Asking people what brands they like isn’t always an accurate way of finding out what they’ll buy. Neuromarketing may have a solution: why ask consumers questions, when you can just scan their brains?

In the 1970s and ‘80s, drinks company Pepsi used psychology to help demonstrate how people perceived its brand. It used blind-taste tests that found that consumers preferred the taste of Pepsi to that of arch- rival Coca Cola. And yet, as far as the sales numbers were concerned, Coca Cola continued to be the flavour of choice.

So what happened? Neuroscientist Read Montague attempted to understand this phenomenon better by using fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) surveillance. He scanned people’s brains during the taste tests, and discovered the majority of those given a blind-sample showed significantly higher activity in the region of the brain associated with feelings of reward.

When Montague revealed in advance which of the options was Coca Cola and which was Pepsi, however, almost every participant said they preferred the taste of the Coke – and their brain activity supported this. The frontal cortex, an area linked to higher-level rational thought, showed activity. This suggested that memories and existing brand opinions were involved in the decision making. In other words, Coke’s branding was actually overriding the senses.

Fast forward to 2011, and neuroscience is being used regularly by big consumer brands to test how people might engage with new products and advertising campaigns. They are doing this with tools borrowed from the medical industry. Neuroimaging, a category of device that includes fMRI, are the main set of tools. They were once the sole reserve of medical research, identifying blood clots and diagnosing brain disorders. Now, with more portability and affordability, a number of neuroscientists and marketers have combined to apply these techniques to the consumer mind, scanning and highlighting areas of the brain activated through increased blood flow when performing a task.

Neuromarketing is really understanding what is emotionally engaging. It’s possible to infer from this how likely people are to move towards behaviour.

Brainstorming Ideas


Neurofocus is one neuromarketing company which has devised a way to use brain imaging to measure a person’s engagement with a product, and importantly, the likelihood of them purchasing it. “Neuromarketing is really understanding what is emotionally engaging,” says Thom Noble, European Managing Director of Neurofocus. “If you’re not engaged then you’re not likely to act upon it. It’s possible to infer from this how likely people are to move towards behaviour.”
Doing this, says Noble, is a more accurate way to get an idea of what people think of products than traditional market research, such as surveys, questionnaires and focus groups. “The challenge is to get meaningful results,” says Noble. “If you’re relying on questions, there’s the possibility for a lot of distortion and bias.” And the more unfamiliar a person is with the subject, the more likely the answer will be inaccurate,” says Noble.

Neuroscience gets round this by looking at what we’re really thinking. As much as we’d like to think we’re rational human beings, many of our decisions are not consciously made. In fact, studies have shown that 95% of our decisions are not made through conscious awareness at all. Where traditional market research looks at what we verbally articulate, neuroscience looks at our deeper thoughts in our subconscious. “The main advantages are in looking at responses that are difficult or impossible for people to articulate,” says Heather Andrew, Director at neuromarketing company Neuro-Insight. “Neuroscience gives us a way of objectively measuring, in a quantified way, the things that people are thinking and feeling,” says Andrew.

There are two categories for these types of response, she goes on to suggest. One is a strong emotional response, and the other is a response that happens at a sub-conscious level. Sub-conscious responses are often difficult to decipher as people might not realise they are even reacting in that way. "We don’t make a conscious decision to put things into our memory," says Andrew. "But brain imaging can identify what’s going into memory". This is called memory encoding, which she proposes is a more accurate way to predict people’s purchasing behaviour than verbal recall.

It’s no wonder then that brands such as General Motors, American Express and Campbell’s are regularly using neuroscience to test people’s engagement with new products and campaigns. According to Noble, Neurofocus conducts hundreds of tests each year for their top clients. Although not all of them are happy to disclose it. “All the biggest brands are using it", says Noble. “But most of them are keeping it to themselves.” Even so, neuromarketing has become a key part of today’s marketing mix.


Neuromarketing isn’t just about measuring consumer engagement. It has also uncovered ways that advertisers can refine and improve their strategy. In 2010, a study by media marketing agency ThinkBox explored how the brain processes television adverts. It discovered that we break information down into smaller chunks while we absorb it. This means that when there is a pause in music, visuals or a break in conversation within an advert, the brain shifts the preceding blocks of information into the memory for processing. During this moment of data-handling, the brain temporarily shuts out anything new, essentially ‘blinking’ out new information for a moment.

Many brands traditionally place product information at these quiet points in adverts, perhaps at the end a punch-line or directly after some action. However, the study shows that to get the best recall from consumers, and ensure a stronger emotional connection to the product, the information should instead be placed either side of this blink moment.

Neuromarketing Futures


So what’s next for neuromarketing? Well, it could become the ultimate market research tool. Our brains are responsible for the formation of culture, personality, language and reason – the very things that drive marketing and advertising. Applying neuroscience and neuroimaging tools to marketing problems has the potential to provide considerable insight, and help us better comprehend the impact of marketing strategies.


As consumers, we are in contact with dozens of brands on a daily basis, and neuromarketing may hold the key to illuminating the process by which we store, recall, and apply information, and what really happens when we look at an ad in a magazine or on TV. But consumers can rest for now – brands can’t control our brains just yet.