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!
1 comment:
If neuro marketing's the case, and if that's shown to be true then does that mean that perceived quality has no significance at all and does this also mean that marketers who come out with very successful ad campaigns where people remember an image or a concept can get away with bad quality?
Post a Comment