neuromarketing blue paper

8/9/2019 Neuromarketing Blue Paper

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/neuromarketing-blue-paper 1/13© 2010 4imprint, Inc. All rights reserved

Neuromarket ing:When sc ience and

market ing co l l ide

4imprint.com


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/neuromarketing-blue-paper 2/13© 2010 4imprint, Inc. All rights reserved© 2010 4imprint, Inc. All rights reserved

Neuromarketing:

When sc ience and market ing col l ide

There was a time when marketing was simply a dressed up sales pitch—marketing

materials were designed to look pretty, copy was written to sound smart and

most delivery channels were trusted by consumers. That was also when advertisers

reached roughly 70 percent of a viewing audience with one

television advertisement.

Times have changed.

Consumers have gotten savvier. And, advertisers have more opportunities than

ever to reach audiences. Through cable television, the Internet and mobile

phones, it’s not surprising that the sheer number of ads viewed per day by the

average American has grown from roughly 500 ads in 1970 to nearly 5,000.

For this reason, marketers are fighting harder than ever to combat the noise

caused by competing ads in order to capture the attention of consumers. The key

to this fight? Highly targeted communications based on thorough research …

and science.

Traditionally, marketers and advertisers have long utilized focus group-based

research as a means of gauging responses to products and communications of a

brand. But just like the change to a consumer-driven marketplace, how we

gather consumer opinions and reactions is changing.

It may sound futuristic, but there are now technologies that allow marketers

to scientifically understand the mind of the consumer. Through brain

activity-based research, marketers can pinpoint what exactly causes people to

buy a product and uncover how the brain responds to various advertising and

marketing tactics.

It’s not science fiction; its neuromarketing and it’s changing the ways in which

major brands like Campbell’s Soup™ and Pepsi™ are marketing products and

enhancing their brand image.

Weird scienceNeuromarketing is the practice of using technology to measure the brain activity

of consumer subjects as a way to discover how people respond to products and

marketing messages. The findings of such are then used to fine tune



these products and messages in order to be most effective, prior to making an

expensive media buy.1

The thought behind neuromarketing is that buying decisions aren’t necessarily

rational decisions, rather they are decisions made deep within the brain and

based on an amalgam of thoughts and feelings.

“When we walk down an aisle in a grocery store, our purchasing decisions are

made in less than four seconds,” said Martin Lindstrom, author of “Buyology:

Truth and Lies About Why We Buy” and marketing expert. “There is no way

we can think about that in a complete way. Those decisions take place

in the subconscious part of the brain.”2

By studying and understanding these subconscious and emotional

areas of the brain, marketers and advertisers can make informed

decisions on what people like, don’t like, want, need, fear, are bored

by, excited by and so on to alter products and messages most likely

to appeal to consumers. Unlike traditional market research,

neuromarketing removes subjectivity and the potential for a test subject

be inarticulate, indecisive or untruthful in reporting. Instead of opinion,

neuromarketing measures by attention level, emotional engagement and

memory storage.3

“The drive behind neuromarketing is to discover how consumers are actually

responding to marketing messages, not how they report they are responding,

or will respond,” explained Jennifer Williams, Web marketer and author of the

neuromarketing blog, Verilliance. “It’s not so much about appealing to the

subconscious as it is about finding out what the subconscious is saying in order to

find out what’s not working.”4

Neuromarketing research is usually conducted through one or more of these

clinical techniques:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)—is a technique

that shows what parts of the brain are active by detecting changes

in blood flow and the amount of oxygen consumed in different

areas. The more active an area, the more oxygen and blood flow

1 Randall, Kevin. “Neuromarketing Hope and Hype: 5 Brands Conducting Brain Research | Fast Company.”FastCompany.com. 14 Sept. 2009. Web. 10 June 2010. <http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kevin-randall/ integrated-branding/neuromarketing-hope-and-hype-5-brands-conducting-brain-resear >.

