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Nueroscience and Marketing

Most of know that men favor sports cars and cola drinkers prefer Coke.

But did you ever sit and wonder why?

Well, so are a bunch of nueroscientists from top universities within the nation.

And what they are finding will blow your mind.

They are looking at the relationship between marketing stimuli and brain behavior, setting up fMRIs to capture psysiological data that comes in as a viewer, for instance, is bombarded by targeted advertising.

Then they are hypothesizing how it reflects, inflects, and predicts consumer behavior.

Pretty awesome.

What is the relationship between what happens in the medial prefrontal cortex, for example, and choices consumers make in the marketplace?

They are probing

how we react to advertising and therefore how marketers might tailor their ads to target buyers. In the future, carmakers could ostensibly test which models or design variations within a model prompt the strongest emotional response.

In other words, what these nueroscientists are trying to figure out is what the heck happens inside our heads whenever we buy something.

Why do men gravitate towards certain automobiles?

Did you know that dopamine levels hit sky-high levels when the average male is shown a picture of a Ferrari?

Ultimately, by studying the inter-relationship between stimulus and effect, nueroscience is helping Corporations more effectively mold our buying decisions.

What this means is that every ad is really a cultural message created to manipulate your self-identity.

And what major corporation wouldn't want to partake in activities that would better influence personal preferences?

If one's self-image is vulnerable to begin with, you can imagine what the advances made by nueroscience over the next decade will procreate.

Consumer manipulation notwithstanding (detractors are many), Nueroscience will give corporations an edge for their products, services, and processes.

DaimlerChrysler, GM, and Ford, by the way, are all utilizing nueroscience to better control understand their customers.

Thanks to my dad (an MD) down in Florida for rushing me the journal article on which this one is based.

posted by Catablast! Media Group @ 6:09 AM