Trendsurfing: Neuro-optimised products (The Times)
By David Rowan
When you choose between an Armani and a DKNY suit, or a Johnny Depp film over one by Scarlett Johansson, you may think that you are making a rational decision. But what if, deep in your brain, the tiny electronic signals identifiable from your changing blood flow are telling a story of their own? What if, when confronted with Product A, a scan of your brain suggests far more sudden activity in areas associated with pleasure, reward and sexual arousal than when faced with Product B? Imagine how much marketers would pay to know your instinctive, unconscious yearnings.
As magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners have become cheaper and more advanced in recent years, the more commercially minded neuroscientists have been pitching a powerful new application to brand managers and ad agencies searching for the brain's magical "buy button". Using "functional" MRI (fMRI) scans, the scientists are peering into the brains of test subjects while they are bombarded with product samples, film trailers, car designs and TV commercials. The promise, for those who buy the hype, is that brain science can offer an objective truth about which products and campaigns are likely to succeed, whatever customers say in focus groups. If a £100 million action movie is actually triggering brain responses associated with romance, Tarantino can be sent back to the edit suite.
The discipline has been gaining ground for a couple of years, but what is new is a proliferation of commercial agencies seeking to use brain science to "neuro-optimise" commercial clients' products and campaigns. With names such as Neuroco and Neurosense, these companies generally combine academically trained brain scientists with marketers who previously pitched for Disney and global drinks brands. Neuroco, which uses electroencephalography (EEG) to study brain responses, claims to measure responses to TV and radio ads, product packaging, "brand imagery" and even shopping-mall designs. Neurosense, based in Oxford, has conducted studies for the likes of Unilever and Viacom, owner of television channels such as MTV and VH1. Some serious neuroscientists have their doubts, but Viacom's MD seems to have bought enthusiastically into the idea: "We're trying to find out what is relevant and engaging for the viewers," he gushed to a journalist. "Viewers will get what they want, programmers will get what they want, and advertisers will get what they want."
Global brands from BMW to Coca Cola have been testing brain scanning as a way to "neuro-optimise" their products. Hollywood studios are using fMRI to test film trailers for audience reactions, using cognitive neuroscientists at Caltech in California. Another American neuroscientist, Read Montague, has already become something of a brain-marketing celebrity after scanning volunteers' brains as they drank samples of Coke and Pepsi. The brains showed no preference until they were told that they were drinking Coke - even if in reality it was Pepsi. Somehow, Coke's brand image was lighting up parts of the brain associated with pleasure expectation.
This brave new "science" may all prove wishful thinking by marketers, of course. The "buy button" may remain an advertisers' elusive dream. But Trendsurfing is taking no chances. According to Times readers' brains that we have scanned, this column lights up all your pleasure and reward centres, even a few erogenous zones. And that's a story we're sticking with.
(The Times Magazine, July 22 2006)
When you choose between an Armani and a DKNY suit, or a Johnny Depp film over one by Scarlett Johansson, you may think that you are making a rational decision. But what if, deep in your brain, the tiny electronic signals identifiable from your changing blood flow are telling a story of their own? What if, when confronted with Product A, a scan of your brain suggests far more sudden activity in areas associated with pleasure, reward and sexual arousal than when faced with Product B? Imagine how much marketers would pay to know your instinctive, unconscious yearnings.
As magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners have become cheaper and more advanced in recent years, the more commercially minded neuroscientists have been pitching a powerful new application to brand managers and ad agencies searching for the brain's magical "buy button". Using "functional" MRI (fMRI) scans, the scientists are peering into the brains of test subjects while they are bombarded with product samples, film trailers, car designs and TV commercials. The promise, for those who buy the hype, is that brain science can offer an objective truth about which products and campaigns are likely to succeed, whatever customers say in focus groups. If a £100 million action movie is actually triggering brain responses associated with romance, Tarantino can be sent back to the edit suite.
The discipline has been gaining ground for a couple of years, but what is new is a proliferation of commercial agencies seeking to use brain science to "neuro-optimise" commercial clients' products and campaigns. With names such as Neuroco and Neurosense, these companies generally combine academically trained brain scientists with marketers who previously pitched for Disney and global drinks brands. Neuroco, which uses electroencephalography (EEG) to study brain responses, claims to measure responses to TV and radio ads, product packaging, "brand imagery" and even shopping-mall designs. Neurosense, based in Oxford, has conducted studies for the likes of Unilever and Viacom, owner of television channels such as MTV and VH1. Some serious neuroscientists have their doubts, but Viacom's MD seems to have bought enthusiastically into the idea: "We're trying to find out what is relevant and engaging for the viewers," he gushed to a journalist. "Viewers will get what they want, programmers will get what they want, and advertisers will get what they want."
Global brands from BMW to Coca Cola have been testing brain scanning as a way to "neuro-optimise" their products. Hollywood studios are using fMRI to test film trailers for audience reactions, using cognitive neuroscientists at Caltech in California. Another American neuroscientist, Read Montague, has already become something of a brain-marketing celebrity after scanning volunteers' brains as they drank samples of Coke and Pepsi. The brains showed no preference until they were told that they were drinking Coke - even if in reality it was Pepsi. Somehow, Coke's brand image was lighting up parts of the brain associated with pleasure expectation.
This brave new "science" may all prove wishful thinking by marketers, of course. The "buy button" may remain an advertisers' elusive dream. But Trendsurfing is taking no chances. According to Times readers' brains that we have scanned, this column lights up all your pleasure and reward centres, even a few erogenous zones. And that's a story we're sticking with.
(The Times Magazine, July 22 2006)
<< Home