Perhaps many of you have heard about ‘Pepsi & Coke Challenge’, - the simple experiment in which there were two taste tests — one blind and one in which subjects knew which beverage was which. During the experiment researchers observed the corresponding brain activity. If volunteers were unaware of which brand’s beverage they were drinking, the fMRI showed more activation in a basic “reward centre” which is located in the prefrontal cortex. The winner was Pepsi, as it tasted better for the tester. However, when the person knew which drink was which, the winner was Coke. In this case the fMRI scans showed more brain activation in centres for memory and emotions [3]. So how is it possible that even though people prefer the taste of Pepsi, Coke dominates the market ? The answer is neuromarketing.
Generally speaking neuromarketing is an emerging branch of neuroscience. Wikipedia defines it in more detail as ‘a new field of marketing research that studies consumers’ sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli’ [1]. This field of study uses medical technology to determine consumer reactions to brands, slogans and advertisements. During the studies researches uses number of high-end technologies as fMRI, which measures the brain’s activity by looking at changes in blood flow, EEG, measuring brain signal using a swimming cap covered with electrodes, and also eye-tracking technology [2]. With all these devices researchers in labs can predict whether you’ll prefer McDonald’s or Burger King.
Neuromarketing is rather expensive — single fMRI machine can cost hundreds of thousands of $, but there are many corporations that pay millions for researching this subject. Contrary to the situation in the '60s and '70s, when world renowned advertising agencies were forbidden to run ads with subliminal stimulus, today’s research results are used on a large scale by big companies, for example Google, P&G, Coca-Cola. An interesting fact to consider is that this marketing research uses the equipment whose purpose is strictly medical, but in this case it serves as a tool for discovering the mysteries of our needs and desires. Unfortunately, these emotions are stripped and dissected in front of corporations, which do not hesitate to use them for reaching their marketing goals. Currently, sales do not come down to offering a good product. Instead it is driven by manipulation of man and his desires. A very good example how marketers works is shown in this video:
There is also a better side of neuromarketing. As you may know, the brain is only 2% of our body mass and it burns about 20% of the energy. We still know very little about our brain, the way it works, the way we think. Thus, each test can be helpful as long as it follows the standards and review process imposed by academics [4]. We should also remember that there are many ads that do not have a commercial message, for example social campaigns for not texting while driving. In this case, thanks to neuromarketing we know that words won’t work but pictures will have a greater impact.
Do you think that discovering how our brain functions and using this knowledge is going in the right direction?
Will companies be able to manipulate our emotions with even bigger precision?
How can we protect ourselves from being targets of such marketing strategies?
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromarketing
http://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2013/02/01/neuromarketing-tapping-into-thepleasure- center-of-consumers/
http://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/neuromarketing.html
http://www.academia.edu/969189/Neuromarketing_The_New_Science_of_Consumer_Behavior http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/google-neuromarketing.htm
Generally speaking neuromarketing is an emerging branch of neuroscience. Wikipedia defines it in more detail as ‘a new field of marketing research that studies consumers’ sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli’ [1]. This field of study uses medical technology to determine consumer reactions to brands, slogans and advertisements. During the studies researches uses number of high-end technologies as fMRI, which measures the brain’s activity by looking at changes in blood flow, EEG, measuring brain signal using a swimming cap covered with electrodes, and also eye-tracking technology [2]. With all these devices researchers in labs can predict whether you’ll prefer McDonald’s or Burger King.
Neuromarketing is rather expensive — single fMRI machine can cost hundreds of thousands of $, but there are many corporations that pay millions for researching this subject. Contrary to the situation in the '60s and '70s, when world renowned advertising agencies were forbidden to run ads with subliminal stimulus, today’s research results are used on a large scale by big companies, for example Google, P&G, Coca-Cola. An interesting fact to consider is that this marketing research uses the equipment whose purpose is strictly medical, but in this case it serves as a tool for discovering the mysteries of our needs and desires. Unfortunately, these emotions are stripped and dissected in front of corporations, which do not hesitate to use them for reaching their marketing goals. Currently, sales do not come down to offering a good product. Instead it is driven by manipulation of man and his desires. A very good example how marketers works is shown in this video:
There is also a better side of neuromarketing. As you may know, the brain is only 2% of our body mass and it burns about 20% of the energy. We still know very little about our brain, the way it works, the way we think. Thus, each test can be helpful as long as it follows the standards and review process imposed by academics [4]. We should also remember that there are many ads that do not have a commercial message, for example social campaigns for not texting while driving. In this case, thanks to neuromarketing we know that words won’t work but pictures will have a greater impact.
Do you think that discovering how our brain functions and using this knowledge is going in the right direction?