2 Pekala, Nancy. “Why Buy? The Role of Neuromarketing in Understanding Consumer Behavior.” MarketingMatters (27 Feb. 2009). Print.

3 Randall, Kevin. “Neuromarketing Hope and Hype: 5 Brands Conducting Brain Research | Fast Company.”FastCompany.com. 14 Sept. 2009. Web. 10 June 2010. <http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kevin-randall/ integrated-branding/neuromarketing-hope-and-hype-5-brands-conducting-brain-resear >.

4 Williams, Jennifer. “Andrea Wisdorf Interview with Jennifer Williams.” E-mail interview. 18 June 2010.



required.5 Subjects are put into a cylindrical imaging device and

exposed to marketing material. While this technique provides

researchers the ability to see very specific location-based brain

activity, it costs upwards of $15,000 per 20-subject test group.6

• Electroencephalography (EEG)—this technique (if you can

pronounce it!) measures the electrical activity of the brain (neurons)

as recorded by electrodes placed on a subject’s head. Subjects

are either given special EEG headsets to wear while exposed to

marketing materials. While not as specific or accurate as fMRIs,

EEGs are much less intrusive and can also be conducted at about

the same cost as a typical focus group, making them extremely

accessible to most businesses.7

• Eye tracking—eyes are the main focus in this technique

as the location and pattern of a subject’s gaze is

studied to determine which images or portions of

an image illicit the most attention.

• Galvanic skin response (GSR)—is a technique that measures the

subtle changes in skin (such as temperature and sweat) that occur in

conjunction with certain emotions.

• Applied neuroscience—is a technique that involves no scanning or

monitoring of any kind. Instead this technique is market research

with a focus on the foundations of neuroscience to train marketers

and sales teams to design pitches, offers and marketing messages

that appeal to the brain on a subconscious level.8 This technique is

based off of secondary research—or research already conducted by

others—and is therefore much more accessible to smaller businesses

and nonprofits.

In observing a subject’s brain activity through fMRI and EEG techniques,

researchers are essentially looking for what areas of the brain “light up” in

conjunction with certain sounds, smells, images and messages. This information is

5 “Scientists Read Minds with Brain Scanner.” CBC.ca - Canadian News Sports Entertainment Kids Docs Radio TV.12 Mar. 2009. Web. 10 June 2010.<http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/03/12/tech-090312-mind-reading-fmri.html >.

6 Ferguson, Rick. “Neuromarketing: What the Human Brain Means to Your Campaign.” Chief Marketer. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 10 June 2010. <http://chiefmarketer.com/crm/1027-neuromarketing-loyalty-brain/index.html >.





then used with traditional focus-group questions and analyzed for causation and

correlation to be put into context.

“Emotions cannot necessarily be accurately described,” said Gemma Calvert, head

of Multisensory Research Group at Britain’s University of Bath. By using brain

scans in neuromarketing, she said in an interview with Business Week, “We can

see the discrepancy between what you say and what your brain says, and reduce

the margin of error.”9

After this research has been conducted on consumer individuals, the information

garnered often takes the marketing team back to the drawing board. Results help

marketers eliminate unpleasant or ineffective aspects to marketing materials or

alter materials to enhance the overall consumer experience.

Neuromarketing is still a new concept and innovations are constantly being made

to improve the accuracy and the affordability of research. While new, many big

brands have already gotten on board with the concept in order to grow and

benefit from a new tactic in a space where the competition may not be currently

present. These brands are using neuromarketing research to develop marketing

efforts and advertisements that appeal to consumers in very specific ways...

