Neur­omar­ket­ing – the way into the consumer’s brain?

Lighting, back­ground music, fragrance – selling strategies in retail are no longer limited to just product placement. To ensure that a trip to the store leads to a purchase, marketing experts plan the layout of the retail space down to the finest detail. The goal is to create an en­vir­on­ment or ambience that is ‘sale-friendly’ and speaks to the customer’s sub­con­scious. This en­vir­on­ment is not just important for the ‘brick and mortar’ retail sector but also for online sales. The e-commerce sector makes use of any and all means to bring attention to the products and services that they offer.

On a daily basis, online consumers are con­fron­ted by an excessive amount of offers from so many companies, many of whom are more or less selling the same thing. This flood of offers means that online retailers must ask them­selves: ‘Why should the consumer choose to buy from us and not from the com­pet­it­or?’ But purely rational ap­proaches and con­sid­er­a­tions here play a re­l­at­ively minor role – at least according to neur­os­cience. Neur­o­lo­gists believe the decision to buy has a lot more to do with the parts of the brain that deal with the pro­cessing of emotions and be­ha­vi­our­al instincts. Trying to figure just how much neur­o­lo­gic­al factors have to do with marketing is in many ways the defin­i­tion of neur­omar­ket­ing.

Neur­omar­ket­ing is an in­ter­dis­cip­lin­ary research field that positions itself between market research and neur­oe­co­nom­ics. While neur­oe­conom­ists attempt to explain economic decision processes with the help of neur­o­lo­gic­al methods, neur­omar­keters on the other hand use these ex­plan­a­tions to develop new marketing strategies and in­stru­ments.

Neur­oe­co­nom­ic research is based on the as­sump­tion that decisions are largely made based on sub­con­scious actions. When it comes to making a purchase, it is emotions and not rational con­sid­er­a­tions that dictate our buying decision.

The aim of neur­omar­ket­ing is the op­tim­isa­tion of marketing processes and, fig­ur­at­ively speaking, gaining an insight into the brain of the consumer. The goal is to decipher what sub­con­scious processes take place during a purchase or the viewing of an ad­vert­ise­ment. Re­search­ers and marketing spe­cial­ists hope to acquire an accurate view of the purchase decision making process, which then leads to a purchase. With this in­form­a­tion, neur­omar­keters now claim to be able to find the answers that up until now have remained elusive from the more classic marketing in­stru­ments, such as surveys, etc. Even the most co­oper­at­ive of test subjects cannot provide in­form­a­tion relating to processes that take place sub­con­sciously.

The human brain is a com­plic­ated network made up of ap­prox­im­ately 100 billion nerve cells. It processes sensory per­cep­tions, co­ordin­ates complex behaviour, and acts as a central storage facility for all processed in­form­a­tion. As the base for all thoughts, opinions, attitudes, wishes, and purposes, the brain is the physical bedrock of an in­di­vidu­al’s mental processes and con­fig­ur­a­tions, as well as their cognition and emotion. The way in which all these interact with each other and lead to decision processes is the subject of various research areas. But there are no con­clus­ive answers, and neur­os­cience has committed itself to answering this question by at­tempt­ing to un­der­stand the physical and bio­lo­gic­al processes that take place in the brain. This is done primarily through non-invasive neuro­physiolo­gic­al methods of ex­am­in­a­tion, like elec­tro­en­ceph­al­o­graphy (EEG) and func­tion­al magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

• EEG: Elec­tro­en­ceph­al­o­graphy is the meas­ure­ment of the elec­tron­ic activity in the brain. This method of meas­ure­ment gathers voltage fluc­tu­ations along the surface of the head, and then plots them graph­ic­ally. Being a non-imaging process, it provides in­form­a­tion on physiolo­gic­al reactions in the brain, but doesn’t lay them out in relation to the un­der­ly­ing ana­tom­ic­al struc­tures. This means that re­search­ers can record that a certain stimulus has triggered a reaction, but they are unable to figure out in which part of the brain this took place.

• fMRI: Func­tion­al magnetic resonance imaging is an imaging method that makes it possible to create a spatial rep­res­ent­a­tion of the activated part of the brain. fMRI also make it possible to make use of different magnetic com­pon­ents of oxy­gen­ated and deoxy­gen­ated blood to identify metabolic changes to blood cir­cu­la­tion. This in turn zones in on the neuronal activity in the cor­res­pond­ing part of the brain. In contrast to non-imaging processes like EEG, the reactions can be at­trib­uted to a specific area of the brain.

