How do other MP3 player brands stack up against the Ipod?

It's early days for neuromarketing. Practitioners are still figuring out just how to integrate the brain scan technology with marketing ideas. Right now it seems to be most useful for products that have big fashion or design components — things like cars, consumer appliances, and furniture. Researchers can show volunteers several brands of MP3 player, for instance, and see which one elicits the biggest brain response. Then the manufacturer can see how their MP3 player compares with the competition. Another way to use the neuromarketing concept is to present volunteers with several versions of a logo or a package design; manufacturers can get feedback on which variation consumers prefer before launching a new product. The technique may be quite useful when movie studios are figuring out which version of a film trailer would be most effective — movie previews are ads where the content is very closely related to the product itself.

Focus groups are a mainstay of traditional marketing efforts. Credit: Prairie Research Associates Inc.

Why are marketers so captivated by the possibilities of this new field? Basically because it's another technique they can add to their toolkit — and there's the promise that they'll be able to glean additional information from volunteers. Right now, traditional marketing relies heavily on focus groups. Consumers are presented with an ad or a package design or a logo and then asked questions about how much they like it, whether they might consider buying it, and so on. But this kind of research has some notorious downsides: sometimes people provide the answer they think the investigator wants to hear. Sometimes there's one loudmouth in the group who, through example, influences everyone else's opinion. Other times a volunteer might be embarrassed to provide his real opinion. "There can be socially acceptable and socially unacceptable answers," says Tim McPartlin, Senior Vice President at Lieberman Research Worldwide. "Let's say it's an ad that features a girl in a bikini. Now maybe the respondent likes that but they don't want to tell the female interviewer that they like that. So they may say it's not particularly appealing — which isn't their true opinion."

	Scantily clad women and trucks are a time-honored advertising motif

Perhaps most surprising is that sometimes people aren't even aware of their own feelings about a product. Reactions can be unconscious. Using the fMRI, researchers can peer into the volunteer's brain and discern a reaction, without waiting for the volunteer to formulate a conscious response. "The questions a marketer asks his subjects, they consciously have to reflect on," says Asp. "I sometimes think they force an answer just because they feel they're expected to say something. So they form an opinion as they answer the question, while we're more or less reading their minds. With the brain scans we're able to pierce inside their conscious mind to their unconscious motives and reactions to things that marketers might not be able to reach." McPartlin thinks of it as a way to get past what might be considered a socially acceptable response to the subject's true opinion. "I can ask you directly 'how much do you like this?'" he says. "And you say 'I don't particularly like it.' But if I can see your brain activity and parts of the brain that suggest you really, really like it, then I've got some more information. It's just a better measurement."

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