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June 16, 2005
Priya Shah, Editor
http://EbizWhizPublishing.com
Smart Marketing Or Jedi Mind Control Trick?
As many of you know, I lost my husband this month. Its been the most difficult month of my life.
Although I still find it too painful to discuss, what sustains me now are the memories of the love we shared, and the fact that I have to get on with my life for my daughter and family's sake.
So I got back to writing - both because of my passion for it, and because I find it more therapeutic to do something productive than brood.
You can read my latest blog posts here
* Short-Term Adsense Profits: Building A Business On A Bed Of Quicksand
* Is Small Better With Google Adsense?
* How To Use Your Blog To Publish Your Book
* Pushing The Boundaries on Blogs: Do Fake Blogs Work?
* India, Inc. Wakes Up To BlogsDownload the report I review in my latest post above
I wrote a new article this month on a field that I've been following with interest for a while. Feel free to publish it in your own ezine or website as long as you follow the copyright guidelines here.
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Neuromarketing: Smart Marketing Or Jedi Mind Control Trick?
Copyright © 2005 Priya Shah
In the international bestseller "Blink," Malcolm Gladwell explains why our decisions to choose brands, select a mate, sue our doctor or make choices that decide Presidential elections, aren't as simple as they seem.
Why we often let unconscious biases affect our opinions about people who are taller or have a different skin colour. And why we find it even harder to explain them when asked.
I consider "Blink" essential reading for all marketers. I mean, which blue-blooded marketer wouldn't love to know how the workings of their customer’s brain will decide if their new packaging is going to work or fail?
Or why their new website is converting far fewer visitors than the old one? Of course we would.
But is it really possible to understand why people choose Budweiser over Coors? George W. over John Kerry? Coke over Pepsi?
No one knows for sure. And asking people why they took those decisions doesn't necessarily give the right answers.
Why? Because most of us really haven't a clue as to why we make those choices.
95% of consumer decision-making occurs subconsciously, according to research from Harvard University, cited in an article in Time. That's a hell of a lot of decisions we have little or no conscious control over.
In Blink, Gladwell also shows how sometimes the sort of data that marketers rely on - such as market research and focus groups - can fail miserably because they don't always predict actual consumer behaviour, as Coca-Cola discovered during the New Coke fiasco.
But new research is beginning to shine a light on the mysterious workings of the neural processes behind those snap decisions.
Known as "neuromarketing," this controversial science could one day lead to new advertising strategies that directly stimulate hard-wired mental reflexes rather than appealing to fuzzy consumer attitudes, according to an article in Wired News.
The Time article also cited research that seems to have solved that eternal mystery – why people prefer Coke over Pepsi. The answer lies in how people identify with brands. Although consumers preferred Pepsi’s taste they choose Coke because they identified with its brand better.
A branch of cognitive neuroscience, neuromarketing relies heavily on the ability to visualise how the brain sees choices and takes decisions, using brain scans and a process called functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI. fMRI measures the level of oxygen in the blood and tells scientists which parts of the brain are most active.
According to the Wired article, this research even recently revealed the differences in the brains of Democrats and Republicans.
Consumer groups worry that the research could lead to companies using more effective "mind control" to brainwash consumers into decisions that the companies desire, and have issued calls to ban the technology.
Imagine if the tobacco, alcohol, and gambling industries (or even worse, politicians) should start exploiting such information to manipulate the weak minds of their zombified consumers.
But the experts insist we are light years away from such an Orwellian scenario, and believe that the research will help businesses better understand the needs of their consumer and show them how to make life better for their consumers.
Whatever the outcome, neuromarketing is certainly going to be a bone of contention between marketers hoping to get a better grip on their consumer’s decision making processes, and consumer activists seeking to help consumers retain control over their minds.
Warm regards,
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