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More on Neuroscience and Marketing
SLiK812 writes "The NYTimes is running a
story
about how marketing companies are using neuroscience to determine how to reach a consumer's buy button more efficiently. A quote from the article, 'At issue is whether marketers can exploit advances in brain science to make more effective commercials. Is there a "buy button" in the brain? Some corporations have teamed up with neuroscientists to find out. Recent experiments in so-called neuromarketing have explored reactions to movie trailers, choices about automobiles, the appeal of a pretty face and gut reactions to political campaign advertising, as well as the power of brand loyalty.' Some groups have branded this as Orwellian. I pretty sure I saw the child of this tactic in Futurama somewhere." There's a related story in the The Independent. We've had previous stories on using MRI scans to market products.
I don't think a brain analysis is an effective way to determine consumer behaviour.
Our behaviour is most likely shaped by the environment and condition we're experiencing.
Truth to be told, any sports car will trigger my buy-button, but can I afford to buy it?
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
True.
For a given value of true.
"People buy from emotion and justify with logic" has been around since the turn of the last century among a certain segment of the marketing people.
The new bit I suppose is to try to pinpoint the triggers more exactly, to reduce those unpleasant random variables like human free will and choice and stuff. It's so much easier if "They" can just model you on a mainframe, debit your account, and ship you whatever it is you're supposed to buy from them next, I suppose. Not that this is what they think they're aiming for, but I doubt the net effect will be any different.
This kind of thing has been around for a long time. The basis is a Behaviorist view of the world that says that given a certain stimulus, most of us (enough of us) will respond in a certain way. Marketing from that viewpoint becomes about pushing the right buttons, and finding better and better ways of pushing those buttons.
Your opinion on how good or evil this kind of thing is may come from how much you agree with that viewpoint. Can marketers refine their science to such a point where you have almost no choice but to buy what they tell you?
Depending on which side of the coin you fall on, this is all either smoke & mirrors, or cutting-edge research that will eventually rule the world.
In the end, you either have control over your urges, wants, and needs, or you don't. You either are in control of yourself or you're not. If you're not, then you've probably accrued all sorts of gadgets, toys, and things you don't really need. And doubtless you have/had sex with anyone that got you remotely excited. Actually, that doesn't sound so bad...
Really, though, we are either in control of our faculties or we are not. If we're not, then we're just animals with no will. If we are, then this is no more concerning then someone plucking your heart strings to sell insurance. I highly doubt there is some subversive way they can force us to buy against our will using some sort of deep-seated neurological button. A shopping spree isn't exactly a survival mechanism.
It surprises me that, what I would consider to be a more pertinent study, has not been done: how do people filter out advertisements? Everyone is focused on what sticks; however, it may be equally as valuable, if not more so, to determine what does not stick - what we don't even notice. Perhaps this has to do with the get quick attitude of our society. Finding what sticks goes towards the goal of making another "1984" commercial that catches everyone's imagination. However, finding what does not stick allows you to build a much more lasting brand. To do this kind of brand building you don't need to make an immediate impression, you just need to slowly infiltrate people's conciousness. I wonder why large corporations and these researchers don't look at this more often
Careful, soon you'll begin to believe in the Matrix!
On a serious note you can easily see when you make points like this where stories like The Matrix get their ideas from. Every government in every country be they dictator of elected officials would find it so much easier to manage their country if they could do away with freedom of choice and run everything to a prescribed formula. Hence the occurences of so many dictators, and 'tin foil hat' paranoia's. We are controlled by one force or another on a daily basis we just don't notice most of the time because we are too busy getting on with what we belive is our life. How much of it is influenced do we really ever know? Maybe just maybe dictators aren't clever or powerful they're just lazy. Its far easier to control a nation if you take away their choices.
It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.
The term the grandparent poster used was "cokes" not "Coke". It seems that in some places, the term "coke" as applied to soft-drinks has become a synonym for "brand-name cola"... I can't tell you how often I've seen the term used that way in restaurants that didn't even serve cocacola at all.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Heh.
I used to drink Coke, until I thought, 'Hang on, what's this doing to my teeth?'
So I switched to Diet Coke. Until I thought, 'Hang on, if I want to drink a fizzy brown liquid that tastes like battery acid, I can buy own-brand cola from the supermarket for a quarter of the price.'
So I switched to that. Until I thought, 'Hang on! Why am I drinking stuff that tastes like battery acid at all?'
Wow, was the cola industry pissed!
(I also stopped eating at fast food joints about six months ago. Man, if another billion or so people do the same, those evil megacorps are *really* in trouble, huh?)
You must think in Russian.