Further to ad­vert­ising research, neur­omar­ket­ing can also draw on psy­cho­physiolo­gic­al be­ha­viours, i.e. meas­ure­ments like heart rate, electro dermal activity, and eye tracking.

• Heart rate meas­ure­ment: This is where the number of heart beats during a certain period is measured. The aim is to correlate the arousal of the test person with various stimuli.

• Elec­tro­dermal activity (EDA):  Elec­tro­dermal reaction refers to a short sub­sid­ence of the elec­tric­al prop­er­ties of the skin. This is caused by the emotional-effective reactions in the sym­path­et­ic nervous system. If the present­a­tion of a stimulus leads to an elec­tro­dermal reaction, then this is a sign of the test subject’s arousal.

• Eye tracking: Eye tracking means you gather data on the eye movement of a test subject while they are presented with visual stimuli. Using technical ap­par­at­uses, the eye movement can be recorded and divided into fixations, i.e. when the eye gaze pauses in a certain position, and saccades, i.e. when the eye moves to a different position.

Neur­omar­ket­ing often involves a com­bin­a­tion of psycho and neuro­physiolo­gic­al ex­am­in­a­tion methods. This is done with the intention of analysing the reaction of potential target groups to ad­vert­ise­ments, product design, the struc­tur­ing of the design process, or indeed even the design of a retail space. Possible stimuli, whose impact can be monitored, are different versions of an ad­vert­ise­ment, a website, the user interface of a software, or maybe a product packaging. E-commerce relies on processes like these to fa­cil­it­ate the optimal design and placement of ad­vert­ise­ments, order buttons, visual elements, and calls to action.

Where does the consumer look? How does he/she react to it? Which parts of the brain are stim­u­lated as a result? These are all key questions. The goal is, through neur­o­lo­gic­al processes, to be able to un­der­stand the physical actions stim­u­lated by ad­vert­ising material and layout. This usually means that tech­niques such as eye-tracking must be applied to measure the eye movement and the attention span caused by the stimulus. This, combined with an imaging process like fMRI, can evaluate which neuronal area was stim­u­lated by observing a stimulus. If a test subject responds to a certain stimulus via neuronal activity in a certain part of the brain, this then implies that this effect can be assigned to that cor­res­pond­ing area of the brain.

It must be noted that neuro and psy­cho­physiolo­gic­al studies mostly take place in a labor­at­ory en­vir­on­ment. This allows for in­form­a­tion on brain activity and the in­volve­ment of certain ana­tom­ic­al struc­tures. But being able to correctly interpret the results with marketing issues in mind is only possible if the ex­per­i­ment results are com­pat­ible with fun­da­ment­al neur­os­cientif­ic and psy­cho­lo­gic­al knowledge, so that a relevant cor­rel­a­tion can then be iden­ti­fied.

Example: Judging brain activity in the amygdala, a part of the so-called limbic system, when presented with a certain stimulus is only possible when this part of the brain is then at­trib­uted with being emo­tion­ally affected by this in­form­a­tion. Emotional psy­cho­logy research has es­tab­lished that emotions very strongly influence the way in which we take in and evaluate the world around us. Neur­os­cientif­ic studies, par­tic­u­larly those by António Damásio (Descartes’ Error) and Joseph LeDoux (The Emotional Brain), prove in­sight­ful in this regard. What they have shown is that emotions that influence attention and memory, as well as emotional eval­u­ation, i.e. all that is assessed emo­tion­ally, are processed at a deeper level.

Of par­tic­u­lar interest to marketing experts is the mesolimbic system and its neur­o­trans­mit­ter dopamine. An ac­tiv­a­tion of the so-called reward center is connected with feelings of joy and pleasure. According to neur­os­cient­ists, one of the key functions of the mesolimbic system is the strength­en­ing of the readiness to act. An ac­tiv­a­tion in the cor­res­pond­ing areal is in­ter­preted as a positive stimulus, which in turn link to mo­tiv­a­tion. This means that the mesolimbic system plays a role in the positive re­in­force­ment and learning through reward.

A con­nec­tion has been found between achieving a profit and the ac­tiv­a­tion of the reward center. This sensation is not just prompted by an in­di­vidu­al achieving a profit because of making a decision, but can also come from joyfully an­ti­cip­at­ing a future reward. For example, tests in the area of product design have shown that sports and luxury cars have been known to have activated the rewarding areas of the brain much stronger compared to hybrid cars. This reaction can be explained by social ranking, which is often heavily as­so­ci­ated with these kinds of cars. Raising your status can also be a form of social reward, even if it has not yet been achieved but is only a future prospect.

