Conclusions from tracking the effects of many hundreds of ad campaigns continuously, week by week, over a period of nearly 15 years in America, Asia, Australasia and Europe. Ad campaigns for companies like Gillette, Campbells Soup, McDonalds, AT&T, General Motors, Kodak, Shell and Qantas.
Draws on academic research into communication psychology and buyer behavior but reduces the 'fog index' to make the findings clearer and more actionable.
Dr. Max Sutherland is an independent marketing psychologist and consultant in the U.S.A. and Australia, a regular columnist for trade publications and Adjunct Professor of marketing at Bond University. Co-author, Alice K. Sylvester is Sr. Vice President, Account Planning Director at Foote Cone and Belding and a former chair of the Advertising Research Foundation in New York.
Neuroscience: a new means of understanding. Published in Admap, March 2007. This is an interview with Melissa Mullen from 20th Century Fox and Thom Noble of Neuroco who advocate EEG as a preferred method over fMRI . The article describes how a big film studio has used EEG.
If Only I Had a Brain Scan by By Aili McConnon in Business Week 19th Jan, 2007. Sketchy report on a new, small scale, fMRI study of male whiskey drinkers (25-34) conducted for Arnold Worldwide "to gauge the emotional power of various images, including college kids drinking cocktails on spring break, twentysomethings with flasks around a campfire, and older guys at a swanky bar". The results will help shape the 2007 ad campaign for Jack Daniels.
Marketing To Your Mind by Alice Park, Time 19th January, 2007. The usual rehash of the Emory and Baylor College studies plus reporting on a new fMRI study "Neural Predictors of Purchases" published in Jan. issue of Neuron by Knutson et al (also reported more fully in Forbes 5th Jan and especially in Health Leader). Subjects given $20 to spend were exposed to products they could choose to buy (or not buy) at certain prices. Products they preferred activated the nucleus accumbens, "a region of the brain involved in anticipating pleasant outcomes". If, on the other hand, the subjects thought the price of these items was too high, there was increased activity in the insula-- "an area involved in anticipating pain". So product preference activated the nucleus accumbens, while excessive prices activated the insula, and deactivated the mesial prefrontal cortex (a part of the brain said to be associated with balancing gains versus losses).
See also Nature
Litle Grey Sells in Times2 by Anjana Ahuja, 7th December 2006.
Explores the use of the P300 brain wave (also used in lie detection) to signal brand familiarity and ad exposure.
I reviewed P300 in "Generating Brain Waves that Pierce Attention". This article reports on a new study by Newspaper Marketing Agency in UK that addresses the question do TV-plus-newspaper campaigns produce bigger P300 spikes than single-medium campaigns?
It is important to 'get real', keep our feet on the ground, and not overclaim for neuromarketing. This well researched, non-sensationalist article reveals some new studies and it suggests that in uncovering the mechanisms of attention, perception, memory and learning, neuroscience may also be revealing the limits of marketers' ability to influence consumers.
Popular Brands May Brand the Brain By E.J. Mundell, WashingtonPost.com, 28th Nov, 2006. Reports on an fMRI study that points to distinctive brain-print for highly familiar brands. (Presented at Radiological Society of N. America Annual Conference 2006) Compared to (3 second exposure of logos of) less familiar brands, the brain processes highly familiar brands faster and showed less activation in areas of working memory and increased activation in areas associated with emotion and imitation-mirroring/self-identifying (the inferior frontal gyrus, anterior insula and the anterior cingulate ). Suggests that well known brands are ‘easier on the mind’ and that they trigger emotion that is enmeshed with mirroring of one’s self-identity. For related implications see "Mind on High, Thoughts on Fast Forward and Brands on Speed."
Refers to fMRI studies by Neurosense to determine a) whether viewers respond to ads differently at night than in the morning b) whether particular ads are more effective when shown in compatible program environments. Another study for Viacom looked at nine regions of the brain that supposedly control such functions as attraction, long- and short-term memory and understanding. One counterintuitive result: commercials generated more activity in eight of those nine cortical regions than the programs did. Also reprinted in Time 17th Sept 2006 as "What Makes Us Buy?"
"Brand new brain game" by James Morgan in The Herald (UK) 4th July 2006. (Also picked up by Business Week, July 13) A somewhat 'sensationalist', hyped report on neuromarketing including the development of a so called 'mind reading' capability by computers from our facial expressions captured via camera. The computer infers our current emotional state (excited, surprised, sad etc) in order to respond with adverts connected to that emotional state.
"Market research: Mind reading" by David Tiltman, 23 Nov 200 in Brand Republic Design Bulletin. Reports on various studies including:
One set up by Millward Brown to test and compare an EEG study of consumers' responses to ads with Millward Brown's Link pre-testing methodology. The results were said to be "remarkably similar" and the conclusion was that " the EEG study, though interesting, delivered little added insight".
A study conducted for Viacom to examine how the brain responds to TV programmes and advertising.
An fMRI study by Media planning agency PHD into how the brain responds to different media. This resulted in the development of a planning tool .
Also describes an exploratory EEG study conducted in-store where a subject wore a pair of glasses containing a microscopic video camera to track her actions thus enabling the correlation of these with her EEG brain patterns.
Globe and Mail article by Anne McIlroy (13th May 2006). It foreshadows a paper on Neuromarketing, claimed to be the first in a peer-reviewed journal, which will appear June 2006 in Journal of Consumer Research . The paper is by Carolyn Yoon from University of Michigan.
How brands get wired into the brain .
New Scientist. 04 Jan 2006 . In a Pavlovian conditioning type study, researchers found the strength of response in the ventral midbrain and the ventral striatum correlated with the volunteer’s like or dislike of the juice reward.
Market research: Mind reading
by David Tiltman, Marketing 23 Nov 2005 A very balanced coverage of the latest developments in neuromarketing including a fascinating in-store study by Neuroco of EEG responses linked to an eye camera as respondents walked around a store looking at items.
Scheduling relevant TV ads key to effectiveness
by Darren Davidson Campaign 21 Nov 2005. Reports on a London neuromarketing study released this week of the effect of ad content that is relevant to the programme environment.
They don't just want your money. They want your brain
In The Independent by Jonathan Thompson, 11 Sept. 2005. Alludes to a test by Viacom Brand Solutions (owners of MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon) "to find out what is relevant and engaging for viewers". Neurosense conducted the research at the Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences in London.
Advertisers Tap Brain Science
by Randy Dotinga in Wired News May. 31, 2005. Reports on a study showing that the subcortex appears to ponder the size of a monetary reward, while the prefrontal cortex examines the odds of getting it.
