Five Ways Neuromarketing Can Benefit Product Development and Product Launch
- addyd124
- Oct 9, 2020
- 4 min read
With the amount of advertisements, promotions, and marketing we see throughout our everyday lives, it is clear just how many companies and competitors are in the market right now vying to be your favorite product or service. So, from a companies stand point, why not do everything you can to grab those consumers through packaging, advertisements, and overall product approval? That’s where Neuromarketing comes into play. According to the Harvard Business Review, Neuromarketing can be defined as “studying the brain to predict and potentially even manipulate consumer behavior and decision making.” Neuromarketing uses a variety of different tools to test consumers neural and physiological states, some include fMRIs, EEGs, and eye tracking devices. These studies help researchers see what’s actually happening in the consumers brain when viewing certain product details, such as the packaging or the promotion right along side it. Neuromarketing has just started to take off recently, and still has a long way to go in terms of being known and used by companies around the world, so below I have outlined five ways that Neuromarketing can help companies when it comes to product development and product launch.
1. Brain imaging tools such as the fMRI and EEG can demonstrate whether or not consumers are interested/intrigued by a product.
According to IMotions, an EEG measures “the electrical activity of our brain via electrodes that are placed on the scalp. It tells us… how active the brain is.” An fMRI measures, “the changes in the amount of oxygenated blood flow throughout the brain.” Through this type of imaging, certain locations of the brain might show higher blood flow than other areas, this would indicate that those areas are currently more active. How does this relate to consumer behavior? Well, because these tools demonstrate what parts of the brain are active, with the knowledge of certain functions of certain brain structures, Neuromarketers are able to determine whether or not someone enjoys this product or advertisement. For example, the nucleus accumbens is known for being the pleasure/reward center of the brain, so if that structure has high activity, a researcher can assume that the consumer is enjoying the product.
2. Beyond brain imaging, there are also many other physiological tests that can be conducted to determine consumers feelings on a certain product.
Eye tracking, skin conductance (sweating), and heart rate are all other measurements that can be used to gauge a person’s feeling on the product being tested. Specifically, eye tracking is used for packaging and advertisements. This tool helps researchers learn exactly where the consumer looks first on a package, or what part of the packaging is grabbing their attention for the longest period of time. Heart rate monitoring can be used when consumers are seeing advertisements or the placement of the product on the store shelf, through this researchers are able to determine whether or not they’re excited, overwhelmed, or content with the product options.
3. Learn more about consumers thoughts on pricing and branding
Through brain imaging techniques, physiological testing, and even just observation, researchers are able to get an insight into how consumers are reacting to certain price points and branding strategies. These techniques will allow researchers to learn more about what the consumes are thinking when it comes to their companies branding/price point compared to that of their competitors. Though consumers might agree with a price when being asked by a researcher, their actual unbiased thoughts on it can be better noted through these types of brain studies.
4. Eliminate the unconscious biases of consumers
Focus groups, surveys, questionaries, they all work well enough BUT everyone holds unconscious biases. Something that many researchers run into during a variety of experiments and studies is response bias, which occurs when consumers change/modify their answers because they know they are a part of a study. In addition to that, people will often try to say what the researcher wants to hear, to please them rather than giving 100% honest answers. With these imaging and physiological techniques used in marketing, researchers are able to get a more accurate understanding of what the consumer actually needs and wants. They won’t be hearing the consumers thoughts that might actually be greatly affected by their biases.
5. Understands the subconscious of a consumer
This last one might be overall the most beneficial aspect of Neuromarketing. Through typical market research on the development and launch of certain products, marketers will look to the current market, focus groups, surveys, and even test markets to try and determine whether or not this product will succeed. Marketers focus on certain ideas such as intent to purchase, chances of repurchasing, overall brand awareness, etc. and though these can be asked over focus groups and surveys, researchers will be able to get more honest answers by looking at the things consumers can’t control like eye tracking, heart rate, and blood flow in the brain. Beyond that, this technology allows researchers to learn more about the subconscious of the consumer. For example, maybe the consumer does really like the product but has had a bad day so they tell the researchers they strongly dislike it, or they like the researcher and want to please them, so they tell them they love it even thought they’d never use it. With the technology of Neuromarketing, biases and incorrect responses have the potential to be avoided.
Though Neuromarketing is still very new and because of the price that comes along with it, not quite 100% trusted yet, with the successes of companies putting it to use now, more and more companies and organizations will turn towards these methods. Some companies that have used Neuromarketing recently are Campbell’s Soup, Frito Lay, Gerber, Disney, and Coco-cola(Bitbrain and Impactbnd). With time and more usage by big and small companies, Neuromarketing will be used by many product development and marketing teams in the future.
References:
https://www.bitbrain.com/blog/companies-neuromarketing
https://imotions.com/blog/eeg-vs-mri-vs-fmri-differences/
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