March 1 , 2005 — In 'The Quest for Cool,' Alan learned his brain had different responses to cool and uncool consumer products — responses of which he wasn't even conscious. These kinds of hidden reactions have advertisers wondering how they can plug into the parts of our brains that are attuned to what's cool and what's not. Is there some more elemental way they can market products that will have us descending on shops in droves? How can they use brain scans to sell their goods? The emerging field of neuromarketing aims to figure out just that.

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More choices for shoppers means more competition for products

Only a tiny percentage of the new products launched into the market every year are actually successful. Of course, companies would like to find a way to give their products an edge, something to increase their chances of catching on with consumers. Advertising is one way to try to boost sales. But even marketing experts admit that no one really knows how advertising works, or how well. That's why neuromarketing is starting to appeal to traditional marketers. It seems to offer a brand new, scientific way of quantifying what consumers want — by sneaking a peak inside their brains.

"Neuromarketing" is the catchall phrase that describes using neuroscience research and brain scans to enhance traditional marketing activities. Like in the "cool" research Alan participated in at Caltech, volunteers slide into an fMRI machine. While they look at pictures of products or watch commercials, researchers watch what's happening in their brains. If certain brain areas are active, that's good news for the product. Researcher Anette Asp looks for activation in the part of the frontal lobe known as Brodmann area 10.

Alan Alda's Brodmann Area 10 lit up when he saw certain types of products.

That part of the brain is used to reflect on yourself and how you might be viewed by others — and it often lights up when subjects imagine themselves using the particular product on display. "I think that's an interesting result," Asp says. "You don't just buy a product for its own sake, isolated from the rest of your world. It's actually a very social act and we're showing the world who we are by buying these products." Consumers take a lot more into account when they decide to buy products than dry economic theories of utility and cost might suggest.

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