Of course, you see right through this. You're far too intelligent to be fooled by these techniques. But, if you choose to, you can use them to manipulate your own mind. And, your customers, of course, will be completely taken in! Our new high-tech mental marketing tools have shiny new MRI technology. Not at all the same as that other new agey junk--nosiree! To sell your product, you MUST buy ours!
Wanna buy a lure?
Wanna laugh at the fishermen?
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
One aspect of marketing/advertising/design is ergonomics and human factors, which helps advertisers structure their materials in the most logical fashion for the way people process information. Just look at any cover of Cosmopolitan and you'll see the end result of years of studies of the scanning people do when they see a document. Important elements seem to jump out at you without you even realizing it, and if you have time you can read the smaller text under each element to find out more. Cosmo, ironically, probably has one of the best-designed magazine covers. Color, layout, subject matter ("SEX" or related words are the lead/top priority item on every cover) and other design elements are used to great effect. The end result is that you look at the magazine, your eye traverses multiple times across the impossibly beautiful woman whose style (if you're a woman) you want to emulate and you then want to buy it, or you don't want to buy it because you don't really read Cosmo. This is why they sell them in checkout lines-- they're an impulse item for non-subscribers. Same thing with Maxim, Playboy, and other glossy magazines.
Compare a well-designed magazine cover like Cosmo with an ugly or poorly designed cover like TV Guide or Hot Rod magazine and you'll see who has the best understanding of human factors. Cosmo is pleasant to look at, "Guns" magazine really isn't, even if you are an enthusiast.
I for one welcome our new human factor-embracing overlords-- as long as they don't beam ads into my head.
How true! I saw Brazil recently. I was amazed at the number of similarities with our present situation, a bureaucracy officially fighting "terrorists" but never really achieving it, closely controlling the citizens, and mostly caring about its own business and not giving sh1t about others. Clearly the work of a great and accurate visionnary.
Consumers against terrorism! -- That is the text of a sign carried by a protester in the movie, some gullible guy believing what TV shows him, so close to our reality!
It will induce you to buy something to solve a problem that you didn't know you have.
Providing a solution is the easy part, convincing you that you have the problem is key.
The government which is strong enough to protect you from everything is strong enough to take everything from you.
It's funny how many people, men and women, will buy anything that is perceived to be a bargain, even if it is no bargain at all. That is why items that are stacked in a pyramid at the end of an aisle with a big price sign on them will sell better, even if there has been no reduction in price. Not too long ago I was buying contact lens saline and I noticed the bottles were available in a twin pack. Then I noticed individual bottles, which were priced at less than half of the twin pack price. Had I not looked, I would have thought the twin pack was a better deal and ended up paying a full dollar more. I'm sure people fall for this all the time, especially those who cannot do math in their heads.
They will not reach my "buy button"
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I despise commercials. They are nothing less than constant brainwashing. The more they hammer me with BS commercials, the more I am turned off to that product. Most commercials are so offensive and annoying that I only have to see it ONCE to be forever turned off to the product.
I know what I need. I go to the store and buy only the things I MUST have. I do not buy extra things, I don't "browse" or "shop", I buy.
I can't hit the SHUT UP button on the remote fast enough when a commercial comes on.
I wish the U$$A had commercial free TV like the UK does, or at least did have at one time.
I would pay for commercial free TV.
-
http://www.csun.edu/~vceed002/health/docs/tv&heal
Number of 30-second TV commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000
Number of TV commercials seen by the average person by age 65: 2 million
Percentage of survey participants (1993) who said that TV commercials
aimed at children make them too materialistic: 92
Rank of food products/fast-food restaurants among TV advertisements to kids: 1
Total spending by 100 leading TV advertisers in 1993: $15 billion
Recent experiments have shown that subliminal messaging works, but the effect wears off after a second or so.
One experiment consisted of a subject sitting in front of a computer screen. The screen would blink briefly (about 1/100 of a second) and then show a list of words. The subject would then pick a word randomly. It turns out that if one of the words was displayed during the blink, the subject would almost always pick that one, but if no word was shown, if a word not in the list was shown, or if the delay between the blink and the list showing up is more than a second, word selection is random.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
The tobacco companies have been doing it for decades as well. They use the term "lift" and "rise" to describe how smoke rises. They want the smoke to rise very slowly so it has a better chance to remind another addict that they need to light up so they cut their drug with some nasty chemicals to keep the smoke from going up too fast as well as preserve some of the smell/stench for as long as they can.
You're right, people do have to be induced to this kind of behavior. Now if I wanted to do that, how would I go about it? I would start by transforming money into a non-objective substance I could create at whim. I would then spend 80 years convincing people that my arbitrary creation of fiat currency was the only thing stabilizing their economy. I'd further start shouting about waging a "war on poverty", and once I had convinced people they had a "duty" to help those "less fortunate" (i.e., less successful, less capable), I'd begin stealing from the successful to pay the unsuccessful. This would limit incentive to produce, i.e. profit motive, because people would learn two lessons:
1.) Even if you work to earn a living, your money will be stolen to give to those who cannot earn it, because they cannot earn it, and
2.) If you cannot or will not earn a living, the government will provide it for you, either by taking from those who do earn a living, or making up new money.