Brands and logos that appeal to emotion

While it’s a known fact in marketing that a brand’s image and visual identity

are important factors in successful advertising, it wasn’t until recently that it

was known just how important. A few short years ago, a report was released by

the Radiological Society of North America that illustrated through fMRI scans

that when people were presented with images of a known brand their brains

processed these images in different areas of the brain than unknown

brands. Specifically, known brands were processed in the areas

of the brain that are responsible for positive emotions, while

unknown brands tended to be processed in the areas of the

brain that are responsible for negative emotions.10

Up until this study was released, marketers generally operated under the idea

that if you could get people to think about a brand in a certain way, you can

then get them to change feelings or behaviors. Now, it’s known that emotion

is actually the first factor that decides if people will even pay attention to a

message—emotion shapes our conscious thoughts, not the other way around.11

9 Haq, Amber. “This Is Your Brain on Advertising.” BusinessWeek. 8 Oct. 2007. Web. 10 June 2010.<http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/oct2007/gb2007108_286282.htm>.

10 Dooley, Roger. “Brain Branding: The Power of Strong Brands | Neuromarketing.” Neuroscience Marketing. 28Nov. 2006. Web. 18 June 2010. <http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/brain-branding.htm>.

11 O’Connor, Tim. “The Dark Side of Market Research.” Research Access. 29 May 2010. Web. 14 June 2010.<http://researchaccess.com>.



Since this study, many big name brands have gone through logo redesigns.

Discount retailer Wal-Mart™ and cola conglomerate Pepsi both recognized that

it was time for an update to their looks in 2008 but neither brand wanted to

change so drastically that they become unrecognizable. These brands turned to

neuromarketing to safely make the jump:

After conducting research, Wal-Mart discovered overwhelmingly negative

emotions in relation to its branding that had been in place since 1992. It elicited

feelings of “soullessness” and made consumers feel “daunted.” So, in 2006 the

brand set out to redesign the logo to appear friendlier and more accessible to its

target audiences. The lower case font paired with a less-obtrusive and powerful

star subconsciously helped convey the new tagline of “Save money. Live better.”12

Figure 1: Wal-Mart’s logo redesign13

When Pepsi first unveiled its new logo that same year, many speculated that its

designers were trying to subliminally associate the feel-good emotions of hope

and change that President Barack Obama’s campaign logo stood for by choosing

a similar design. Design company, Arnell, came forward with 27-page document

detailing neuromarketing research it claimed was really responsible for the

new logo.

While criticized, the document presents an interesting case of geometric shapes

and golden ratio references as it relates to past Pepsi logos. The details of which

showcase a series of emotions conveyed by the look—specifically, the new logo

can be interpreted by multiple emoticons illustrating positive emotions featuring

the white band as a mouth, tilted at various angles with the addition of eyes to

the red band.

12 “What’s in a New Logo? - Wal-Mart - Softening Its Image (11) - FORTUNE.” CNNMoney.com. Fortune, 10 Aug. 2009. Web. 17 June 2010.<http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/fortune/0908/gallery.new_logos_redesigns.fortune/11.html >.

13 “What’s in a New Logo? - Wal-Mart - Softening Its Image (11) - FORTUNE.” CNNMoney.com. Fortune, 10 Aug. 2009. Web. 17 June 2010.<http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/fortune/0908/gallery.new_logos_redesigns.fortune/11.html >.



Figure 2: Pepsi’s logo redesign14

Packaging that attracts the senses

With the help of numerous marketing firms, some of which specializing in

neuromarketing, Campbell’s soup spent two years studying the effect of its

brand and marketing images and efforts on consumers. With a small sample

of 40 consumers, Campbell’s tested everything from changes in heart rate and

skin moisture through GSR, along with some brain scan interpretations. While

it was found that there was a positive relationship between consumers and the

Campbell’s logo, it was decided that the prominent placing of the logo actually

deterred people from purchasing certain soups. Essentially, the logo as it was

made it difficult for the consumer to immediately recognize what kind of soup

they were looking at.

Additionally, research reinforced the emotional connection between consumers

and the label. It was once believed that the spoonful of soup on the label elicited

a strong emotional response from consumers, but neuromarketing research was

able to determine that it actually was not the spoon that people felt all warm and

fuzzy about, it was the image of the soup itself. Steam added to the image of the

soup also drastically increased engagement and emotional response.

