Leaning Neuromarketing, Chocolate and Sports cars
View(s):In marketing, understanding the needs and wants of customers is crucial for effective product development and promotion. Traditionally, this understanding has been achieved through direct interactions with customers, such as interviews and surveys. However, these methods often suffer from biases and inaccuracies. Respondents may not always provide truthful or accurate answers, leading to paradoxical conclusions. For instance, one of the surveys conducted by us on buyer perceptions of local products in Sri Lanka found that many people claimed a strong preference for Sri Lankan products, even if they were more expensive. Despite this, in reality, Sri Lankan consumers were reluctant to buy local washing machines, even when priced significantly lower than their foreign counterparts.
Neuromarketing offers a groundbreaking solution to these challenges. By leveraging advancements in neuroscience, neuromarketing eliminates the need for direct questioning of customers. Instead, it involves monitoring brain activity to understand consumer preferences at a cellular level. This not only promises more accurate insights but also allows companies to allocate their marketing budgets more efficiently and potentially exert greater influence over consumer behaviour.
Neuromarketing is an applied extension of neuroscience. The application of brain-scan technology to marketing, especially the use of fMRI, gave rise to the term. Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) is a type of specialised MRI scan used to measure the hemodynamic response (change in blood flow) related to neural activity in the brain or spinal cord of humans or other animals. Neuromarketing studies have increasingly pointed to various ‘known centers’ in the brain. Yet knowledge about these so-called ‘known centers’ is often sketchy and the claims about their function are often reasoned speculation rather than known fact. As an example, a study by Knutson et al published in late 2007 pointed to an area that registers price-pain. People given $20 to spend were shown products in a scanner that they could choose to buy. One part of the brain was activated when they saw brands they liked but then the higher the brand’s price, the more it triggered activity in another part of their brain, the insula. The study concluded that this is a center that registers price-pain. It emerged that this part of the brain, the insula relates somehow to our ability to exercise control over addictive behaviours. This is very interesting for Sri Lankans, as authorities could use these findings to develop strategies to control smoking and other detrimental behaviours.
DaimlerChrysler, Ford of Europe, and other automakers are using medical research tools to probe the consumer brain to better sell cars. In Germany, the DaimlerChrysler Research Center has done research with Ulm University Clinic and investigated how consumers evaluate car exteriors. In the Ulm study, 12 men who were highly interested in cars were placed in an MRI scanner, a medical device doctors normally use to look for tumors. Researchers showed the volunteers a total of 66 pictures of sports cars, sedans, and small cars, and asked them to rate the cars on attractiveness. The men said sports cars were significantly more attractive than sedans or small cars, which was no surprise. But what interested researchers was that the part of the brain associated with rewards was more active when the participants viewed a sports car than when they saw images of sedans and small cars.”. The two major parts of the brain showing increased activity when screening a sports car are the right ventral striatum and the right fusiform gyrus. The first is the reward center of the brain, which is also activated by natural stimulants such as sex, chocolate, and cocaine. The second area is associated with recognising faces and having expert knowledge about something, such as cars.
But there are some criticisms of neuromarketing as well. Some consumer advocate organisations have criticized neuromarketing’s potentially invasive technology. Jeff Chester, the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, claims that neuromarketing is “affecting individuals that individuals are not informed about”. Marketing is all about Understanding customer needs and wants and satisfying them. But to understand the needs and wants of the customer if you engage in a sort of investigation without getting the consent of the customer it can be questionable. Even electronic equipment like fMRI and their consequences for the human brain can be questioned again.
In conclusion, while traditional marketing research methods have their limitations, neuromarketing presents an innovative approach to understanding consumer behavior. By directly monitoring brain activity, it provides more accurate and actionable insights, helping companies better meet customer needs and wants. However, ethical considerations and potential health risks must be carefully managed to ensure responsible use of this powerful technology.
-Professor Nalin Abeysekera
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