The November 29 San Francisco Chronicle has a fun editorial ("Your Branded Brain: The Bigger the Brand, the Bigger the Brain Wave") about a German neuromarketing study the results of which were presented on Tuesday in Chicago at the annual conference of the Radiological Society of North America. According to the Chronicle:
The researchers selected 20 adult men and women with a median age of 28 and high levels of education. One at a time, they went into MRI machines that had been rigged with a small video screen, and stared at logos for well- and lesser-known brands. The well-known logos provoked strong activity in brain regions associated with positive emotion, self-identification and reward. As for the pitiful, unbranded competition? Brain activity came on strong in regions associated with negative emotion and memory -- signs of a frustrated consumer, trying to remember how to think.
The good news for marketing types is that even unsexy products can provoke a strong brain response. The good news for the rest of us? Well, so far, no one's figured out how to use brain activity to force a purchase.
Have they released the brands that were tested? I have not been able to locate this info if it has been released.
Posted by: Jason T. | 12/05/2006 at 12:18 PM