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Markertng Paper
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION W/ HISTORY/BACKGROUND
Why is it important?
METHODS OF RESEARCH
Who is already capitalizing on it?
Growth potential?
Future, Benefits & Issues
CONCLUSIONS
WORKS CITED
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Executive Summary
Everyday companies spend millions of dollars on advertising and marketing research.
Weve all heard of traditional methods of market research but what if there was a more accurate
method of gaining customer intelligence and understanding consumer behavior. What if there
was a way try to predict consumers purchasing decisions. Well there isNeuromarketing aids
in decoding the processes that take place in the consumers mind in order to discover emotions,
desires, wishes and the hidden reasons behind why they make the decisions that they make. But
where did this field of neuromarketing come from? Neuromarketing is the next generation of
market research and is developing more every day.
Adrian North, David Hargreaves, and Jennifer McKendrick about the influence that music has on
your purchasing decision. The study was conducted over a two week period in a wine store. The
store would alternate French and German music on different days. On the days that French music
was played, the percentage of French wine sales increased and when German music was played
the percentage of sales increased for German wine. Whats really interesting about this study is
that when the customers were asked about the reason they purchased each specific wine (from
each region), the customers were completely unaware of how the music (and type of music)
influenced them. Most of the customers actually said that the music had NO effect on their
purchasing decision. . According to Ragans PR Daily Its not that numbers lie; people door
they mislead, at least, consciously or not. People are often wrong, inexperienced, shortsighted,
and biased. People bring unspoken agendas to the table, consciously or unconsciously.
According to Lindstrom, 85% of our daily activity is un-conscious.
Another issue with creating questionnaires is that it can be a lengthy process. About 40%
time spent formulating the right questions. The process is time consuming and you want to make
sure the question doesnt influence the answer. Lets take a look at Walmarts Project Impact.
In 2009 Walmart used traditional market research and surveyed their customers about how they
felt about the Walmart stores. The customers responded by saying that the stores seemed to be
cluttered with too many products and hard to navigate so Walmart made a plan for Project
Impact. Project Impact was intended to reduce clutter, make the jammed aisles easier to navigate
and improve the overall look of the stores. But when Walmart began to implement Project
Impact at 600 of their stores sales suddenly declined. Walmart re-surveyed their customers and
results showed that the customers wanted more product. In the end, Walmart decided to go
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back to the amount of product that was carried before Project Impact and sales began to rise
again. In all, it seems like Project Impact was a $2 Billion dollar waste of time.
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emotions. The reptilian brain is fully subconscious, it operates purely to help us survive. It is also
the core of decision making.
Methods of Research
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A number of companies have decided to use the neuromarketing method and are
benefitting including Proctor and Gamble, Motorola, Buick, Delta airlines, Google, Microsoft,
Disney, yahoo, Hyundai and Frito-Lay. One of the most recognizable campaign is the Frito-Lay
campaign for Cheetos. In 2008 Frito-Lay decided to hire a neuromarketing firm to look into the
consumer response of Cheetos. They used EEG technology on a group of subjects and contrary
to what I expected- the subjects responded strongly to the fact that eating Cheetos turns their
fingers orange with residual cheese dust. The EEG patterns indicated a sense of giddy
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subversion that consumers enjoy over the messiness of the product. After receiving this data,
Frito-Lay decided to move ahead with a campaign they called The Orange Underground where
Chester the Cheetah encourages consumers to commit subversive acts with Cheetos. (In one
commercial, an airline passenger quietly sticks Cheetos up the nostrils of a snoring seatmate.
Problem solved.) The campaign garnered Frito-Lay a 2009 Grand Ogilvy Award from the
Advertising Research Foundation.
Growth Potential
Being that this field is so new and cutting edge, there is A LOT of growth potential. New
devices continue to be developed. Some companies invented a smaller more portable devices
(for EEG specifically). One company in particular created the Mynd which is currently being
used by home panelists across the country. These panelist are paid to wear these EEG devices as
they shop, watch TV and do other daily activities. The firm will collect the resulting streams of
data and use them to analyze the participants' deep subconscious responses to the commercials,
products, brands, and messages of its clients. NeuroFocus data crunchers can then identify the
products and brands that are the most appealing (and the ones whose packaging and labels are
dreary turnoffs), the characters in a Hollywood film that engender the strongest emotional
attachments, and the exact second viewers tune out an ad. Also, the neuromarketing Science and
Business Association was established just last year as the very first association to bring
specialists together from around the world.
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From looking at the research, it seems like neuromarketing could be too good to be true.
Neuromarketing benefits marketers by giving them a more reliable option for research and
benefits consumers by being able to appeal to their needs/wants. Although there are many clear
benefits, there are issues as well. One issue with the EEG equipment is that it only measures
surface of the scalp and it cannot reach the pleasure center. One issue with FMRI is that its
extremely expensive every time its used. Also, the subjects have to lie completely still in a big
machine that makes a lot of people uncomfortable, especially those who are claustrophobic.
Neuromarketing also faces some issues with future growth from consumers who are worried that
this type of research is sneaky. For consumers, the idea of giving advertisers additional insight
into the subconscious mind might prompt privacy concerns. Consumers are worried that
neuromarketers would be able to control someone and push a magic buy button in consumers
brains. In particular Gary Ruskin of Commercial Alert (anti-marketing activist) has waged a
campaign against the practice, lobbying Congress and the American Psychological Association
(APA) and threatening lawsuits against one neuromarketing firm and other practitioners. He says
it could eventually lead to complete corporate manipulation of consumers -- or citizens, with
governments using brain scans to create more effective propaganda.
Conclusion
In my opinion, consumers dont need to worry about being brainwashed just yet.
Increased activity in the brain doesn't necessarily mean that individuals wont be able to resist
the urge to buy every product on the market. No amount of neuromarketing research can
transform otherwise rational people into consumption-driven aliens. Consumers are constantly
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influenced by the various messages around them but that doesnt take away their freedom of
choice. Neuromarketing is a tool that can truly benefit the companies that decide to use it and
consumers cant let fear stop them from keeping their minds open to the world that continues to
grow around us.
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Works Cited
"All Posts Tagged Neuromarketing." Fresh ID Creative News Ideas Opinions on Web Design
Applications Social Media Sports Retail and Ecommerce Experiences RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 16
Mar. 2014.
"Buy.ology by Martin Lindstrom |Book Brief." YouTube. YouTube, 13 Feb. 2009. Web. 16 Mar.
2014.
"CHEETOS Commercial - Plane." YouTube. YouTube, 07 Feb. 2010. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
""If It Feels Good Do It" : Using Neuromarketing to Go Beyond." YouTube. YouTube, 10 June
2009. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
"July Interactive Expedition Breakfast: Neuromarketing with Kirby Gilliam." Interactive
Expedition RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
Knowledge, HBS Working. "Neuromarketing: Tapping Into the 'Pleasure Center' of Consumers."
Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 01 Feb. 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
"NeuroFocus Uses Neuromarketing To Hack Your Brain | Fast Company | Business +
Innovation." Fast Company. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
"Neuromarketing." Neuromarketing. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
"Neuromarketing." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Mar. 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
"Seven Deadly Sins: Envy - Neuromarketing - Philip Harris: What Is Neuromarketing?"
YouTube. YouTube, 18 Apr. 2011. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
Singer, Natasha. "Making Ads That Whisper to the Brain." The New York Times. The New York
Times, 13 Nov. 2010. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
"WHAT IS NEUROMARKETING?" Mediasauce NeuroMarketing. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar.
2014.
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