Will companies be able to manipulate our emotions with even bigger precision?
How can we protect ourselves from being targets of such marketing strategies?
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromarketing
http://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2013/02/01/neuromarketing-tapping-into-thepleasure- center-of-consumers/
http://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/neuromarketing.html
http://www.academia.edu/969189/Neuromarketing_The_New_Science_of_Consumer_Behavior http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/google-neuromarketing.htm
Comments
I think people have made huge progress in neuromarketing and this area of development is going to always be the part of marketing that will have to go the right direction.
As far as I see the problem is not neuromarketing, but the type of treatment animals such as pigs, cows and chickens are recieving. Huge producers focus mostly on scaling their production and dont care enough about their animals, which brings a lot of attention to how can we optimise the size/capacity of the farms so that both consumers and producers could be happy? Maybe each animal should be grown on grass instead of concrete, and be able to go for daily walkarounds?
I'm not sure how to answer the second question because I don't know how to measure the effectiveness of companies' manipulation. It probably mostly depends on how reliable the information on the label and description of the product is - there are no strict laws forbidding or allowing anything.
Marketing is everywhere, you can't get away with it. You are and you will be targeted by campaigns. Honestly, I think there's no need for protection as the quality of products you recieve is percisely measured. The other thing is the quality of life those animals are getting and what can we do about it? Again, I suggest to think about farm optimisation mechanisms.
Considering farming, I personally only buy eggs that are from free ranged chicken or even from chickens called “Zielononużka kuropatwia” – you can read about it online - they can only live in very small herds and if their number gets higher than 50 they would kill each other. They also can’t live in cages so you can be sure that these chickens had to be treated well. I also try to eat less meat nowadays and I hope that people will be able to develop artificial meat that has the same nutritional values so people could stop farming animals at all.
And what is this right direction? I'm pretty sure we can find some benefit for the military in every discovery... :)
Will companies be able to manipulate our emotions with even bigger precision?
I believe this is possible. There are many ways of affecting human brain still to be discovered.
How can we protect ourselves from being targets of such marketing strategies?
I believe we are targets of so many marketing strategies that even if we are aware of some of them and feel free from manipulation, there are some that we overlook.
Anyways, I'm trying to be a conscious buyer, and honestly I'm more concerned about Russian long-range missile weaponry in Crimea than that someone is going to think that he knows whether i prefer McDonald’s or Burger King.
http://www.wikihow.com/Retain-Customers
The science behind it is quite complex, and I think it can bring some more knowledge how our brain works.
Unfortunately, I am afraid that in order to get more information about brain we have to let big companies continue their work even if it means that they can use this knowledge.
It doesn't matter, any knowledge will be used in a good and a bad way, but it shouldn't stop us from learning.
Will companies be able to manipulate our emotions with even bigger precision?
As far as I know the people as a whole get better in [insert here whatever you want] every year.
How can we protect ourselves from being targets of such marketing strategies?
As usual, just don't watch TV, don't believe advertisments, install Adblock and again don't believe everything you read on the forum.
Neuromarketing seems to be very interesting part of marketing. Nowadays technology changes almost every field of life so it is not surprising that also marketing.
As to protecting ourselves, I think that unfortunately this might not be a fair fight. The companies will be getting better at targeting and reaching for our feelings and desires. What is left, is being aware of their actions and at least trying to filter through them to make more rational and thought through decisions.
For sure this kind of research is useful for people but I am not sure if it is going right direction.
Will companies be able to manipulate our emotions with even bigger precision?
They are able to do that even now but in the future this kind of practices will be more popular for sure.
How can we protect ourselves from being targets of such marketing strategies?
I think we can’t protect ourselves completely but we can try to avoid all sort of commercials :)
I think the best strategy is to make army of loyal fans that will do the marketing of your products for free, and I'm sure that companies do a lot of research on it.
Regarding the video, I agree with Piotr Chabros, that not neoromarketing is the problem itself. It is just development, knowledge to posses, which will make us all better. The problem are standards of production, which as acceptably by not only politicians, but also whole society. As it was said in the video presented in the article, while doing shopping we do not want to think about production standards, we prefer to ignore it (at least most of us).
I’m afraid that companies will be able to manipulate our emotions with even bigger precision. We are too unconscious unfortunatelly. Minority of us know about neuromarketing and many people still are deceived.
I’m not sure that we can protect ourselves from being targets of such marketing strategies. All marketing is masterpiece and it’s very difficult to protect from it.
Is there a way to protect yourself from that? Nope. Best example, subliminal messaging. What happens at the unconscious level, stays at unconscious level. Meaning you do what you are told without realizing it.