Not many years ago, the concept of “neuromarketing” was presented as a revolutionary discipline. Introduced as the newest buzz word along such topics as neuroscience, emotions, sensory, unconscious, subliminal, neuromarketing was presented as the key to understanding consumer behavior. Those most passionate about the subject promised companies that it could even help them read their client’s minds.
As the concept continues to evolve, enthusiasm around neuromarketing has turned into an interesting debate regarding its reach, ethics and reliability. Now some even say it's time to give the practice its rightful place in the scientific community.
But first, what is neuromarketing? Roberto Álvarez, a researcher from the IE Business School, defines it as “the fusion of knowledge of neuroscience, economics and marketing.” In other words, it is the applied studies and technologies withiin the field of neurology -- such as functional magnetic resonance, electroencephalography and transcraneal magnetic resonance -- to determine the brain’s reactions to certain stimuli or tasks.
“From the marketing point of view, we are interested in establishing a link between the emotional reactions in the brain to stimuli or tasks," says Álvarez. "Some 95% of the decisions we take are basically emotional. Only the remaining 5% represent a rational process that takes place outside the emotional decision, often to justify it.”
Getting to know these cerebral reactions gives companies the opportunity to construct predictive behavior models for consumers, and with it allegiance to both specific products and brands. The potential economic payoff is vast.
The latest advancement in the field strives to adjust and improve the stimuli to which groups of people will be exposed, until they find the “perfect brain reaction and response to both the adequate and the ideal,” explains Álvarez. The five senses are targeted, adjusting smell, colors, sounds, textures and temperatures.
The director for the Neuroeconomics Centre in the Diego Portales University in Chile, René San Martín, notes that neuromarketing today appears more as an “entrepreneurial effort than as a scientific or academic one. It is very hard to find an academic department in a University that dedicates to neuromarketing.”
Powers of persuasion
Neuromarketing has defenders and detractors. Some have categorized it as a pseudoscience. Critics say it lacks scientific studies that validate or revise findings. Indeed, most attention to the discipline comes from the private sector, and not academia. The companies will use their findings to eventually implement them in commercial strategies. And, obviously, companies compete and don’t want the neighbor to find out. “Part of the status of science of our time has to do with passing through a process of revision. Neuromarketing doesn’t offer that,” confirms San Martín.
Álvarez counters that the discipline is in the beginning stages, and “have a very solid scientific base whose results are extraordinarily positive.” He adds that much of the negative criticism around it is due to prejudice because of lack of knowledge and reactions to fear of change.
The ethical side of neuromarketing is also up for debate. Is it ethical, for example, for a store to use stimuli in order to induce them to purchase something that otherwise they wouldn’t buy?
Miguel Muñoz, CEO of Conecta Research & Consulting, who has a PhD from the University of Edinburg warns that the ethical component arises the moment we accept to utilize knowledge of perception and decision-making in human beings.
San Martín says persuasion was not invented by neuromarketing, and historically has also been used in political campaigns in modern democracies. He does, however, acknowledge that it is hard to know how powerful such techniques could become as neuromarketing research advances.
“There must be the proper use of knowledge," he says. "It is the people’s responsibility to know about the tools that are used to persuade us."
With the purchase of innovativeneuromarketing firm NeuroFocus in
May of this year, Nielsen hasexpanded into one of the few major areas of market research in which it did not (until now) have a significant presence, and embraced a new, unique approach to consumer marketing.
Simply put, NeuroFocus' speciality, neuromarketing, involves the study of a subject's subconscious reactions to certain brands in order to deduce whether or not they share an underlying connection. The implications for consumer research are monumental, affording companies with access to information not readily available through standard market research means, such as questionnaires or focus groups.
“Only 2% of thoughts are above the level of consciousness,” Thom Noble, managing director of NeuroFocus Europe, explains. “The vast majority of what we do is lying beneath. With the advent of neuroscience over the last 20 years, particularly within the last five years or so, there's been such an upsurge in the ability of neuroscience to understand how the brain
works.”
Think about your typical focus group: when an individual is asked to think about a certain product, their feeling towards the product may change. The more they think about it, the more
it changes. Neuromarketing seeks to delve behind
this, offering a subconscious analysis of the
relationship between that potential customer and
the product in question.
“This has quite profound implications, when you're really trying to understand the emotional response of consumers and how they're thinking and feeling,” says Noble. “It's extremely difficult to extract that without looking at the unconscious responses. The ability to do that now in a quantitative fashion is what's so exciting.”
HOW IT WORKS
The research is carried out on test subjects using an electroencephalogram (EEG), a brain scan that enables researchers to monitor electrical impulses within the brain. Such scans are commonplace within the realm of medical science, where they are frequently used to diagnose epilepsy.
Its applications for neuromarketing have only been recently realised, but could well be invaluable for consumer research. The EEG scan takes place while the subject is shown a selection of advertisements for various brands, measuring factors such as subconscious response, attentiveness and memory function.
It is administered through a cap fitted with 64 to 128 sensors, with eye-tracking equipment also employed to provide further verification of the EEG readings. The results from these two sources are then aggregated via a connected computer,
which can also calibrate previous findings. A typical sample group comprises at least 24 volunteers, whose reactions to certain brands are gauged in order to deduce if that brand (and its marketing strategy) strikes a chord within their subconscious.
NeuroFocus' practitioners also readily acknowledge the limits of the research, as deducing the exact criteria that dictate consumer choice remains difficult, even with these developments. However, researchers maintain that neuromarketing's primary applications include uncovering what marketing forms and advertisements are most effective for which brands, thus serving to complement more
orthodox forms of research. “What we're providing is an extra layer of information,” says Noble, “that, put together with other findings and research, can give a multiplying effect in terms of robustness and the ability to deliver insights you just can't get from
anywhere else.” With the proliferation of advertising in modern society, in its plethora of forms, there is a consensus among some quarters that consumers are growing increasingly immune to traditional forms of advertising and promotion, decreasing their effectiveness as a consequence. With that in mind, the work being carried out by NeuroFocus could have groundbreaking implications for marketing in the future, which in turn could prove to be a shrewd investment for Nielsen. ■ Nielsen will be hosting a dedicated live event on Wednesday 7 September, at which Thom Noble, managing director of NeuroFocus Europe, will introduce the concept of neuromarketing and its potential effects. For further information, emai NielsenIrelandCommunications@nielsen.com.
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