The Definition of Neuromarketing
Neuromarketing uses brain imaging, scans, and other technologies to gather the complete mental and emotional response of test subjects who have been exposed to a brand, product, promotion, or otherwise, in order to better understand, and potentially manipulate, consumer behaviors. Some say, neuromarketing is equivalent to having the power to read minds.
Let’s See How Neuromarketing Works
What if, as Nobel Laureate Francis Crick claims in The Astonishing Hypothesis, all of our mental activities are merely the result of nerve cells, glial cells, and their atoms and ions, doing what they all do?
In other words, what if aaaaall of your joys, pains, sorrows, memories, fears, and ambitions, even your free will and personal identity, are what they are because of the neural activity in your brain?
Crick’s concept is the basis from which neuromarketing has evolved, revealing that with the use of neurobiology we can eliminate uncertainties about consumer behaviors and, perhaps, even manipulate them.
A Brief History of Neuromarketing
Over the past several years neuromarketing methods have been more than validated, and yet marketers still struggle to understand neuromarketing techniques.
But, before we get into how neuromarketing is used, let’s back up and take a closer look at the fundamentals of neuromarketing. According to the Harvard Business Review,
Why is Neuromarketing Important to Know About?
Well… although this is becoming more of an emerging trend now, we (veteran marketers) have been fascinated by this science since the mid 2000’s when researchers first demonstrated an ability to produce measurable results of neuroscience’s impact on advertising, branding, and other marketing tactics.
The neuromarketing pessimists, however, countered with the message that you don’t need an expensive neuroscience experiment to tell you things like; a test group of subjects who were each given three different wines to sample (after knowing the price of each) chose the most expensive as their favorite – even though all of the wines were the same.
Some marketers, in turn, still appreciate neuromarketing discoveries like understanding how a person’s feelings for a product differ when you’ve shown them the price of the product before you’ve revealed the product itself vs. showing them the product first and then the price.
In That Case, Here’s A Practical Example of How Neuromarketing Works
Consider a time when you’ve purchased something from your favorite brand, at a brand new price. Were you disappointed with the bang for your buck? Probably not. Something about that purchase, whatever the cost, made it a “must have” and you were happy when you got it.
When a brand is unfamiliar, or launching something new, and the price comes before the product, the first question you will ask yourself is, “is this worth the price?” As opposed to seeing the product before the price, in which case you’ll wonder, “hmmm, do I like this?”
Now, don’t you wish it was that easy to understand how to use neuromarketing to steer people into wanting to give you their all for whatever it is you have to offer?
Keep Reading!
For more on the earliest studies that led to foundational breakthroughs in neuromarketing, take a peek at the 2004 Emory University study. In this case, subject’s who demonstrated a consistent neural response when blindly drinking both Coca Cola and Pepsi, later showed enhanced activity in the limbic structures of their brains (the section responsible for emotions, memories, and your unconscious) showing that the subject’s preexisting knowledge of each brand altered how they felt about the beverages when they were able to see who they belonged to.
The Most Used Neuromarketing Tools & The Neuromarketing Quizlet
Now that you know how neuromarketing can help you understand your audience, let’s talk about some of the neuromarketing tools that are available.
fMRI and EEG brain scanning are the two primary brain scan tools used in neuromarketing. An fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) tracks changes in blood flow across the brain with the use of strong magnetic fields that are administered over long periods of time; while the person being monitored lies inside an imaging machine.
An EEG (electroencephalogram) requires the use of sensors, which are applied to the individual’s scalp in order to read and monitor brain activity over fractions of a second. While the EEG is just fast enough to keep up with our rapid brain waves, what it offers in speed it lacks in accuracy. Unlike the fMRI, an EEG is deficient in its ability to pinpoint exactly where the monitored activity in the brain is coming from. An fMRI, by comparison, can dive deep into your brain where all of the exciting action is taking place.
