Lecture Outline

Topic: Neuromarketing
Why it developed:
 Advertisers conclude that buying decisions are not always rational.
 Emotional factors or irrational reasons may be stronger than the logical one.
 Main motivation of many purchases is subconscious especially when differentiating
products.
 Researchers wanted to find a more scientific method to understand the target market.
How it works
 Uses MRI to take pictures of brain activities.
 How people process information about products brand and advertisement.
 The test subjects are connected to test machines and are shown pictures. At the same
time, the person’s brain is looked at. This determined which part of the brain is being
used and the patterns of activity between areas of the brain.
 Where in the brain something is processes suggest how they’re thinking about it.
Examples
 A 2004 study tested people’s reaction to Coke and Pepsi.
o When blind tasting, half of the participant prefer coke and the other half prefer
Pepsi. The part of the brain that works are connected to the feeling of reward
focus on taste and how they like it.
o When the brands are given 75% of the participant chose coke and 25% chose
Pepsi. People use a part of brain that’s closer to personality and self-image. What
people think associate the brand responsible for the preferences. So, people prefer
the image not the taste.
 A university in Germany.
o Men reacted to pictures of cars.
o Men uses the back of the brain used to recognize faces.
o Possibility: men process the image of a car like they process human face.

Future
 Future possibilities
o Hope to accurately read pictures of brain activity to understand consumer feeling
and attitudes and predict consumer behavior.
o Help companies understand consumer needs and desire.
 Possible abuse
o Political advertisement that can unconsciously influence humans’ brain
without their notice or understanding if the influence.