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Neuromarketing: the future
of consumer research?
With the advent of brain scanning as a research tool, Peter Laybourne and
Dr David Lewis, Neuroco, discuss how marketers can benefit from new techniques
N
EW METHODOLOGIES COME
and go. In an era where technical
advances have seen sweeping
changes in how we communicate, the
use of new brain-scanning techniques
to probe true emotional responses to
advertising could become a critical guide
to creative strategy development and
implementation.
Scam?
A few months ago the highly respected,
and for non-specialists largely incompre-
hensible, Nature Neuroscience, ran an
editorial provocatively entitled ‘Brain
scam?’ (1).
In it the author commented that for
many neuroscientists: ‘Neuromarketing
is little more than a new fad exploited by
scientists and marketing consultants to Brain wave: a shopper is wired up to an EEG
blind corporate clients with science.’
Certainly the question of whether an industry. In the 1980s, the response So what exactly is neuromarketing
investment in this emerging new ranged from extreme scepticism to out- and how might it add to the effectiveness
research methodology will enhance right hostility, with many condemning it of brand and advertising communica-
advertising effectiveness or merely add an as either a threat to creative freedom or tions?
unnecessary cost to the budget seems an assault on traditional methodologies. Two main approaches are currently
likely to engage the attention of industry Since then, while techniques such as being followed, one called Functional
professionals and their clients over the the use of bricolage and semiotics have Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and
coming months. been hailed as new-wave approaches to the second Quantified Electroen-
qualitative research, the sad truth is that cephalography, or QEEG for short.
Expanding horizons none of these innovations is either Although we do not believe, for
After decades of being restricted to outstanding or even new. reasons to be explained in a moment,
hospitals and medical laboratories, Further, Dr Bruce Hall (2) commented that fMRI will ever make a significant
neuroscience is set to enter the world of that over the last 25 years: ‘Copy-testing contribution to neuromarketing, in view
brand communications and market has not benefited from significant of the extensive publicity it has received
research in a big way. innovation … Issues that emerged over within the industry we will briefly
There are three main reasons why this half a century ago continue to divide the describe what is involved.
is happening. industry.’
1. More knowledge about how the brain fMRI
works has been gained during the last Goodbye to all that In fMRI a powerful magnet and radio
ten years than in the entire history of Neuromarketing promises to change all waves are used to create high-resolution
neuroscience. that by enabling us to see in real time and images of the living brain. The subject’s
2. Developments in medical electronics with great spatial accuracy what is head is placed inside a giant magnetic
and software design enable us to observe, happening below the level of normal ring, which causes protons within the
record and analyse brain function more awareness, to explore the mysterious atoms that make up the brain to align
easily and in greater detail than has world of the unconscious mind and gain with the magnetic field. A pulse of radio
previously been possible. precious insights into how and why waves is directed at the head, some of
3. These advances have been accompa- consumers respond as they do to any form which is absorbed by protons, knocking
nied by a sea-change in the attitudes of of brand communication, but particularly them out of alignment. In realigning
many in the marketing communications advertising. themselves they emit radio waves, which
28 Admap • May 2005 © World Advertising Research Center 2005

2. Peter Laybourne is Dr David Lewis is research
chairman of Neuroco, and development director
a neuromarketing agency. at Neuroco.
are picked up by a receiver and sent to a tests. Similar studies, conducted at the prove so disagreeable they are unable to
computer that constructs the brain Swinburne University of Technology in continue. At best scanners are cramped
image. Since different parts of the brain Melbourne, Australia, have shown that and noisy affairs – the experience can best
respond to the radio waves differently successful advertisements generate both be compared to lying in a dustbin, in a
and emit slightly different radio signals, high levels of emotional engagement and heavy hailstorm. Then stimulus is directed
the computer is able to distinguish one long-term memory encoding. onto the volunteer’s limited field of
brain structure from another. While fMRI provides a detailed record vision by means of either a mirror or
The resulting changes in the MRI of brain activity at any particular time of goggles equipped with miniature
signal are typically displayed as a patchy the procedure is fraught with problems television screens.
area of colour, representing the active when it comes to using it in neuro- The individual is prohibited from
brain area superimposed upon a conven- marketing. The scanners are large, responding spontaneously to what
tional, high-resolution, grey-scale image cumbersome pieces of equipment, which he/she is seeing and hearing, since any
of the subject’s brain. must be used within specialist locations. sudden movement distorts the scan.
