Neuromarketing - Continued

Neuromarketing is the study of the brain's responses to ads, brands, and the rest of the messages littering the cultural landscape. Montague had his subjects take the Pepsi Challenge while he watched their neural activity with a functional MRI machine, which tracks blood flow to different regions of the brain. Without knowing what they were drinking, about half of them said they preferred Pepsi.

But once Montague told them which samples were Coke, three-fourths said that drink tasted better, and their brain activity changed too. Coke lit up the medial prefrontal cortex - a part of the brain that controls higher thinking. Montague's surmise was that the brain was recalling images and ideas from commercials, and the brand was overriding the actual quality of the product.

The work of Montague and other studies prove that branding goes far beyond images and memory recall. The medical prefrontal cortex is a part of the brain known to be involved in our sense of self. It fires in response to something – an image, name or concept – that resonates with who we are. Something clicks, and we are more likely to buy.

For years, in the face of failed brands and laughably bad ad campaigns, marketers had argued that they could influence consumers' choices. Now, there appeared to be solid neurological proof. Montague published his findings in the October 2004 issue of Neuron.

And an entire new field, Neuromarketing, was born!

But the secret of Coke’s marketing success has yet to be solved. “We have shown that the Coke brand has a powerful influence,” says Montague. “But we haven’t asked what that is yet. Is it something simple and stupid like the red can, the curvy script or the hard consonants, or something much more complex.”

Still, the idea that neuroscience has applications for business is causing a wave of excitement in the marketing sector. It prompted the BrightHouse Institute for Thought Sciences to establish a Neurostrategies division and conduct fMRI research.

(To be continued)

P.S: Notes and quotes in this series on Neuromarketing have been borrowed heavily from various research writings on the subject. My contribution is close to nil!

The Pepsi Challenge

Strange things happen in America. Stranger things happen in marketing there. For instance, while Coke is the leader in the American market, most people prefer the taste of Pepsi in blind tests!

The Pepsi Challenge has been an ongoing marketing promotion run by PepsiCo since 1975. The challenge is designed to be a direct response to critics who allege that Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola are identical drinks, with no meaningful differences.

The challenge took the form of a taste test. At public contact points, a Pepsi guy set up a table with two blank cups: one containing Pepsi and one containing Coke. People were encouraged to taste both colas, and tell which one they prefer. Then the Pepsi guy revealed the two bottles so the taster can see whether they preferred Coke or Pepsi. Not surprisingly, or maybe surprisingly, the preferred brand was Pepsi.

Ever since the famous findings of the Pepsi Challenge, marketers have argued that the difference between this perception and reality was the handiwork of ‘Marketing’. In other words, their work was making a difference! How else could Coke come on top?

The Pepsi Challenge, subsequently, moved into TV during the 70s and 80s where a series of ads showed how Americans preferred Pepsi to Coke.

But 30 years after the commercials debuted, neuroscientist Read Montague was still thinking about them. Something didn't make sense. If people preferred the taste of Pepsi, the drink should have dominated the market. It didn't.

So in the summer of 2003, Montague gave himself a 'Pepsi Challenge' of a different sort: to figure out why people would buy a product they didn't particularly like.

What he found was the first data from an entirely new field: Neuromarketing.

(To be continued in my next post)