Campbell’s culminated these findings and reinforced them with findings from

traditional focus group research to develop a new label for its iconic soups.

Toward the end of the process, in-store testing took place to monitor the facial

expressions and eye movement to conduct final consumer research on

the redesign.

14 “What’s in a New Logo? - Pepsi - Wave Good-bye to the Smile (6) - FORTUNE.” CNNMoney.com. Fortune, 10 Aug. 2009. Web. 17 June 2010.<http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/fortune/0908/gallery.new_logos_redesigns.fortune/6.html >.



The image below is a result of that redesign, with explanation offered by

Campbell’s when it announced the new look. So far, Campbell’s claims its redesign

has been successful.

Noisy billboards

Neuromarketing research has indicated on a general level that certain marketing

efforts can have optimal effects on consumers when more than one sense is

engaged. Cable network A&E™ had this research in mind when it created

billboards for its show, Paranormal State.

A billboard with the show’s name and airing information along with simple

text in a creepy font reading “73% of Americans Believe” was erected with

technology known as directional audio. Directional audio essentially takes sound

waves and pinpoints them in a way similar in thought to how a laser concentrates

beams of light, resulting in the aural illusion of someone whispering in your ear.

When people passed by the billboard on the sidewalk below, they heard someone

eerily whispering “What’s that?! What’s that?! It’s not your imagination.”

While its research may have been based on neuromarketing findings, the end

result was success by way of word-of-mouth promotion created by the new

billboard and viral videos through social media of the billboard’s effect.

Smelly branding

Neuromarketing places great emphasis on emotion and the part of the brain

responsible for processing scents which is heavily tied to emotion. Scents can

bring us back to specific experiences and memories. Many marketers are using this

thought process as a neuromarketing tactic. Advertisements paired with a scent



have been shown to double sales while other studies have shown a significant

increase in brand recall when a scent is matched with marketing material or

interior design.15

Some studies, such as one conducted on slot players in Las Vegas and another on

Nike™ shoe stores, have shown that a scented environment leads to consumers

stay longer and spend more16.

A few examples of brands using scents to sell17:

• Omni Hotels has a lemon grass and green tea scent pumped

into its lobbies and public spaces.

• Rolls Royce reproduced the scent of its great seller, the 1965 Silver

Cloud, and sprays it under the seats to recreate the scent of this

classic “Roller.”

• Singapore Airlines has gone so far as to patent a scent of lotus

flowers and bamboo forests that is worn by flight attendants and

put on hot towels handed to passengers before takeoff.

These brands are creating a relationship in the subconscious minds of consumers,

aiming to align a positive brand experience with a pleasant scent. When executed

successfully, consumers will not only engage positively with a brand, but will recall

the brand and the brand’s experience whenever that scent is smelled.

Print ads that counter neuroses

Neuromarketing helped snack company Frito-Lay™ to learn more about their

largest consumer market, women. What they learned caused the brand to shift

marketing efforts significantly, based on one emotion: guilt. Their research

showed that some women are wired to feel guiltier than men and snacks are a

trigger of this guilt. Frito-Lay realized it could not remove the feeling of guilt

from women and snacking, but it could take efforts to avoid triggering. To do so,

the brand began promoting products with health benefits and creating products

for the calorie-minded woman, like single-serving packages and baked snacks.18

15 Dooley, Roger. “Scent Nearly Doubles Sales.” Neuroscience Marketing. 17 June 2010. Web. 19 June 2010.<http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/scent-nearly-doubles-sales.htm>.

16 “Scent Marketing: Leading Consumers By The Nose.” Sellsius. Web. 21 June 2010.<http://blog.sellsiusrealestate.com/branding/scent-marketing-leading-consumers-by-the-nose/2006/04/30/ >.

17 “Scent Marketing: Leading Consumers By The Nose.” Sellsius. Web. 21 June 2010.<http://blog.sellsiusrealestate.com/branding/scent-marketing-leading-consumers-by-the-nose/2006/04/30/ >.