In principle, fMRI can be used to They are also costly – around £500,000 – All of this means the surroundings are
observe activity within any part of the and have to be operated by highly skilled highly artificial and seem likely to
brain as it responds to almost any kind of technicians, with the result that putting introduce a significant bias into any
brief stimulation, ranging from sounds to a single subject through a scanner has results. As the Nature Neuroscience editorial
visual images to gentle touching of the been reported as costing around £1,200, commented, the results are: ‘Invariably
skin. with the bill for large-scale studies produced under controlled laboratory
For example, at Baylor College of exceeding £125,000. conditions and it is a major leap to extrap-
Medicine in Houston, neuroscientists olate to a genetically and culturally
have shown that the brain registers a Disagreeable experience diverse population of people in an almost
preference for Coke or Pepsi similar to Only one respondent can be tested at a infinite variety of real world situations.’
that chosen by the subjects in blind taste time and for many the experience may
QEEG
FIGURE 1 In contrast, QEEG uses an Electroen-
QEEG brain activity: attention vs inattention cephalogram (EEG) to detect and analyse
electrical activity in the brain (see Figure 1).
Inattention Attention Developed from the mid-1920s
onwards, EEG has long been widely used
to diagnose such neurological conditions
as epilepsy and brain tumours.
Its use in market research goes back to
at least the early 1970s, when a single-
subject EEG study was conducted in an
attempt to uncover differences in the way
the brain responds to print or television
advertising. Improvements in technology
during the 1980s saw a surge of interest in
the market research potential for EEG,
with the publication of such papers as:
‘Brain-activity responses to magazine and
television advertising’ (3) and ‘EEG
activity and the processing of television
Commercials’ (4).
QEEG results can be presented as coloured maps of the brain, each depicting second- A major drawback of these early studies
by-second changes in mentation. Red, yellow and orange indicate high levels of activity
over the ‘alpha’ range of frequencies (which the brain uses to idle itself) (8–14Hz), blues
was that output from the bulky, medical
and greens significantly less alpha. The first image shows a more relaxed and inattentive EEG machines comprised squiggly lines
brain response than the second. drawn on a continuously moving band of
graph paper, which could be analysed
© World Advertising Research Center 2005 May 2005 • Admap 29

3. focustheconsumerbrain
only by visual inspection. While the
skilled eye of an experienced EEG operator ‘The question is due to misleading and erroneous analysis
of the results. Executed correctly by those
would have little difficulty in identifying,
for example, the unique patterns of spikes
whether an with experience and intuition, it is to
do with analysing minds and getting a
produced by epilepsy, their use as a neuro- investment in this deeper understanding of emotional
marketing tool was obviously limited. response. In effect, providing a richer and
Within our technologically advanced emerging new more meaningful vein of thinking than
age the approach being pioneered by current methodologies, which can be
Neuroco lies in the ease with which research used to inform a company’s marketing
information can be both obtained and
analysed. New EEG equipment is light
methodology will communications. Hence, brain data
should rarely be considered in isolation.
and portable, making it possible to record
brain activity (on an internal 30-hour
enhance advertising Indeed, the key to success in neuro-
marketing lies first in selecting the most
hard drive) while respondents are, for effectiveness or appropriate mix of physiological, neuro-
example, window shopping in a mall, logical and motivational techniques
examining different car designs in a merely add an required by a specific research brief; and,
showroom, or watching advertisements
in their own front room or local cinema. unnecessary cost second, in interpreting the vast amounts of
data generated in an appropriate manner.
