A Summary of Neuromarketing

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October 2012

Consumer Neuromarketing

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Contained in this pack is a summary of insights, approaches and applications of neuroscience as it relates to consumer psychology, advertising and decision making.

Notes and references are all attributed to a an executive training course at Swinburne University – where I was lectured by the leading thinkers in this developing field of marketing, psychology and cognitive understanding.

Introduction

How big is our subconscious?

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Our subconscious;– is much larger than our conscious brain– Is always on– Keeps us alive– Makes and influences decisions– Processes far more information than we are aware of and than our conscious

mind can interpret

The Implicit Mind

It is hugely influential and we know relatively little about it

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Neuroscience is a discipline of psychology that seeks to observe peoples unconscious responses to communication. It asserts that traditional marketing research generally ignores and inaccurately reports implicit cognition and emotional triggers.

The methods employed by neuroscientists (marketers) to measure these implicit responses are designed to bypass the subjects symbolic response (to words and text, and images) by measuring what happens inside the brain.

What is Neuroscience / Neuromarketing?

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Because when asked...

People lie

They don’t think what they say they think

They don’t tell you actually how they feel

They do not do what they say they do

Neuromarketing taps into the subconscious

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Neuromarketing techniques are potentially expensive and also complex to set up – as such we should assess the appropriateness of application bearing in mind the following criteria

– Does an existing psychological understanding or assumption exist to back your findings? – Will it tell you something new, something significant other research cannot tell you?– Is the result likely to be scalable?

When would you use neuromarketing?

If ‘not’....don’t bother

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There are numerous techniques each with pros and cons

How is it done?

Brain imaging and mapping techniques

•fMRI (Magnetic resonance scanning), same scanners as used for MRI•EEG (Electro fields captured with electrodes on subjects head)•MEG (magnetic fields captured via machine)•Online neuro response tests (modelled on MRI learnings

Physiological techniques

•Skin conductance (measures changes in the chemical and electronic balance of or skin)•Heart rate (measures changes in hear rate due to stimulus)•Facial coding (measures facial expressions for change)•Eye Tracking (measures what we look at)

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The Neuromarketing toolkit

fMRI (functional MRI) MEG EEG

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Neuromarketing understands that when stimulated different parts of the brain are activated.

By understanding and observing these responses using MRI and EEG, and analysing the timing and response of our brains in relation to specific stimulus researchers can determine – what we really think.

How does it work?

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When comparing “explicit” and “Implicit” research responses to real life outcomes - Implicit wins almost every time – indicating its more accurate measure of what people really feel and do.

The thing is

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Measure levels of engagement & attention• What we are responding to

Memory • How much and what type

of memory stimulus is being achieved

Attract or detract• What elements of the

stimulus create attract and detract responses

Preference• Which brands, themes or

elements our subconscious prefers

What can neuroscience tell us?

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Yes, your unconscious mind might think differently

Take this test...

{click me}

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We tend to believe this is the way we make decisions

The reality is potentially more like this...we post rationalise

The subconscious is more powerful than we think?

Think Feel Choose

Feel Choose Think

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Don’t believe me?

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It’s probably not even that simple...

The (FCB) strategy matrix suggests that advertising works differently depending on the product category.

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Pre product development testing

• Users shown a range of products even packing and judge the best triggering various centres of the brain; reward, craving, hunger, attraction / detraction

Ad effectiveness studies

• Measure response to creative – identify iconic triggers, characters, music choice and position of brand and key message in the ad

Media context assessment

• Determine what assets and programming best compliments the receptivity and mindset of the consumer (attention and recall can be measured)

Some use-cases for applied neuromarketing

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Neuro studies have been done to understand the efficacy of a Station (MTV – wanted to show advertisers that they still can brand advertisers high levels of brand awards and association) – Channel 7 about to start to do this.

Undertaking this study they were able to compare: Attention, Understanding, and Memory for various sectors of adverts for “congruent” and “incongruent” program types – identifying what context, flow and type of content achieved the highest overall performance for the ads

MTV case study

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Some things we can use

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Neuromarketing techniques offer three ways to break down personality

– Emotional intelligence– Low EI – like celebrities, simpler messages, less open, more selfish– High EI - generally more likely to be female, like humour, more open, community

minded, respond better to complex creative messages– Test your own EIQ here

– Interactivity– Highest engagement from “novelty seeking behaviour” typology – these consumers

are more likely to interact – click an ad – hid “red button on a FOXTEL remote

Personality – a further dimension to consumer understanding

Thinking

•Interested in analysing information, maintaining objectivity in decision making, using well founded intellectual principles to guide thinking process.

•Value justice and fairness, tend to use critical and deliberate thinking, which can appear emotionless or blunt and less concerned for feelings.

Imaginative

•Display heightened sense of awareness of the unconscious perception.

•Have stronger tendency to visualise, to construct and manipulate images, are more inclined to value idealism, reflection, creativity, imagination.

•Tolerance for the unusual and unconventional process of decision making.

Physical

•Prefer physical realism, with acute powers of material observation and understanding, memory for details, practical, down to earth

•Enjoyment of physical pleasures, achievements and comforts.

Feeling

•Higher concern for the human emotional and feeling aspects, experiential sources of information, a need for affiliation, status social respect and achievement.

•Understanding emotions and able to transform and create new emotions, preference to evaluate products in terms of emotional benefits and social symbolism

Personality – 4 styles of thinking & impact on decisions

What’s the cheapest and represents the least

wastage?

Which have I not tried before – I’m curious?

Which one will make me feel good when I

consumer it?

Which one feels like the right one to buy?

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Anchoring – 1st impressions act as anchors and influence future decisions – nail your 1st impressions Authority – Social conventions instilled in us make us comply with experts – Dentists in Colgate ads? Framing – Framing a question differently illicit a different response – Is the cup half full or empty? Relativity – We make choices relatively not absolutely link forward to 12:34 Loss aversion – We value more what we already have Reciprocity – We innately expect something from those we give something to Status Quo bias – People tend to stick with the way things are Price perceptions – Price creates expectations of value Social proofing - We instinctively follow what other people do. Herd mentality Temptation – In a state of arousal we tend to make decisions we would not already

10 behavioural shortcuts (for marketers) . How many do you see at play?

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Optimising sponsorships– Program selection has powerful influence on ad effectiveness. Neuro can be measured for an ad across a range of

program formats and types to see where the best attention and memory triggers are achieved. – Delving a little deeper, the various components of the TV sponsorship for example can be pulled apart to understand what

elements are most effective for the sponsoring brand (both for overall memory and specific detail memory) i.e a billboard vs a brand integration vs product shot – and when they were placed in the program

Iconic triggers– Are the key scenes, visual cues, images or brand assets that trigger greater levels of brain activity. Neuro is used for

integrated creative campaigns to discover what these are - so they can be used in other media formats and campaign assets.

Neurostate matching– Our brain has 2 parallel processing states;

– Rational which process the micro, facts and details, the offer. – Global which processes the big picture, the story line and main themes

– If you find a fit between the Neuro state of your commercial and programming – then uplift can be achieved

How media are using Neuro

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Neuromarketing is a growing area of study and advertising research Results related to understanding the consumers implicit feelings and

preferences support that we may in fact make decisions differently than we believe we do

Neuromarketing application needs to be considered from a scientific and commercial stand point; i.e it needs to make sense from both sides before being deployed

Ethics are a further important consideration, and are not to be overlooked or undervalued

Summing up