Podcast: Episode_001: Neuromarketing 101
You wanted an overview—here it is.
Neuromarketing—using scientific measurements of brain and nervous system activity to encourage consumers to buy specific things—is still in its infancy (the term was coined around 2002).
So why give a hoot about neuromarketing, and what the hell do I have to contribute? One question at a time.
Neuromarketing Rocks
You should care because neuromarketing is the biggest thing to hit marketing research and development since focus groups. It may be a toddler, but it is an unrivaled prodigy. Books on or related to the topic are top sellers, and neuromarketing expert and author Martin Lindstrom was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 influential people in the world for 2009.
Most marketers know squat about neuromarketing.
Why me? Because you can’t afford Martin. Because I’m in marketing, and I know that neuromarketing is becoming a critical tool in our work. Because I believe in providing helpful information to clients (and non-clients). And because I search for ways that neuromarketing might help all of us, and not just the folk who can afford to hire the big guns.
Also, there are some serious ethical concerns surrounding this young field. These fears, usually centered on the idea that marketers will be able to subliminally control buyers, are like a teenager’s bedroom: they need to be aired.
Neuromarketing tools
With the explosion of neuroscience, or the scientific study of the brain and nervous system, has come a better idea of how the mind works, and why we humans behave as we do. Neuroscience measures not what we say, which is notoriously unreliable, but on our body’s reactions—what we actually do.
Neuroscience’s measuring tools include:
• ƒMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging), which measures changes in brain activity
• EEG (ElectroEncephaloGraphy), which measures activity in specific parts of the brain
• Sensors measuring heart rate, respiratory rate, the skin’s response to stimuli, and tracking eye movement
The goal of neuromarketing is the same as that of all other marketing efforts: to create products and services, and accompanying communications tools, that best motivate people to do certain things. What’s new is that, with neuromarketing tools, we get a much more reliable idea of what works and what doesn’t than was previously possible.
These tools offer insights, such as why we prefer Coke over Pepsi for example, and allow us to understand more fully why we do what we actually do, which is often different from what we say we will do. (That has been the primary pitfall of marketing’s traditional research tool, focus groups.)
Neuromarketing’s Cousin, Neuroeconomics
Neuroscience is being applied to lots of studies that have to do with human decision-making and behavior, especially in economics. As a result, a rich crossover between economics and marketing is growing. Wonderful book examples of this include Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by University of Chicago economist Steven D. Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner; and Predictably Irrational by Duke University professor of behavioral economics Dan Ariely. As you can guess, these insights into what people decide to do with their resources (money, time, and energy) are helpful for modern marketers.
Neuromarketing is big and getting bigger, which is to say it will become a standard in our business. It is already being used by the big boys and girls such as Frito-Lay, Google, Daimler, and the Weather Channel. But the real question to ponder is: when are you going to get on board?
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Neuromarketing 101
Podcast: Episode_001: Neuromarketing 101
You wanted an overview—here it is.
So why give a hoot about neuromarketing, and what the hell do I have to contribute? One question at a time.
Neuromarketing Rocks
You should care because neuromarketing is the biggest thing to hit marketing research and development since focus groups. It may be a toddler, but it is an unrivaled prodigy. Books on or related to the topic are top sellers, and neuromarketing expert and author Martin Lindstrom was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 influential people in the world for 2009.
Most marketers know squat about neuromarketing.
Why me? Because you can’t afford Martin. Because I’m in marketing, and I know that neuromarketing is becoming a critical tool in our work. Because I believe in providing helpful information to clients (and non-clients). And because I search for ways that neuromarketing might help all of us, and not just the folk who can afford to hire the big guns.
Also, there are some serious ethical concerns surrounding this young field. These fears, usually centered on the idea that marketers will be able to subliminally control buyers, are like a teenager’s bedroom: they need to be aired.
Neuromarketing tools
With the explosion of neuroscience, or the scientific study of the brain and nervous system, has come a better idea of how the mind works, and why we humans behave as we do. Neuroscience measures not what we say, which is notoriously unreliable, but on our body’s reactions—what we actually do.
Neuroscience’s measuring tools include:
• ƒMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging), which measures changes in brain activity
• EEG (ElectroEncephaloGraphy), which measures activity in specific parts of the brain
• Sensors measuring heart rate, respiratory rate, the skin’s response to stimuli, and tracking eye movement
The goal of neuromarketing is the same as that of all other marketing efforts: to create products and services, and accompanying communications tools, that best motivate people to do certain things. What’s new is that, with neuromarketing tools, we get a much more reliable idea of what works and what doesn’t than was previously possible.
These tools offer insights, such as why we prefer Coke over Pepsi for example, and allow us to understand more fully why we do what we actually do, which is often different from what we say we will do. (That has been the primary pitfall of marketing’s traditional research tool, focus groups.)
Neuromarketing’s Cousin, Neuroeconomics
Neuroscience is being applied to lots of studies that have to do with human decision-making and behavior, especially in economics. As a result, a rich crossover between economics and marketing is growing. Wonderful book examples of this include Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by University of Chicago economist Steven D. Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner; and Predictably Irrational by Duke University professor of behavioral economics Dan Ariely. As you can guess, these insights into what people decide to do with their resources (money, time, and energy) are helpful for modern marketers.
Neuromarketing is big and getting bigger, which is to say it will become a standard in our business. It is already being used by the big boys and girls such as Frito-Lay, Google, Daimler, and the Weather Channel. But the real question to ponder is: when are you going to get on board?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download