“Let me listen to your brain.”
That’s the refrain of this catchy video from NeuroFocus, a company that specializes in measuring brain reactions to various stimuli (e.g. words, images, TV commercials, logos, etc) to gain marketing insights.
What they claim to measure is attention, emotional engagement, memory retention … to gauge purchase intent, awareness, and novelty. Many commercial marketers are trying this stuff.
Hocus pocus … or replacing the “art” of marketing with hard science. What do you think?
Personally, I’m passionately curious about this stuff. I’ve even pre-ordered The Buying Brain: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind, by the founder of NeuroFocus.
I wonder who will be first off the diving board in the nonprofit sector?
Oh, to have a research budget!!
Tom
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I’m very interested in this. Political parties have been dipping their toes into these areas for awhile. Frank Luntz has looked at how words and phrases impact people for awhile now, but this seems to be a step beyond his work.
I do wonder, however, if there are ethical issues to be considered here – especially in the NFP world.
Hey Tom! So glad you liked our video! We had a terrific time making it.
Can’t wait to hear your take on the Buying Brain book (releases Aug 9 in the US). I’ll let you know when http://www.thebuyingbrain.com launches, and we can chat there, over what we anticipate will be many rousing discussions.
To Laurie’s question, NeuroFocus does not conduct studies for political parties. Nor do we test children under 18. That’s our corporate policy. Other research agencies have other policies.
What we DO do, is help brands create products people real actually want, with packaging that conveys product information in an easily understood fashion, offered in retail environments that are genuinely pleasant and easy to navigate for the chosen demographic (did you know men and women have very different subconscious goals moving through stores?), and backed by advertising and marketing messaging that accurately aligns with the corporate brand identity.
How’s that for starters?
Hi Tom!
You likely know about one of the first books published on advertising and persuasion, published in 1974, called “Subliminal Seduction”? This book definitely raised ethical issues for me, but I found it a fascinating look at advertising. Kate