Summary Introduction to Neuromarketing & Consumer Neuroscience Chapter 1: Introduction What is Neuromarketing? - A part within marketing that studies the effect of marketing stimuli on consumers’ sensimotor, cognitive and effective responses. Often seen as the commercial use of neuroscience insights and tools that companies can use to better understand consumer responses to different kinds of brands,- product-, and service related communication effects. Consumer neuroscience: - Is the combination of the academic study of consumer psychology and consumer behaviour, which are more focused on the way consumers respond and act. Closely linked to ‘decision neuroscience’ and ‘neuroeconomics’ in which researchers attempt to understand how decisions are made and what the causal brain mechanisms of our choices can be. Applied neuroscience: - Try to understand human thoughts and behaviour A more broader attempt to link the role of the brain in the many different walks of life. Neuroscience: - A much broader approach to the brain then used in neuromarketing Covers the study of single receptors of cells, single cells, sea slugs, reptiles, mammals etc. in addition to humans. Use of whole range of tools (e.g. chemical analysis of cells, structural and functional imaging) Methodological applications: - Cognitive and affective neuroscience offers new tools that can be used to study our direct unconscious response to stimuli. (neuroimaging) Theoretical application: - Study of the brain itself Literature on cognitive neuroscience offers new insights Noninvasive Neuroscience - The use of EEG and eye-tracking is getting cheaper - fMRI still very expensive and analyses of neuroimaging data is time consuming and highly complex, while application to neuromarketing still has to be explored technology allows to move out of the lab into the real world Why Neuroscience in consumer behaviour? - Realisation that human decision making deviates substantially form a normatively rational, deliberate and conscious process. Decisions are often influenced without us noticing Three notable effects that argue for a need for assessing unconscious effects in consumer choice: o Our choice are often based on unconscious processes and influences. o Emotions affect our choices substantially o Decisions are not made after complete information is obtained Basic Model of Consumer Choice Representation: - The way in which needs and desires are presented to us (how the mind treats desires and needs) e.g., feeling thirsty Attention: Bottom-up: - Mind gets turned to events that occur outside or inside yourself Ruled by senses Top-down: - Actively choose to focus on certain aspects You rule over your senses Predicted Value: - Value that an individual assigns to different options before they are chosen (consciously and unconsciously) Predicted value of an opinion is the actual driving force of our choice assessment of brain mechanisms at this stage can predict actual purchase, before conscious decision Experiences Value - after choice is made, we face the consequences of the choice positive or negative emotions hedonic experience – relies on set of brain mechanisms that are quite different from the mechanisms driving predicted value. Remembered value & Learning - choices of consequences choices and outcomes allow us to learn from experience Chapter 2: The Brain Medial: more towards the middle Lateral: More towards the outside Occipital Lobe: used for visual sense - primary visual cortex: visual signs are processed more carefully different divisions within this are responsible for different functions such as processing edges and contours, colour, or motion processing In the visual cortex is projected to other regions e.g., the parietal and temporal cortices for the processing of position/action and object identify. Functions associated with the occipital lobe: - Primary visual sensing Bottom- up attention Damage to this region can lead to: - Full or partial cortical blindness Inability to see colours Inability to see movements Functions related to consumer behaviour: - Bottom-up attention – how density, contrast, brightness, colour, orientation and other visual properties automatically attract attention. Basic functions of brand and product recognition- including specific features such as red (looking for a coke) The Partial Lobe: - Receives input from certain parts of the occipital cortex, in particular information related to position and movements. Also receives information from other senses. What does the region do?: - Spatial processing Object action Navigation Self-awareness Body sense and body representation Attention & Consciousness Damage to this function can lead to: - Loss of specific body senses Navigation problems Inability to know how objects are used Inability to recognise own problems and limitations Attention dysfunctions Functions related to consumer behaviour: - Top-down attention- ability to wilfully focus our mental effort on certain items. Product handling Product navigation The temporal lobe: - Receives a bundle of information from a large portion of the brain Information from different senses are aggregated and processed conjointly What does this region do? - Recognition of objects, places and faces Hearing and perception of sounds Certain kinds of memory, such as declarative, conscious memory Social perception and reasoning Damage to this part of the brain can lead to: - Inability to recognise objects etc. - Hearing disability Language disability Amnesia- loss of episodic and semantic memory Deficient social cognition Functions related to consumer behaviour: - Processing, learning and conscious memory of brands and products. Understanding of communication (e.g. via ads) Social framing effects The Frontal Lobe: - Involved in a number of different functions Operates as a convergence zone for the abundance of sensation, emotions and thought. Implicated in all walks of decision making Important role in behavioural control Parts of frontal lobe are implicated in hedonic experience (conscious perception of pleasure and therefore in a certain aspect of motivated behaviours.) Implicated in certain kinds of attention and consciousness, memory (working memory) Plays a role in Social behaviour, such as empathy, social reasoning and social choice What does this region do? - Crude and sophisticated motor skills Planning and executive control Top- down attention Working memory Hedonic experience Social cognition and behaviour Damage to this region can lead to: - Paralysis Impulse control problems Lack of initiative Loss of working memory Functions related to consumer behaviour - Consumer choice execution Long-term planning of actions Impulse control Manual handling of objects Hedonic experience – pleasure perception Deep structures of the brain: The autonomous nervous system: - Sympathetic, parasympathetic, and enteric nervous system Sympathetic and parasympathetic work in opposition in activating and relaxing the body Function Pupil Salivation Pulse Respiration Digestion Sympathetic Dilation Inhibits Increases Increases Inhibits Brainstem, Pons and Midbrain: - Maintain several functions Parasympathetic Constriction Stimulates Slows Decreases Stimulates - - Brainstem: responsible for respiration and pulse, and projections between the brain and the body go through this region, ensuring bodily sensations and movement control. Also regulates different levels of awareness. Midbrain: central to the production of neurotransmitters- signal substances that the brain cells use in communication. Dopamine is synthesised in three regions of the midbrain (ventral tegmental area, substantia nigra, retrorubral area) Thalamus - Operates as one of the central gateways of information in the brain Conveys information from the outer senses to the more sophisticated processing of the cortex and provides basic processing of such input Distributes information across the brain Basal ganglia - Covers different structures in the deep regions of the brain, including the striatum, pallidum, substantial nigra, and subthalamic nuclei. Functions: motor behaviour, plays a role in reward and anticipation, and motivated behaviours Striatum- subcomponents: caudate nucleaus, putamen, and nucleaus accumbens (NAcc) - NAcc is a structure that is engaged every time we are talking about motivation and choice in consumers. It is highly related to emotional responses, or to prediction of outcomes, but also to very specific kinds of motivation (wanting motivation). Amygdala: - Conglomerate of substructures Receives input from all senses, both directly from the thalamus but also through cortical processing. Plays role in emotions, especially negative responses such as fear and anxiety. Processes positive and negative outcomes Hippocampus and the medial temporal lobe - Medial temporal lobe (MTL): tightly bundles bunch of structures Hippocampus is part of MTL Involved in kinds of memories that we can explicitly state that we know Important convergence zone of the brain Sensory information is brought together to compose coherent episodes of ourselves and the world around us The ability to recognise brands, products, places and people depends on this intricate set of regions MTL consists of: Hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, perirhinal cortex, parahippocampal cortex and amygdala - Together the structures are an functionally integrated unit. Especially when it comes to processing integrated events as whole episodes. Also implicated in novelty processing, semantic processing, object and place processing, and emotional processing Enthorinal cortex is important in processing odour, and with the direct connection to the hippocampus, it can be said to the structural foundation for odours ability to trigger memory. Cingulate cortex: - - Part of more ancient part of the brain, but also close relationship with the higher cortical regions. Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC): Has a role in decision making, including monitoring and resolution of emotional and choice conflict, but also in action-outcome prediction, error detection, conflict monitoring, stimulus-response mapping, familiarity and orienting. Has also been implicated in social and moral reasoning ACC is active when looking at value brands Insula: - Implicated in several functions such as emotions, consciousness, and value-based decision making. Study show, that even when product where not attended, activation in the insula together with the medial prefrontal cortex, was predictive for product choice Possible that insula shows a bivalent response pattern, i.e., response to both positive and negative events. Structures and Functions: One-to-many mapping: - When studying brain activation during a simple task, we observe a flurry of activations in many brain regions not just a single region. Many-to-one mapping: - Observing a single region of the brain and realising that it can be engaged by many different functions. Degeneracy: A function is performed by two or more dissimilar regions Redundancy: A function is performed by two or more identical regions. Neurochemical Systems: Oxytocin: - Ligand that can operate as hormone and neurotransmitter Has a role in social behaviour (increase in oxytocin level can lead to changes as diverse as increased interpersonal trust, pair bonding, caregiving, and hypnotisability). Chapter 3: The Neuromarketing Tools