If this actually leads to consumers grabbing for their credit cards is another issue entirely. Ul­ti­mately, not all purchase decisions are ones that have suc­cess­fully appealed to an in­di­vidu­al’s emotions with marketing actions. Many other factors are also involved in potential customers’ decision making process, including; their state of mind of at that exact moment, re­com­mend­a­tions from friends and family, and past ex­per­i­ences with products and services. On top of this, there are also external factors, such as in­ter­rup­tions and dis­trac­tions caused by others. These can also influence consumers’ buying process. The fun­da­ment­al issues when it comes to marketing cannot be addressed based solely on neurons and neuronal activity.

When it comes to figuring out exactly how neur­omar­ket­ing works, limits are defined by the current knowledge levels of general brain science and research. And in many of the areas relevant to marketing and ad­vert­ising, little more than the basic amount of research exists. Tech­nic­ally elaborate ap­par­at­uses, expensive series of ex­per­i­ments, and Power­Point present­a­tions featuring colourful pictures of the brain, all disguise the fact that the current state of research is fairly limited. This also applies to the actively complex topics around cognition and emotion, where research is still a long way from done.

The idea that emotions, when mixed with brand awareness, can promote sales is in no way a new idea and is one which has been adapted by ad­vert­ising psy­cho­lo­gists through­out the last century. And ad­vert­isers demon­strate it without the use of expensive fMRI studies. But there is no doubt that the amount of influence exerted by neur­oe­co­nom­ic, psy­cho­lo­gic­al, and cognitive sci­entif­ic theories in the minds of marketers is certainly in­creas­ing. But not only empirical meas­ure­ment methods are being utilised. Instead of inviting test subjects into a labor­at­ory, marketing experts instead turn to existing concepts, like arousal, herding, emo­tion­al­ity, priming, and other hy­po­theses of es­tab­lished marketers in order to develop sales tricks, which can influence consumers’ sub­con­scious decision-making processes.

Human beings act based on the behaviour of people around them, mostly without con­sciously deciding to do so. If one person begins to speak quietly, the other will begin to whisper. If one person feels the need to yawn, it’s often the case that a second person won’t be able to stop them­selves from yawning either. Neur­os­cience explains this phe­nomen­on with the aptly named mirror neurons. This was first recorded by the research group of the Italian neuro­physiolo­gist Giacomo Rizzolati. He dis­covered that the neurons in a certain part of an in­di­vidu­al’s brain not only reacted when the test subject carried out a motor hand to object in­ter­ac­tion, but that this was also the case when a similar movement was observed being carried out by another test person. Today we know that all it takes is for a gesture, e.g. a yawn, to be seen to cause a sub­con­scious mirror reaction.

The mirror neurons theory also explains the phe­nomen­on of the herd mentality, something which can be observed both in animals and in humans. This refers to the way in which a group of in­di­vidu­als will col­lect­ively behave in a similar manner, without any organised con­trolling. This ‘herding’ term has now also found its way into marketing jargon. While neuro­physiolo­gists limit them­selves to re­search­ing the brains of primates, such as observing test subjects eating ice cream, ad­vert­ising experts use the herd mentality to give their target market a shove in the desired direction.

A technical marketing use of the herding phe­nomen­on can be seen in the area of user-generated product reviews, something which is now offered by nearly every single online shop. It is no secret that the consumer is more likely to favour the products and services that have been bought by others and sub­sequently been found to be sat­is­fact­ory. Who would choose to book a room in a hotel which, because of poor hygiene standards and un­friendly staff, has been given one star out of five by a previous visitor?

Marketing experts assume that the herding effect is much stronger when linked to re­com­mend­a­tions made by prominent per­son­al­it­ies. Testi­mo­ni­al ad­vert­ising is an everyday oc­cur­rence now with regards to herding marketing. Why would you ever choose to drink Budweiser, when Heineken has now become the drink of choice for James Bond?

While celebrity en­dorse­ments have been around for decades, new forms of ad­vert­ising like Let’s Play, hauls, and unboxing videos are now emerging. What these basically entail is consumers trying out video games or unboxing and sampling recently bought products, and then hopefully re­com­mend­ing them to others. The viewing figures of these sorts of videos on YouTube and other video streaming sites only go to show how large the audience is that can be reached with this form of user-generated ad­vert­ising.

