Neuromarketing
Laurent Hermoye, PhD
Marketing Research
• Understanding,
• explaining,
• predicting
• individual,
• group,
• organisational
behaviour relevant to markets.
Lee et al.What is ‘neuromarketing’? A discussion and agenda
for future research. Int J Psychophysiology 2007.
Currect Methods
• Qualitative research
• Quantitative research
rely on the ability and willingness of the
respondent to accurately report their attitudes
and/or prior behaviours
BUT
purchasing comportment are partially
unconscious
Lee et al.What is ‘neuromarketing’? A discussion and agenda
for future research. Int J Psychophysiology 2007.
Neuroscience
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Medicine
Psychology
Psychiatry
Social sciences
Why not economics and marketing ?
NeuroEconomics
«the application of neuroscientific methods to
analyze and understand economically
relevant behaviour »
Kenning & Plassmann. NeuroEconomics: an overview from an
economic perspective. Brain Res. Bull. 2005.
NeuroMarketing
«the application of neuroscientific methods to
analyze and understand human behaviour in
relation to markets and marketing
exchanges »
Lee et al.What is ‘neuromarketing’? A discussion and agenda
for future research. Int J Psychophysiology 2007.
Looking for the Buy Button ?
Controversy
Chief Editor of Science:
« brain imaging will be used in ways that
infringe personal privacy to a totally
unacceptable degree »
MRI = Market Research Imaging
The Techniques
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Galvanic skin response (GSR)
Eye-tracking
Electroencephalography (EEG)
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI)
• Positron emission tomography (PET)
• Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
fMRI
• Sequential acquisition of EPI volumes
• Functional task versus rest
• BOLD effect: the activation induces a variation of the
oxy- deoxy-hemoglobine balance, which can be
detected
Signal
Paradigm
MRI scans
123…
task
… 97 98
Functional Task
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Looking at a product
Looking at a website
Looking at a logo
Making a purchase decision
Watching an advertisement
Tasting products
Methodology
• Looking for activations
• Correlating it with a marketing
measurement
• Comparing the activations found with
other studies which activated the same
zones
• Make an hypothesis
Coca vs Pepsi
Coca vs Pepsi
• Judgment based only on
sensory information
– VMPFC
• Coca-Cola biases
preferences decisions
– Hippocampus
– DLPFC
– Midbrain
McClure et al.Neural correlates of behavioral preference for
culturally familiar drinks. Neuron 2004.
Brands
• Trust
• Desire / morale
• Luxury
– Mark the social position of the owner
M. Schaefer. Brands and selfcentered
cognition in fMRI. Paris 2008.
FMRI of Cars Brands
• View logos
• Imagine driving the car of this brand
• Favorite brands correlates with activation in
the striatum
– Motion, Motivation, Emotion, Cognition
– Reward circuit
– → code object of desire
• 2 inducers of reward
– Personally attractive objects
– Expectation of expectations
M. Schaefer. Brands and selfcentered
cognition in fMRI. Paris 2008.
Luxury Brands
• Anterior medial pre-frontal cortex
– Self-reflection
– Comparison of the own person to others
• Luxury brands mark the felt social position
of the owner
• Imagine to possess this product
– Superior social position
– Fetish
M. Schaefer. Brands and selfcentered
cognition in fMRI. Paris 2008.
Rational brands
• Anterior cingulum
– Relating actions to
• Consequences
• Past reward experience
– Control area
M. Schaefer. Brands and selfcentered
cognition in fMRI. Paris 2008.
Do brands convey emotions /
social relevant meaning ?
• Block
– Logos
– Non-emotional words
JP Santos. Preferring brands due to
emotional content and social
relevance. Paris 2008.
• Empathy
Do brands convey emotions /
social relevant meaning ?
• Damasio & Bechara's model of emotions
JP Santos. Preferring brands due to
emotional content and social
relevance. Paris 2008.
• Meta-representation
Do brands convey emotions /
social relevant meaning ?
• Positive vs indifferent
– Frontal medial cortex
• Secondary inducer in model of emotions of
Damasio
– Medial frontal pole
• Self-referential stimuli
JP Santos. Preferring brands due to
emotional content and social
relevance. Paris 2008.
Do brands convey emotions /
social relevant meaning ?
• Amygdala
– Primary inducer of emotions
• Pre-cuneus
– Self-relevant visual imaginary
JP Santos. Preferring brands due to
emotional content and social
relevance. Paris 2008.
Neural predictors of purchase
Knutson et al. Neural predictors of
purchase. Neuron 2007.
Neural predictors of purchase
• Regions associated with anticipating grain
(the Nacc) correlated with product
preference
• Activation in regions associated with
anticipating loss (the insula) correlated with
excessive prices
• Activation in a region implicated in
integrating gain and losses (the MPFC)
correlated with reduced prices
Knutson et al. Neural predictors of
purchase. Neuron 2007.
Neural predictors of purchase
Knutson et al. Neural predictors of
purchase. Neuron 2007.
New Phrenology ?
Franz Joseph Gall
Future Research
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Trust
Pricing
Negociation
Ethics
Kenning & Plassmann. NeuroEconomics: an overview from an
economic perspective. Brain Res. Bull. 2005.
Neuromarketing
Laurent Hermoye, PhD