Why then do many marketers make EEG monitoring their preferred choice for neuromarketing tools? Think of the fMRI as the free diver of neuromarketing tools. It can dive deep into your brain, but it can’t last but more than several seconds down there. A factor that may cause this test to miss valuable micro incidents that could be beneficial to your study. Oh, and not to mention, fMRI equipment typically costs a cool $5 million, vs the slightly more affordable EEG setup that will run you around $20,000.
Ready to learn neuromarketing basics?
Jumpstart your vocabulary with this neuromarketing Quizlet.
As continued advancements are made in neuromarketing studies, eye tracking measurements, via the eye’s fixation points, and facial expression coding are being used to measure emotional response; while heart rate, skin conductivity, and respiration rates have helped us to understand and measure arousal.
Is Neuromarketing the next big thing?
We predict that neuromarketing probably won’t be a takeover trend anytime soon; though brain scans are likely to increase in popularity, in spite of negative neuromarketing sentiments from skeptics. And, people will definitely be talking about it – even if they aren’t doing it.
The Negative Neuromarketing Narrative
Ming Hsu, a marketing professor at UC Berkeley commented the following in a 2017 California Management Review article: “The prevailing attitude…can be summarized as… ‘neuroscience either tells me what I already know, or it tells me something new that I don’t care about.’” In other words, the most beneficial advancements in marketing strategy that are owed to neuromarketing, aren’t entirely different from the ones that have been captured via simpler methods, like behavioral studies.
Still, we continue to be fascinated by our inner workings, learning things like; did you know that an iPhone user’s feelings towards their phones are the same as feelings of romantic love? Though 44 academics made it known that they really didn’t like that “discovery”.
As long as science doesn’t cease, neuromarketing may one day get the spotlight it deserves. Advancements have come even more quickly in recent years, many of which have started to validate the earliest (and originally the most outrageous) claims that neuromarketing gives its practitioners the power to “read minds”.
And just as that iPhone you may or may not be in romantic love with got better and better over the years (to the point where, even you, don’t break them anymore), the science surrounding neuromarketing has become much more solid as well.
Check out this breakdown from Walden University that explains exactly how neuromarketing is being used today:
- Testing Ads: Major ad campaigns don’t reach the consumer until after they complete focus group testing. Now, some marketers are using neuro-scanning to add a second level of scrutiny. When people’s brains are scanned while being shown an ad, scientists can see what parts of each person’s brain “light up” with activity, revealing whether the person is pleased, upset, excited, bored, etc. This can give a more accurate reading of how people are responding to an ad than simply relying on focus groups.
- Optimizing Design: Prior to neuromarketing, most designers followed standard design principles and assumed that was good enough. But with neuro-scanning technology, designers can learn exactly where a consumer’s gaze is falling on any particular design. This has helped marketers better lay out print ads and websites to ensure consumers’ gazes are falling on the most important information first.
- Improving Packaging: Neuromarketing can help marketers determine the appeal of a product’s packaging before it even hits the shelves. One famous case of this involves Frito-Lay.1 When the company wanted to improve sales among women, they learned that many women didn’t buy potato chips because they felt guilty. But through the power of neuromarketing, the company discovered that packaging that used softer colors and pictures of the ingredients in the chips lessoned the sense of guilt. Frito-Lay used the results to redo the packaging for most of their product line.
- Choosing the Perfect Color: Neuroscience tells us that colors are deeply tied to our emotions. Experts in marketing have taken this research and refined it for the purpose of attracting the right consumer to the right product. For example, cold, dark colors (violet, navy, etc.) connote stability and quality and are good for automotive companies and government agencies. On the other hand, cold, bright colors (silver, turquoise, etc.) connote modernity and professionalism and are good for health and cosmetic products.2
- Product Placement: We want choice, right? Well, neuroscientists have learned that when we’re presented with a lot of choices, we often opt to make no choice at all.3 This discovery has helped stores and marketers better engineer displays so that consumers stop and look rather than become overwhelmed by the options and move on.
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