By Sarah Morrill

What is Neuromarketing?

You may or may not have heard the phrase “neuromarketing”, sometimes referred to as consumer neuroscience. If you haven’t, let me give you a brief explanation. Neuromarketing is an emerging field that blends concepts from neuroscience, psychology, and marketing to attempt to better understand consumer behavior. Think of it as a toolkit designed to look into someone’s unconscious thoughts, allowing us to predict, and even influence, how people make purchasing decisions. This is done using a variety of different techniques, a few of which include:

• Eye-tracking: Eye-tracking is used to measure attention, specifically focusing on the amount of time the subject is fixated on an image/stimulus and the order in which they fixate on a series of stimuli. It is also helpful in measuring emotional arousal, reflected by pupil dilation (changes in pupil dilation are closely tied to emotional reactions).
• Electroencephalography (EEG): EEGs measure brain waves, assisting in understanding cognitive processes and how the brain responds to stimuli. In a marketing context, this may be used by showing the subject an ad campaign and then measuring their brain activity in response to it.
• Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI): fMRIs are a neuroimaging technique used to show which parts of the brain are activated when presented with different stimuli. It is able to detect both conscious and unconscious reactions.
• Physiological Measurements: This is a broad category, encompassing a variety of different measures such as pupil dilation, heart rate, and perspiration (sweating).

With these scientific measurements and insights, marketers are able to understand the unconscious factors that go into human decision-making, refining their strategies to create more engaging content and overall improve the consumer experience.

How Is Neuromarketing Used Today?

Applying this research can make a major difference in engagement with your brand. A few of the most common ways this research is being used today are:

Measuring Brand Associations and Assisting in Rebranding: When you think of your favorite popular brand, a very specific image or overall “vibe” typically pops into your head. These associations we create in our head are ultimately the result of the interconnected network inside our brain. This can be useful information when creating logos, ad campaigns, or even rebranding if you find that your company doesn’t have any particularly strong associations.

Product Development and Design: While test subjects are given early prototypes of a product, researchers use brain scans to track their reactions. This can help decipher which aspects of the product’s design are most important and what customers are most likely to interact with.

Testing Marketing Campaigns and Ads: Marketers can track unconscious responses to campaigns and other advertising content by using brain imaging and eye tracking on subjects while they view the stimulus.

Neuromarketing in Action!
Here’s Some Examples from Real Companies

Frito-Lay Packaging and Advertising

This company used neuromarketing to test product packaging, learning that matte bags with pictures of potatoes did not trigger a strong consumer response. They changed their packaging to shiny bags with bright photos of the chips.

Frito-Lay has also used neuromarketing research to develop advertisements, specifically testing subject’s responses to watching someone be pranked in an advertisement. While subjects reported disliking the ad, their brain scans said otherwise.

IKEA Store Layout

Based on neuromarketing research, IKEA has designed their stores in a way that showcases all of their products before you can exit. This has been proven to increase the likelihood of a purchase.

Coca-Cola and Target’s Iconic Red

Research has shown that consumers react well to particular colors. To many, red signifies strength, which is why so many big brands have chosen this color as their focal point.

Why Should I Care?

Understanding neuromarketing is crucial in today’s market. As we’ve learned, people’s brains can sometimes disagree with what we say we like. This fascinating field of creativity, marketing strategy, and human biology helps us to better understand purchasing decisions and consumer preferences. When brands utilize these strategies, they are going beyond just creating a cool product, but instead carefully crafting it to match unconscious preferences. By using data from research to create campaigns, we are also able to reduce ineffective content and avoid a congested social media feed. This can lead to increased engagement, brand recognition, and overall growth of a company.

On a personal level, you may notice that your awareness of neuromarketing allows you to more carefully consider your own purchasing decisions. Why does that ad make me feel this way? Why do I gravitate towards certain products? By understanding these concepts and the answers to these questions, you may be able to make more informed decisions as a consumer.

References

How Neuromarketing Can Revolutionize the Marketing Industry [+Examples] (hubspot.com)

Neuromarketing — Predicting Consumer Behavior to Drive Purchasing Decisions  – Professional & Executive Development | Harvard DCE

Neuromarketing: What You Need to Know (hbr.org)

Neuromarketing: The Future Of Marketing Strategy (forbes.com)

What Are The Possibilities of Neuromarketing Now And In The Future? – Attention Insight

What is Neuromarketing & How to Use It? | Neurons (neuronsinc.com)