As regular BB readers know, neuromarketing is the use of brain imaging and other physiological monitoring to directly measure consumer preference, for example, or the effectiveness of advertisements. As part of a New Scientist feature on neuromarketing this week, researchers from the firm NeuroFocus watched EEG readings of 19 people as they looked at different potential magazine cover designs. They were then tested to see how each cover scored on concepts like "eye-catching", "intriguing" and "must-buy". Seen here is the winner. I'd be curious to understand more about why this design scored higher than others. Maybe it's the word "sex" in the illustration. Or the subtle silhouette of a woman performing fellatio. Or maybe I'm kididng. From New Scientist:
NeuroFocus looks for specific EEG patterns which the company believes betray whether or not a person will buy a product. In its early days, the company studied thousands of TV commercials looking for characteristic patterns of brain activity associated with successful and unsuccessful ads. It is these they are after. "It's not deterministic, but it gives a relative probability, given two adverts, which is more likely to change behaviour," says Michael Smith of NeuroFocus.Finally, NeuroFocus does what it calls "deep response testing". This exploits a well-known EEG signal called P300, a spike of brain activity that occurs about 300 milliseconds after you see something new or personally meaningful. "That brain wave is interesting because it's bigger if the stimulus is very salient to you," says Smith. NeuroFocus uses this to find out if test materials have primed people's brains to certain concepts. If the P300 response to a word like "buy" is stronger just after seeing an advert, the researchers conclude that the advert is more likely to elicit a purchase.
"Mind-reading marketers have ways of making you buy"