Most people don't understand, and don't bother to learn, the complex relation that exists between interest, inflation, central banking, fiat currency, government wealth redistribution, and all the other sure signs your economy has collapsed into unsustainable socialist democratic rule, which brings me to the other part of the scam.
I'd further convince people that, despite the present condition of their government being a direct affront to the constitution (for example, massive legislative and war-making powers vested in a near-supreme executive), the nation was intended to be, and therefore is, a direct democracy, and the will of the majority will circumvent the "inalienable" rights of all others (for example, property rights like the right to keep wealth you have created).
Once you have reached this point, you have created generations unfamiliar with the concepts of self-reliance (they get their income, in whole or in part, from the government) and personal responsibility (even if they don't agree with the welfare state, they perpetuate its existence with excuses like "Well, sure I'll take a welfare check. After all, my tax dollars paid for it, so I'm just getting mine back."), who believe they have a sanction to lay first claim to the property, rights, and lives of others by virtue of belonging to "The Majority". In this state, people naturally assume little if any responsibility for their financial condition, as they've rationalized away their oposition to socialism and have no desire for self-reliance, because they never saw any example of its benefits. So, without knowing their system is unsustainable, they willingly go into debt on the assumption their government will take care of them. How? SHHH!!! Don't ask questions like that, just assume it will work, or you might jinx the whole thing!
The truth is that if people are made to be dependant on a government, their personal responsibility collapses, and of course they will buy on a whim. The government will bail them out, they can keep borrowing, they can dig deeper in, and they really don't believe anyone will ever call in the debt. Well, we've been accumulating debt as a nation for well over a century, we're about to accumulate $15 trillion more from social insecurity when the boomers retire, and our international creditors are going to start getting nervous. Don't blame the marketers, they're just working with what we've been giving them, and what we're giving them is what most people have been screaming for as an ideal, and what we've been practicing on a national scale, whether they admit it or not.
That seems to be true for many people who were trained in the "new math" (that started in the 60's and was widespread in the '80s) and happen to not suck at numbers. My problem is for some reason I think that 18 is close to 19 but the 19 to 20 change is larger. Maybe its all those silly hexadecimal numbers I deal with. $19 plus 1 is $1A?
Another odd thing is how people cope with number and compound number. For example we all think of "six" as one number but our concept of 6 is different than 35 which we have been taught is 30+5. There are some interesting psychological effects of that compared to numbers such as a score or a dozen. Most languages have one word for numbers up to 12 and a few numbers above that (20, 40, 50, 100 are common) and will use compound concects on larger number such as 4 x score + 7 or MXIII. In many older languages you will have the word for 40 meaning the same as "a lot". The old english money system is an another example of stirling and pence prices. You wouldn't seen a price in the US as 3 quarters and 4 pennys but that exact sort of thing was common all over the world less than 50 years ago. It seems that precise number usage in the general population seems to be quite recent.
Also, what if there are 5 brands that all match your criteria?
-matthew
"THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
But I also recognize that I am still a victim of marketing manipulation.
Much of my behavior is the direct result of marketing.
Such as preferring women with shaved legs. This is an almost universal trait in men and it drives women to buy razors, --and a thousand other beauty products, for that matter. --Which in turn makes having self-esteem a conditional thing which can only be satisfied by the purchasing of certain products. They advertise anti-depressants like Prozac in women's magazines, because "No guy would want to love a women who has 'mood swings'".
The greatest achievement of advertising is that people have been conned into believing that they are not affected by advertising.
I don't even own a television. Most of the damaging behavior modification which happens as a result of television is not even related to overt ads. --And being aware that modification techniques are being used, contrary to popular belief, offers almost zero protection.
The fact of the matter is that CRTs which strobes at television frequencies cause people to slip into a trance state which enables messages and modifications to much more easily bypass the conscious level and plug directly into the core of the mind. This is not theory. The effects of television are measurable in the physiological state of the viewer as well as psychological. Reduced metabolic rates, defined changes in frontal lobe activity. It's all there, and it's well understood.
Do you like women with shaved legs? Do you believe in terrorists? Would you get nervous and uncomfortable if somebody accused you of being a 'conspiracy theorist'? How deeply are those reactions seated?
How much of you is really You?
Saying "I'm not affected by advertising because I understand how it works," is rather like saying the same thing about alcohol. The only protection is awareness and avoidance.
-FL