Neuromarketing is being utilized by many large and notable companies today. In a Wall Street Journal article from February, 2010, Ilan Brat writes that Campbell's Soup Co. is planning to use neuromarketing techniques via its labelling. Campbell's soup customers, Brat explains, often choose to eat soup without any real reason for their selection. When consumers are asked why they choose to eat more soup or not, they tend to "say they don't think of it," says Doug Conant, Campbell's chief executive.
By changing the brand elements on the labels of its soup products, Campbell's hopes to influence consumer behavior neurologically and boost its condensed soup sales by 2% over the next two years. According to Brat, for two years, "Campbell researchers studied microscopic changes in skin moisture, heart rate and other biometrics to see how consumers react to everything from pictures of bowls of soup to logo design."
Consumers often remember certain commercials, billboards or other forms of advertising based on memorable images that take them back to their youth, recall a good moment in their life or represent an ideal they would like to experience in the future. An example of this is Coca-Cola using polar bears in their advertising campaigns. Any information that can be used to influence consumer behavior that translates into increased revenues for a company is a great strategy in my book. Neuromarketing components should be used as part of the regular focus groups and the surveys that make up the marketing research strategy for any successful company in today’s world.
But who am I kidding? Come on! You know about this.
Source: Ilan Brat, Wall Street Journal Online, February 17th, 2010
This is a great example of the use of neuromarketing by a popular company. Although there are two different aspects I was concerned about.
ReplyDelete1.What are the parameters of this study? How many people where analyzed? What kind of mechanisms where used?
After a brief search in the internet, I found myself satisfied with the information given to conclude that this study had proper statistical characteristics to determine its validity. This detail can be found here:
http://www.fastcompany.com/article/rebuttal-pseudo-science-in-campbells-soup-not-so-fast
2.Is it worthy for the company to invest 2 years of money and efforts in the development of a new label?
Campbel has lower its income in the last quarter, (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703946504575469703981260436.html), one can argue that its due to the general economical environment, but can this huge investment in research would be enough to at least revert this situation? I really hope so!!!!
This blog is quite thought provoking. Using labels to influence consumers into buying a product in a very famous form in Neuromarketing. The uncertainty of a consumer's need of a certain product by research has been traced back to trigger words on the label or simply the appearance of the label itself. Consumers hardly remember what was read but they purchased the product because of a stimuli in the "old brain" which triggers a need for satisfaction by buying the item.
ReplyDeleteMarketing expert Martin Lindstorm studied various aspects on Neuromarketing in his books "Buyology" and states that 90% of our buying is unconscious and this is the reason why we cannot explain why we make our purchasing decisions. He gave an example with tobacco companies saying that not only are the government warnings labels on tobacco packages ineffective, but they actually promote smoking behavior by activating an area associated with craving in the brain.
links:
http://www.martinlindstrom.com/index.php/cmsid__buyology_what_is_neuromarketing
http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/tobacco-warnings.htm