The somatic marker hy­po­thes­is can be traced back to the neur­os­cient­ist António Damásio and is based on the as­sump­tion that emotional ex­per­i­ences are embedded in people and therefore play a large role in decision processes. According to Damásio, the choice between two al­tern­at­ives is par­tic­u­larly in­flu­enced by un­con­scious body signals, a.k.a. somatic markers. Ana­tom­ic­ally, these are to be found in the pre­front­al cortex, and control a person’s pre­vent­at­ive and approach man­ner­isms.

If, in a certain situation, an in­di­vidu­al senses a positive body signal, e.g. joy, this in turn results in a sub­con­scious approach behaviour. If negative feelings, like disgust or fear were to arise, then this will usually lead to avoidance in the cor­res­pond­ing situation. If we are to believe Damásio’s theory, then body signals in the form of somatic markers represent a precursor to the rational decision process, i.e. they act as a type of pre-decision. Added to this, somatic markers link emotional reactions to memories of specific events, meaning everyone has their own sort of emotional memory. If it so happens that at a later point a person comes into contact again with the re­spect­ive stimulus, this will lead to a repeat-ex­per­i­en­cing of the cor­res­pond­ing emotions. This, then, acts as a type of guiding system, which during a decision-making process will give a push in the right direction.

The origin of Damásios’ hy­po­thes­is was ob­ser­va­tions of patients with damaged frontal lobes. These patients en­countered dif­fi­culties when it came to making decisions, despite having a con­sist­ent level of in­tel­li­gence and a working social en­vir­on­ment. Somatic markers are of huge im­port­ance when it comes to neur­omar­ket­ing. If Damásios’ con­clu­sions are to be believed, then every emo­tion­al­ised com­mu­nic­a­tion with regards to ad­vert­ising or brand strategy leads to a somatic marker. And in turn, each new in­ter­ac­tion with the ad­vert­ised product or brand will then influence future decisions.

Does neur­omar­ket­ing signal the end of the self-de­term­in­ing consumer? While marketing experts are pre­dict­ing a golden age, consumer advisors are voicing their concerns. Ever-rising consumer credit is reflected by the ever-in­creas­ing amount of people in financial dif­fi­culty, and the free will of the consumer has become a serious bone of con­ten­tion. But is neur­omar­ket­ing really a threat to consumers’ free will?

One thing is clear; there is no such thing as a ‘buy button’ in the heads of consumers, despite what may have been suggested in popular sci­entif­ic pub­lic­a­tions. The inner workings of the human brain are simply too complex and cannot simply be broken down or figured out by basic sales tricks. Instead of this, neur­os­cience offers ex­plan­a­tions and theories relating to human thought, per­cep­tion, and decision processes, all of which are based on un­der­ly­ing bio­lo­gic­al struc­tures of the brain.

These de­vel­op­ments in brain research are valuable to marketers, as they allow for a better un­der­stand­ing of consumers’ decision process. This, in turn, means that products, adverts, and sales channels can be designed to grab people’s attention, evoke emotions, and then remain in their memory – three factors that have always been known to promote sales. With this in mind, neur­omar­ket­ing can be seen as less of a re­volu­tion and more of an evolution of es­tab­lished consumer research. Past methods and findings have not become ir­rel­ev­ant. Instead, they are merely being sub­stan­ti­ated and expanded by results in neur­os­cientif­ic research, and are helping to reveal more com­pre­hens­ive insight into consumer behaviour. Neur­omar­ket­ing is simply one of many com­pon­ents of the marketing process.

There have been some disputes about the extent to which findings in neur­omar­ket­ing can and should be used to purposely ma­nip­u­late consumers. But the idea of a remote-con­trolled consumer, who feels compelled to buy something due to some jazzed-up ad­vert­ising, purely remains something from a science fiction movie. But it does pose one question: To what degree is ma­nip­u­la­tion possible through ad­vert­ising?

The term ‘ma­nip­u­la­tion’ usually implies sway tactics, which are unclear to un­sus­pect­ing victims and therefore un­con­trol­lable. Everyone knows that ad­vert­ising is there to fa­cil­it­ate selling, and most consumers are aware that when they visit an online store, that the retailer will un­doubtedly describe the products and services on offer in a positive way, and also that the website will be laid out in such a way that the ‘Buy’ button will always catch the eye. Many tactics and ap­proaches adopted by ad­vert­isers are sub­sequently discussed by the consumers them­selves. A prime example of this is the ex­pres­sion ‘Sex sells!’ In this sense, neuro-economic research acts as a form of consumer pro­tec­tion. As people become aware of the inner workings of ad­vert­ising, its power is curtailed and marketing tricks debunked.