How your brand could benefit from neuroscience

Neuroscience and marketing are increasingly working hand in hand. Methods and insights derived from neuroscience are often being applied to market research in order to make better sense of consumer behaviour and preferences. The advantage that is routinely associated to these techniques lies in their more direct nature as they aim to unlock the unconscious part of the human brain. This aspect has two important practical implications for brands: firstly, throughout our vast experience in research projects we come across people who are less or more articulate in expressing themselves. Some individuals may experience emotions when out shopping, or when watching an ad on TV, but they may not be able to put them into words. Secondly, and most importantly, the processing of emotions largely happens in the subconscious, which makes it impossible for a person to actually tell what emotions they are experiencing, what is causing them, and why.

Neuroscience applied to brand research has achieved some remarkable results in the last few years, with studies finding that when faced with their favourite brand, consumers tend to “screen out” the areas in their brain that deal with analytical processes and activate the areas that access emotions instead. Moreover, studies on loyal customers have shown that these tend to include emotion in their decision-making process, and their favourite brand fires up the area in their brain which is related to reward. All these processes happen unconsciously but without a reliable, non-intrusive way of measuring their effects this important data is lost.

There are a number of different measurement systems currently in use in Neuromarketing: among these are Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Electroencephalogram, Electrodermal Response and eye-tracking. Brain imaging shows us how the areas in the brain light up according to which ones of the so-called “buy buttons” are being hit by a particular product, brand logo or TV ad. Finding what an input or stimulus from a brand does to the synapses in our brain is seen as the way forward as it finally allows to break the constraints caused by bad recollection, filtering out and post-rationalisation taking place in consumers’ minds whenever they are asked about brand usage.

On the other hand, Electrodermal Response measures physiological changes in skin moisture and temperature due to emotion when an individual is exposed to a particular stimulus, while eye-tracking allows us to see exactly what consumers spend longer looking at, as opposed to what they block out from vision. The appropriateness of a technique over another varies depending on many factors, but the ideal method has to be precise yet discreet, so as to put the customer at ease without affecting the validity of the results.

Neuroscience can help a brand to stand out from competitors by finding out what consumers actually pay attention to and ultimately optimising its advertising, packaging and point of sale communication. What neuroscience successfully does is show us what stimulus causes a reaction in our brain at the exact time it is happening but what it cannot do, though, is describe what type of reaction it is. Moreover, it cannot answer many other questions, such as why that particular reaction is happening, what brought it on, how strong it is, whether it is positive or negative for the consumer and what relevance it has in the consumer’s life.

This is why brands should not stop talking to the consumers – combining our specialised questioning techniques with measurement methods adapted from neuroscience will help us gain better understanding of what goes on in the consumers’ minds. Research into the unconscious is what drives us towards the development of new tools here at Emotional Logic and what we aim to integrate with our existing tools – so watch this space!