““Neuromarketing is the application of neuroscience to marketing. Neuromarketing includes the direct use of brain imaging, scanning, or other brain activity measurement technology to measure a subject’s response to specific products, packaging, advertising, or other marketing elements. In some cases, the brain responses measured by these techniques may not be consciously perceived by the subject; hence, this data may be more revealing than self-reporting on surveys, in focus groups, etc.”
”
Interest in the human brain for marketing purposes was already present in the 90’s, but the term “neuromarketing” was first introduced in 2002. It was around this time that companies like Coca Cola investigated neural activities and analysed brain scans when consumers viewed ads or interacted with products. The promise of having a look inside of people’s brain to see what makes them buy their goods was - and still is - a highly desired prospect for marketers.
What is neuromarketing?
Neuromarketing is the study of people’s emotional and cognitive response to media or marketing stimuli. It uses the latest advances in brain and physiological sensor technology to learn more about the mental processes behind customer purchasing decisions. Going back to the basics, neuromarketing equals neuroscience + marketing research. While neuroeconomics is the combination of economics, neuroscience and psychology to determine how individuals (and groups) make decisions, neuromarketing is an integrated science for understanding and influencing choices and people. It's a field that applies the principles of neuroscience to marketing research, in order to increase marketing effectiveness.
Where does neuromarketing come from?
The roots of neuromarketing go back to the argument that humans use the emotional part of the brain when making decisions, not just the rational part. According to Freud, the most important part of the mind is the part we cannot see. He often used the analogy of an iceberg when describing the unconscious mind. On the surface, there is the top 5% of the iceberg – the consciousness, but 95% of the iceberg is below the surface – the more significant unconscious. Freudian theory assumes the unconscious mind governs our behaviour, probably more than people imagine. It’s not surprising that advertising strategies often appeal to both the conscious and the unconscious mind. There are all sorts of unconscious triggers that influence where and how people choose to spend their money. Neuromarketing can reveal what these unconscious triggers are by capturing emotions that might be difficult to verbalise, thereby helping marketers gain access to genuine and valid insights about the audience.
““About 95% of all thought, emotion, and learning occur in the unconscious mind – that is, without our conscious awareness.””
Want to learn more? Check these awesome Ted talks about Neuromarketing.
How does neuromarketing work and what can you use it for?
In simple words, neuromarketing’s main promise is that emotions drive sales.
The whole process is driven by 4 components: perception, attention, memory and expected reward.
A good ad grabs your attention, draws your focus to the product, makes it memorable and creates expectation. The more regard, the higher sales your product can reach!
Basically any kind of stimuli or marketing related concept can be studied with neuromarketing, such as TV spots, online ads, films, videos, radio ads, prints, packaging.
Neuromarketing methodologies
The two most important methods are facial coding and biometrics. Facial coding means detecting basic emotions from facial expressions with a webcam, while biometrics is about measuring psychophysiological reactions with sensors such as an electroencephalograph (EEG) skin conductance meter, heart rate sensor or eye-tracking device. At Synetiq, we use all of these methods to detect and measure people’s emotions.
If you want to learn more about how emotions are measured in research, check out this article.
Are you curious about what you can learn from neuromarketing measurements? Subscribe to our weekly contents on our blog!
