Brain-Wave Marketing
Brain-wave marketing involves attaching electrodes to people's
head to track what's happening in their brains as they look at
products, or at commercials for products. The information gleaned
in this way is then supposed to make it easier to design effective
marketing campaigns. For example, Hyundai Motor America had 15
men and 15 women look at various parts of a 2011 car model for
an hour total, recording what happened in their brains when they
stared at each part. They plan to alter the exterior after reviewing
the results of the electroencephalographs.
Forbes magazine recently reported that among the companies
using this technology are Pepsi, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Ebay's
PayPal. There are now at least eight companies that offer these
services to help companies design there commercials and marketing
campaigns. They use both EEG and MRI testing machines for the
research.
Do they work? It seems that they can definitely see which
parts of the brain light up with electrical activity when the
subject is looking at various things. It also seems likely that
there's some information to be discovered from this.
On the other hand, it is not a perfect technology. According
to the article in Forbes (November 16, 2009), University of California
(Santa Barbara) neuroscientist Craig Bennett put a dead fish
through an MRI machine and it showed brain activity that looked
suspiciously like that of subjects tested while watching commercials.
Neuromarketers probably didn't want to hear that, or at least
don't want their potential clients to hear about it.
The odds are good that this kind of research and subsequent
marketing will continue. Their is already a new title for those
who run brain-wave marketing testing: neuromarketers. It seems
likely that despite the dead fish, who apparently preferred this
or that brand of popcorn, there is some valid data to be found
in the testing.
But even if we see that a person gets excited in the brain
when looking at one style of packaging versus another, it isn't
clear if this will translate into better sales. That's something
that is harder to measure. Also, much of the information gained
might be available much more simply and at lower cost.
For example, PayPal planned to sell potential customers on
the speed of their online payment service, after seeing the results
of neuromarketing tests. Apparently brain-wave marketing research
showed that people were more excited by speed than additional
security measures. But there was a simpler and much cheaper way
to learn this: Talk to a few customers. They don't need to watch
my brainwaves to know that I want more speed online. I'll tell
that to any company that asks.
Brainwave marketing is almost certainly a fad at this point.
Still, it will be interesting to see how it develops in the future
(and I'll report any new information in the Brainpower Newsletter).
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