18 Clifford, Stephanie. “Frito-Lay Tries to Enter the Minds (and Lunch Bags) of Women.” The New York Times. 24Feb. 2009. Web. 17 June 2010.<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/business/media/25adco.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2>.



Other resulting tactics included designing packaging with feminine colors and

fonts and to downplay guilt while playing up humor and sensible snacking. One

print ad depicts two women surveying a Baked Lay’s bag. “These things are the

best invention since the push-up bra,” one woman says. The other, admiring her

bra-enhanced chest, responds, “I wouldn’t go that far.”

The un-guilt trip worked: Following the campaign that resulted from

neuromarketing research, Frito-Lay North America posted an eight percent

revenue growth and seven percent profit growth.19

Ad comparison from virtual to reality

In 2007, 20th Century Fox™ teamed with neuromarketing firm, Neuroco, to use

EEGs and eye tracking to test the response rate to ads inserted into a videogame.

Subjects went walking in a virtual city and were exposed to billboards for various

films. Researchers were able to control the content and the placement of ads—

billboards, sides of busses, etc.—along with the illumination of ads, as a means

to determine which ads would be most effective in real life. This neuromarketing

research was able to illustrate to the Fox marketing team that a saturation

campaign in real life would lead to diminishing returns.20

Melissa Mullen, director of research for Fox’s international theatrical division said,

“There is no way we could have gotten this kind of actionable information from

traditional research approaches.”21

Fox now uses neuromarketing regularly to test the effectiveness of its

movie trailers as well as ad placements.22

She bl inded me with neuromarketingWhile companies continue to dive right in and explore neuromarketing;

one of the obstacles that have to be overcome in the field pertains to

ethics. Some people believe that neuromarketing subconsciously

imbeds ideas (mind control) or manipulates human thought process. While

there’s no doubt it uses information obtained from the subconscious mind,

neuromarketing is not about controlling the consumer so much as it is aboutcontrolling a message or, rather, developing one that is most effective.

19 Clifford, Stephanie. “Frito-Lay Tries to Enter the Minds (and Lunch Bags) of Women.” The New York Times. 24Feb. 2009. Web. 17 June 2010.<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/business/media/25adco.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2>.






As a blogger and frequent Tweeter on neuromarketing, Williams said she gets the

ethics question a lot but she doesn’t think that the question of ethics is of great

concern. “People want better products, and they enjoy ads and marketing that

appeals to them. That’s why people volunteer for focus groups,” said Williams.23

Essentially, Williams said that any possibility of misguided ethics lies within the

brand, not the field of neuromarketing. “When a company is marketing a product

that is harmful, that’s unethical no matter what tools they use. The reason people

are much quicker to jump on the ethics of neuromarketing is because it takes out

a lot of the guesswork out of marketing and it does so by taking a look at how

our brains respond.”24

The goal of neuromarketing, explains Williams, is to make it easier for people

to receive messages as well as for brands to convey them. “It’s hard to find

something unethical about wanting to improve the customers’ experience,” she

added.25

What i t al l meansNeuromarketing is appealing to researchers and brands alike because it is

undeniably interesting, somewhat controversial and a totally new tactic to the

scene. Evidence also suggests that when executed successfully in conjunction with

traditional marketing tactics, neuromarketing is successful and proponents of

neuromarketing will tell you the return on investment is great.26

Firms and consultancies devoted to neuromarketing are poppingup in major cities, big brand CEOs are calling in neuromarketing

experts to work on specific campaigns and industry conferences

and conventions are headlining neuromarketing authors and

bloggers. Even still, neuromarketing hasn’t reached full adoption

in the marketing world, in part due to large expenses of many

processes and the inability for many results to be interpreted by the layman.

