Buyology Presentation

“Chapter 1”

By: Sadia Javed

(15277)

A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD

The Largest Neuromarketing Study Ever Conducted

Neuromarketing, it’s about uncovering what’s already inside our heads —our Buyology

Martin Lindstrom - Buyology

Overview

• Neuromarketing is the new key tool which will revolutionize marketing strategies in future and help understand the logic behind purchase behavior.

• Subconscious thoughts, feelings & desires that drive the purchasing decisions we make each & every day.

• The summary highlights the major concepts from the book which can help in building better marketing campaigns

• Examining efficacy by: Tracking sales

Market research

Introduction

People are constantly surrounded by brands and messages from marketers & advertisers

• Some information is retained and some is instantly forgettable

• To make the brand message stay with the consumer and to induce product cravings, research in “Neuromarketing” is being done

• Neuromarketing is the window key to unlock the subconscious thoughts, feelings & desires that drive purchase decisions

Neuromarketing study

• Study Duration: Three years (2004-2007)

• Cost: $7 million (provided by 8 MNCs)

• fMRI Scans: 102

• SST: To measure the degree of emotional engagement, memory, approach & withdraw i.e. how different parts of the brain talk to one another

• Volunteers: 2,081

• Countries: America, England, Japan, China, Germany

• Research Team overseen by: Dr. Gemma Calvert, Chairperson Applied Neuroimaging at University of Warwick, England

Problem

• Companies often are not able to carefully detect what to do to engage the consumers authentically.

• Product placements doesn’t really work.

• Fragrance and sound are better than any singular logo.

• Subliminal messaging still happens and works really well.

• Buying is affected by religion.

• Sex doesn’t really work all that well anymore.

• The traditional marketing research -Qualitative & Quantitative research techniques are not well equipped to evaluate what the consumer wants

• The smokers replied in negative to purchasing cigarettes when shown the warning signs on cigarette packs

• Whilst the actual buy behavior has not much changed as despite the results of traditional marketing research tests, the smokers went and purchased the cigarette packs

• Hence a new marketing tool –Neuromarketing is required to test how the consumer‘s brain evaluates and responds to the brand messages it encounters

fMRI

• functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

• The most advanced brain-scanning technique was used that measures the magnetic property of hemoglobin that carries oxygen in the body. More worked up a part of brain is, more is the flow of oxygenated blood to that part of the brain

• The study was conducted using the fMRI technique to assess which aspects of the brand or product message stimulate which part of the brain that ultimately induces the need to buy that product

Experiment with smokers• Test: Smokers were shown cigarette warning

packs

• Questions asked: Are you affected by these warnings? Will you smoke lesser?

• Answers were a quick ―Yes‖ to both

• Analysis & Results: When these respondents went through fMRI, it was observed that Warning signs on cigarette boxes do nothing to hinder the urge. Actually stimulated the craving spot. (Nucleus accumbens)

• This part of the brain when stimulated requires higher and higher doses to get it fixed

• Such cigarette warning signs, encouraged the smokers to buy more cigarette packs

Study - Importance

Therefore, traditional marketing research techniques are not reliable to know what consumers really wants because the irrational mind shaped via social & cultural bias acts in a conditioned manner

Hence, what consumers think why they have a particular behavior, a closer look into the mind tells a different story

Unconscious minds are a lot better at interpreting behavior than the conscious minds which is what works when traditional marketing research is conducted

Consumer experience is more likely to be found in brain, in the nanosecond lapse before thinking is translated into words, the truth –unplugged & uncensored, what causes us to buy

Sip test

• Pepsi Challenge or Sip Test, showed that more than half of the volunteers prefer the taste of Pepsi over coke, this was confirmed by the fMRI techniques

• The later Brain scan techniques revealed when test subjects know whether they were sampling coke or Pepsi before they tasted it, 75% of respondents claimed they prefer Coke.

• Positive associations the subjects

had with Coca cola- its history, logo, color, design, and fragrance, their own childhood memories of coke

• Emotions are the way in which our brain encode things of value, and brands that engages us emotionally will win every single time

Other Tests

• Immediate reward is far greater than waiting for something to come.

• What your brain thinks is going on plays an important role.

• People liked the Mini Cooper because it looks like a face.

• Something as simple as baby faces can impact decisions and feelings.

Thank you!