equipped with miniature
television screens.
5
The individual is instructed not to respond to what she, or he, sees and hears
with any sudden movement since this will distort the scan. All of which means, of
course, that the surroundings are highly artificial and seem likely to introduce a
significant bias into any results.
As a recent article in Nature Neuroscience commented, the results are:
"Invariably produced under controlled laboratory conditions and it is a major leap to
extrapolate to a genetically and culturally diverse population of people in an almost
infinite variety of real world situations."
QEEG – Quantified Electroencephalography:
Interest in using QEEG for market research goes back to at least the early
‘seventies.
The difference between these early studies and the approach which I have
developed over the past twenty years lies in the ease with which information can be
both obtained and analysed.
Evidence from brain imaging methods such a Electroencephalography (QEEG)
and event-related potentials (ERP) analysis, topographic QEEG and statistical
probability mapping has unequivocally established that aspects of consumer
cognition and emotional responses to commercial messages, occurring below the
level of conscious awareness, can be successfully monitored in real time and
analysed with sufficient depth and accuracy to provide an invaluable window on
their inner decision making processes.
Of all the imaging modalities currently being employed in the fledgling field of
Neuromarketing QEEG, is the most practical, convenient and cost effective using
relatively simple and compact equipment capable of quantitatively assessing brain
activity with a high degree of sensitivity and temporal resolution.
6
If it is so powerful why has Neuromarketing been so slow to establish
itself in market research?
There seem to be three main reasons. First, the early studies, which were based
on visual inspection of conventional EEG paper traces, were viewed as too nonspecific
to be of any genuine commercial value. Second, a majority of recent
academic papers reporting significant results have been published mainly in
specialized electrophysiological or brain research journals which, unsurprisingly, are
not generally read by market researchers. Finally there is the suspicion, discussed
below, that there is something sinister about measuring brain activity directly rather
than through the filters of questionnaires, surveys and focus groups.
How does Neuromarketing fit in with more traditional research
methods?
Despite its undoubted power and ability to provide unique insights, on a real
time basis, into brain function during exposure to commercial messages of all types,
it is not my contention that QEEG – in the light of current knowledge - should be
seen as in any way replacing current research methodologies. Rather it should be
seen as offering an adjunctive tool capable of providing market researchers,
advertisers and brand managers with invaluable additional information that could
not be obtained by other procedures.
While Neuromarketing should be regarded as an adjunct to, rather a
replacement for, established market research techniques, it has the ability to open
windows on the human mind that would otherwise remain closed to even the most
determined and skilled inspection.
7
As cognitive psychologists George Lakoff and Rafael Nunez rightly point out:
“Most of our thought is unconscious – that is, fundamentally inaccessible to our
direct, conscious introspection. Most everyday thinking occurs too fast and at too
low a level in the mind to be accessible. Most cognitions happen backstage.”
(Lakoff & Nunez, 2000)
What ethical issues are involved?
In the minds of some, Neuromarketing raises disturbing questions about the
extent to which advertising agencies, market researchers and their clients should be
allowed to invade the privacy of consumers and the supposed power this will give
them to manipulate purchasing decisions.
Gary Ruskin, who heads Commercial Alert, the Portland, Oregon based
consumer rights organisation founded by Ralph Nader, for example, is reported as
saying: “Even a small increase in advertising efficiency could boost advertisingrelated
diseases such as obesity.” (3)
Alarmist comments such as these combined with sometimes overly sensational
press stories have served to heighten the Orwellian distrust felt by some about these
procedures. Such fears unfounded fears arise from a misunderstanding of the
complexity of the human brain and the limits of current technology.
As I wrote recently in Research, the journal of the Market Research Society:
“No reputable neuroscientist would claim that we are capable of either explaining
or predicting real world decision making and the idea that the procedure will enable
us to identify a “buy-button” in the brain is utterly implausible.” (4)
Contrary to a popular belief, therefore, Neuromarketing will never allow
unscrupulous companies or individuals to manipulate the minds of consumers or
make it possible to devise an “irresistible sales pitch” for products they neither like
nor need.
8
What it can do, however, is to improve the ways in which companies create and
disseminate their commercial messages so as to make them more immediately
interesting, appealing and valuable to the target audience.
In the words of US Neuromarketing specialist Joey Reiman: “Our goal is to
change company, not consumer, behaviour.” (4)
(3) Cited in “They Know What You Want” by Emily Singer, New Scientist, 31 July, 2004.
pp 36-37
(4) Research, August 2004. Issue 459. Pages 16-17
(5) New Scientist, 31 July, 2004.
What services does Neuroco offer ?
The many types of market research information which Neuroco is able to
provide include:
1] Identifying which one of several early edits - or animate versions - of a TV is
most likely to be memorable and generate positive emotions towards the brand.
2] Reveal the extent to which viewers are processing the information in an
advertisement logically and analytically or imaginatively emotionally.
3] Indicate the extent to which viewer attention is maintained at the point of
branding in a radio or television commercial occurs.
4] Track subconscious responses to different package designs.
5] When used in conjunction with eye-tracking equipment identify which
specific aspects of flat art advertising, such as a billboard or magazine display, is
most and least engaging attention.
6] Measure the extent to which accompanying music adds to or subtracts from
the overall intended message.
7] Reveal what is happening in the consumers mind as he, or she, studies
different design features for a new product, new idea of a car, a computer or hi-fi.
9
8] Show whether a target group is more likely to prove receptive to visual or
auditory messages.
9] Indicate the colour most likely to be successful with a new product.
10] Demonstrate the extent to which a window display will capture the attention
of passers-by and generate a desire to make a purchase.
11] Reveal subconscious responses to a new fragrance, aroma or flavour.
12] Confirm findings from other types of market research, such as focus groups,
surveys and “interest lever” studies.
Ends.
For purchase details about the full report, please contact Neuroco
at 01932 844177 or e-mail info@neuroco.com
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