“It’s true that currently neuromarketing is not accessible to many small businesses

or nonprofits,” said Williams. “However, I think we may see that change in thenext couple of years. Neuro-engineering firms are developing affordable EEG

headsets and there are other collaborations going on to develop software that

will make sense of the data to non-neuroscientists.”27

23 Williams, Jennifer. “Andrea Wisdorf Interview with Jennifer Williams.” E-mail interview. 18 June 2010. 24 Williams, Jennifer. “Andrea Wisdorf Interview with Jennifer Williams.” E-mail interview. 18 June 2010. 25 Williams, Jennifer. “Andrea Wisdorf Interview with Jennifer Williams.” E-mail interview. 18 June 2010. 26 Williams, Jennifer. “Neuromarketing: Add It to the Marketing Toolbox.” Visibility Magazine. Web. 19 June

2010. <http://www.visibilitymagazine.com/disc-inc-/jennifer-williams/neuromarketing-----add-it-to-the-marketing-toolbox >.



http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/neuromarketing-blue-paper 12/13© 2010 4imprint, Inc. All rights reserved

In the meantime, Williams suggests that for those businesses and nonprofits that

are locked out of obtaining data first-hand (primary research), there are resources

out there to gain access to secondary research. Furthermore, Williams shares a

few tips for businesses and nonprofits to incorporated basic neuromarketing in

current marketing efforts28:

• Incorporate usability testing

Usability testing, especially in regards to websites, has incorporated eye

tracking methods for years as a way to increase engagement and recall

while encouraging reading. Consider online website usability tools that

will post your site for user review and testing. Closely watch website

analytics to determine which pages and links visitors are viewing and

clicking in relation to page content. Products and services should also

be subject to usability testing and many agencies exist to assist brands

in objectively testing.

• Take cues from neuromarketing for design elements

There is considerable data already available that points to best

practices in design to improve clarity and communication,

often developed based on neuromarketing findings. The

size of a logo, the space between letters, the color of a

background, the use of font styles, the use of colors and

other factors all make a difference.

• Be mindful of copy

It is important to remember that it’s not all about design—copy

matters. Generally speaking, copy that is “you”-centric, emotionally

engaging, visually easy to read and cognitively easy to think about is

most effective. Williams suggests that all marketers should become

versed in theories like cognitive fluency in order to fully understand

what works with copy and what doesn’t.

• Know that users prefer the now

Neuromarketing research has shown that most people will choose

to have immediate gratification as opposed to gratification that is

delayed. Meaning they want that free gift now, not after they send in

twelve proofs of purchase. Especially online, streamline the conversion

process so consumers are rewarded sooner rather than later.

28 Williams, Jennifer. “Neuromarketing: Add It to the Marketing Toolbox.” Visibility Magazine. Web. 19 June 2010. <http://www.visibilitymagazine.com/disc-inc-/jennifer-williams/neuromarketing-----add-it-to-the-marketing-toolbox >.


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/neuromarketing-blue-paper 13/13

4imprint serves more than 100,000 businesses with innovative promotional items throughout the United States,

Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland. Its product offerings include giveaways, business gifts, personalized gifts,

embroidered apparel, promotional pens, travel mugs, tote bags, water bottles, Post-it Notes, custom calendars,

and many other promotional items. For additional information, log on to www.4imprint.com.

All in all, it is important for marketers to keep in mind that neuromarketing is

a tool to be used within an overall marketing strategy—one that reinforces or

supports messaging, media and the brand. It will not be successful as a

standalone strategy.

“What we already know from behavioral economics and neuromarketing is that

people are remarkably bad at predicting their own behavior,” said Williams.

“So once neuromarketing tools are more accessible, I think we’ll see market

researchers using neuromarketing as a primary tool.” 29

Neuromarketing is here to stay—science fiction is now reality. Big brands, small

brands and nonprofits should consider exploring this tool sooner rather than

later. Williams agrees: “It’s already here; it’s more prevalent than you think, and

it’s important to be ready to make the shift to more science-based marketing.”


neuromarketing blue paper

Documents