Of all the imaging modalities currently
being employed in the fledgling field of
to the budget’ The further criticism that neuroscience
must, inevitably, relegate creativity, inno-
neuromarketing, we are convinced on vation and intuition to the sidelines is a
both theoretical and practical grounds qualitative research methods, our straw man based on a false dichotomy.
that QEEG offers the most convenient and approach enables us not merely to map It is not a question of choosing between
cost-effective method for recording brain the conscious tip of the cognitive the supposed formulaic models presented
activity with a high degree of sensitivity iceberg, but also to explore the otherwise by neuromarketing, on one hand, and the
and temporal resolution. When mysterious depths of the subconscious – freewheeling creativity of traditional
combined with proprietary software, a determination of the mass of the iceberg qualitative research on the other.
currently under development, it will and also the depth of water in which The future of effective and insightful
enable researchers both to aggregate data it sits. research that will enhance bottom-line
and inspect individual responses in growth and advertising effectiveness lies
near-real time. Painfully slow adoption in a partnership between neuroscience
In view of its numerous advantages and and traditional qualitative methodology;
Why bother? the edge it can give decision-makers, why a partnership in which each informs and
All of which, you may feel, fails to answer has the adoption of QEEG by market enriches the other.
the million-dollar question of why researchers been so painfully slow? The positive ramifications of EEG are
advertisers should bother with the There seem to be three main reasons. its extendibility, given the portable
technology at all. First, as we have already mentioned, the nature of equipment, into a variety of
If you want to know what people are early studies, based on visual inspection of arenas within the marketing mix. The
thinking, why not follow the tried and EEG paper traces, were considered too non- scope to evolve NPD ideas and concepts;
trusted method of simply asking them? specific to have any commercial value. packaging design both in situ and isolation;
The answer, as neuroscientists are Second, most results were published in and areas involving sensory experience
increasingly demonstrating, is that the electrophysiological or brain research such as taste and aroma are immense.
vast majority of our cognitions, including journals, which, unsurprisingly and ‘The times they are a-changin’,’ wrote
decision-making and emotional understandably, are not usually high on Bob Dylan in 1964. Today that prophecy is
reactions, occur below the level of the reading list of advertising, marketing rapidly coming true, as the marriage of
conscious awareness and, therefore, and market research professionals. motivational research techniques and
remain fundamentally inaccessible to Finally, is the suspicion that there neuroscience offers the prospect of real
direct and conscious introspection. is something sinister and vaguely business growth through a complete
Cognitive psychologists George Lakoff Orwellian about measuring brain activity understanding of the way consumers
and Rafael Nunez point out: ‘Most every- directly, rather than through the filters of think, act and behave. ■
day thinking occurs too fast and at too questionnaires, surveys and focus groups.
low a level in the mind to be accessible. One recent critic went so far as to raise the 1. M Brammer: Brain scam? Nature
Most cognitions happen backstage.’ possibility of Clockwork Orange-style Neuroscience 7, 2004.
By studying, in real time, variations in mind-control fiction becoming reality. 2. B Hall: On measuring the power of commu-
the different patterns of electrical activity nications. Journal of Advertising Research
in the brain, it is possible to gain a consider- Risk and irresponsibility 44 (2) 2oo4.
able understanding of exactly what is going The main danger in neuromarketing is 3. S Weinstein et al: Brain activity responses to
magazine and television advertising. Journal
on in their minds at any given moment. not about manipulating behaviour.
of Advertising Research (20) 1980.
We can measure the level and span of Rather, it lies in the risk that inexperi- 4. M Rothschild et al: EEG activity and the pro-
attention, whether a message is likely to be enced and mis-informed experts, working cessing of television commercials.
remembered, the extent of engagement for the swarms of new companies hastily Communications Research 13 (2) 1986.
with – or avoidance of – the brand message established to cash in on the new technol-
and the type of emotions aroused. ogy, will result in false conclusions being peter.laybourne@neuroco.com
When combined with more traditional drawn and unwarranted decisions made david.lewis@neuroco.com
30 Admap • May 2005 © World Advertising Research Center 2005