Two U.S. researchers are speculating on the popularity of the new field of neuromarketing, which is a high-tech way for marketers to find out what consumers like or dislike. A brain scan may show one day that you have an unconscious attraction for a recently introduced beer or for an up-and-coming presidential candidate.
Neuroimaging methods have been very popular with the medical profession for many decades. However, their application for “neuromarketing” in business is showing a lot of promise, too.
In an article in Nature Reviews: Neuroscience, U.S. researchers Dan Ariely (Duke University, North Carolina) and Gregory S. Berns (Emory University, Georgia) talk about how neurimaging is being introduced to the world of business, specifically to advertising and marketing of products and services.
One day in the future, a professional neuromarketer may learn that your bran scan shows a particular liking or disliking for some product or service. That knowledge could be then applied to the company’s commercial advantage.
Today, various imaging techniques are used to directly or indirectly visualize the structure and function of the brain. Such scans are used quite often in medicine and neuroscience. They are now entering business!
For instance, CAT scans—less commonly called computerized axial tomography scans—have been around for forty years in the diagnoses of patients and for many research purposes.
In the 1980s, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were introduced primarily for use in radiology. It is an improvement over CAT scans in some areas—such as greater contrast between various tissues of the body—but provides less quality imaging than CAT scans when it comes to functioning of the body.
Then, in the 1990s, functional MRI scans (or, fMRI scans) were developed. They are able to better visualize the functioning of the internal body. In the brain, they are able to see the blood flowing, showing how it changes in different parts of the brain due to various circumstances.
From the early 2000s to now in the 2010s, such neuroimaging methods, such as CAT and MRI scans, have allowed the field of neuromarketing to become popular.
In this new field, only with a history of less than ten years, studies are being performed on the sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective responses that the brain has to marketing stimuli.
In other words, marketing studies are peering into your brain to see how it reacts to the latest commercial on TV, a yet-to-be made product to be advertised on your media device, or even the next round of political campaigns.
For instance, fMRI scans can be used to measure a pleasurable response when something desirable is placed in front of a person's eyes. Electroencephalography (EEG) sensors can be used to measure an increased rate of respiration, heart rate, and skin response to various consumer products or services.
In all, these neuromarketing techniques can be used to find out how consumers perceive new products, and why they make decisions with respect to purchases. In many cases, these responses have the potential to be much more accurate than a consumer saying, “Yes, I like that color.” or “No, I don’t like the taste of that soda pop.”
Consequently, neuromarketing is helping corporations design products and services that are created with the consumer in mind and to create advertising and marketing campaigns more on what the brain responds to in the way of stimulation.
Over the past ten or so years, neuroimaging methods applied to the marketplace have become popular. And two psychologists are proposing they know why this popularity is gaining ground.
Drs. Dan Ariely and Gregory S. Berns have written a March 3, 2010 perspective piece in Nature Reviews: Neuroscience. It is entitled “Neuromarketing: the hope and hype of neuroimaging in business” (Nature Reviews Neuroscience (3 March 2010) | doi:10.1038/nrn2795).
Dr. Ariely is associated with the Fuqua School of Business, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Economics, and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
Dr. Berns is with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Economics Department, Center for Neuropolicy, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.
In their perspective piece, the two scientists state, “We propose that there are two main reasons for this trend. First, the possibility that neuroimaging will become cheaper and faster than other marketing methods; and second, the hope that neuroimaging will provide marketers with information that is not obtainable through conventional marketing methods.”
They admit current neuroimaging methods are not expected to become less expensive anywhere in the near future. Thus, they speculate that there is, “…growing evidence that it [neuroimaging methods] may provide hidden information about the consumer experience.:with what Drs. Ariely and Berns think could be the largest application of neuroimaging in the future.
Drs. Ariely and Berns suggest in their conclusion to their paper that, "The most promising application of neuroimaging methods to marketing may come before a product is even released — when it is just an idea being developed.”
For additional information on neuromarketing, please read the March 4, 2010 Cellular-News.com article “Brain Scans Could Be Marketing Tool of the Future.”
And, learn more about neuromarketing in the article "Market Researchers make Increasing use of Brain Imaging" by Dr. David Lewis.
You may not hear or see too much about neuromarketing, but it is out there and it is being developed to learn more about what is going on up there in the brain of customers.
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