First we had companies tracking our website searches and making product recommendations from our previous purchases. Now the new trend is neuromarketing, where companies are literally trying to get into consumer’s subconscious minds to influence their purchase decisions.
The New York Times article by Natasha Singer recently explained this new trend and referred neuromarketing as “making ads that whisper to the brain.” Neuromarketing essentially studies brain activity and measures brain waves to analyze consumer’s responses to advertisements and products. It could be done simply by measuring one’s muscle contraction, pupil dilation, facial response, skin temperature or by using MRI and EEG technologies. These technologies measure one’s attention level, emotion and memory retention when watching ads or viewing product images. The purpose is to give marketers information about consumer preferences, so that they can make the right advertisements and product designs that would reach the subconscious mind. This would in turn influence consumers to buy the particular product and develop brand loyalty.
Many companies are increasingly using neuromarketing to increase sales by producing the exact products that consumers would want. According to a Forbes article by Laurie Burkitt, Hyundai Motor America used neuromarketing to see how consumers viewed their “sporty silver test model of a 2011 Hyundai.” Fifteen men and fifteen women took part in this experiment where they were to view the different parts of the vehicle, all while wearing an electrode-studded cap. The brain activity of each person was captured and the information showed their particular preferences, which was used to change the exterior design of the vehicle into a more attractive one.
However, neuromarketing have increasingly become a controversial topic. Many feel that it manipulates consumers and turns them into shopping robots without their approval and thus it’s an invasion of privacy. They “call it brandwashing – an amalgam of branding and brainwashing.” Considering the extent to which advances in technology has allowed marketers to influence my purchase decisions, it is really scary to think about what the future holds. The question remains, do the benefits of neuromarketing overcome the negative effects of behavioral control and invasion of privacy?
Sources:
Singer, Natasha. “Making Ads That Whisper to the Brain.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/business/14stream.html
Burkitt, Laura. “Neuromarketing: Companies Use Neuroscience for Consumer Insights.” http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1116/marketing-hyundai-neurofocus-brain-waves-battle-for-the-brain.html
As long as people are aware that they are being studied I think Neuromarketing is an important implementation of technology into research. But the fact is that marketing can be manipulative with or without neuromarketing. Neuromarketing is only a tool for research that can help define better the different variants that apply when the consumer defines consciously or subconsciously their 'likes and dislikes'. If anything, I believe neuromarketing if used correctly could get rid of some of the 'manipulative' aspects of marketing, since it's actually studying what people really want or desire. The issues of privacy are clearly a concern but as long as the consumers going into the studies are willingly doing so I don't see this as an issue. I discuss this further in my blog, Tracing Marketing.
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