Computer users have grown accustomed to the browser cookies used by online advertisers that remember our browsing interests to show related ads as we surf the web. Furthermore, online marketing has become increasingly integrated over the years, as websites require users to log into a personal account that builds on the shopping history of a customer to suggest related content. The effect is a deeper customer relationship that provides an extremely customized shopping experience. Neuromarketing, a new and controversial field of marketing, attempts to make this consumer relationship an even tighter one by utilizing brain waves to measure the effectiveness of advertising, packaging, and messaging to ultimately incite desired consumer responses. Neuromarketers focus on understanding the subconscious needs and desires of consumers to return a profit.
As you look into your computer screen to read this post, it is also stares right back at you. Okay, it doesn’t really look back at you, but it could one day. If the small eye, I mean camera lens, located at the top of laptop screens today were able to measure pupil dilation, it could easily provide neuromarketers with the potential to observe your response to advertising elements that flash on your screen and assess your relationship with a brand. In the past, companies surveyed groups to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements. Today, researchers don’t ask questions; they evaluate one’s reactions to advertisements.
What do you think of the advertisement below? Does it warm your heart? Does it bore you?
Was the sigh you just released a product of a good story line, or did neorumarketers aptly influence your feelings? Don’t feel paranoid now, but companies have always created ads like the one above to fill consumers with fuzzy feelings that unconsciously associate their customer loyalty to the brand. Neuromaketing steps in to evaluate consumer response and whether or not the ad is well received.
The future of neuromarketing is not limited to back-room research studies; in fact, the possibility of collecting and presenting data to consumers in real time is endless. Have an iPhone4? Did you think that the front facing camera on the phone was just for video chat? Apps that can use the phone's front facing cameras to detect hand-motion commands are currently under development. So it is not hard to believe that retina scanning is in the near future. Imagine discussing where you want to go out to eat with a friend within a text message and a banner ad suggests the perfect place for you. Sounds like the perfect world right? Or is it that creepy? The fact is that neuromarketing will play a bigger role in the near future, whether it is in electing politicians, buying consumer products, or choosing blind dates.
The company Neurofocus is a market leader in bringing neuroscience expertise to marketing, and its products and services range from billboard ads to market analysis. Its website also includes videos of case studies which explain the role of neuroscience in the marketing of certain products.
Ultimately, it is up to us as consumers to know better, trust ourselves and be sensible. We should not fear neuromarketers, after all there is nothing more annoying than boring advertisements.
-Derrick Padron
Sources:
Khanna, Ayesha. “Neuromarketers Know You Better Than You Know Yourself.” http://bigthink.com/ideas/24840
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It is interesting how marketers are beginning to further span their knowledge and use neuromarketing to test and see what specifically a person looks at and what attracts their attention, but at the same time this is an invasion to our privacy. I do think this will help consumers access items more easily, but as I mention in my blog, it is scary to know that people can get inside your brain and access information that you do not even realize you are thinking about.
ReplyDeleteThe video you posted was pretty boring, but as I watched it, it did give me the fuzzy warm feeling at the end. But still, it doesn't persuade me to want marketers to get inside my brain and know all of my personal information in order to make my shopping experience easier.
I wonder how many people would be willing to purchase an iPhone in the future if they do the retina scanning or text advertisements. I know I am going to think twice about electronic gadgets that I want to purchase!