The concept of neuromarketing has been around for some time now, though it has yet to make much headway in terms of obvious marketing budgets and campaigns. Yet underneath much of contemporary and historic brand positioning the theories that underpin neuromarketing make some sense. The interesting thing is that, as the automotive industry contemplates a difficult and uncertain future in the transition to an array of alternative technologies, the insights from neuromarketing may serve as something of a guide. Recently the respected New Scientist journal undertook an exercise in which three versions of the front cover of one issue were tested using neuromarketing techniques – which if nothing else has helped bring neuromarketing in from the periphery of applied science into the mainstream of acceptability.
Admittedly the approach of neuromarketing is expensive and time-consuming, and requires some pretty specialist equipment alongside some willing volunteers. It relies upon being able to monitor activity in different areas of the brain, and co-ordinate such measurements with the information being presented to the respondent in order to establish whether the subconscious response is positive or not. The theory is that the human brain is constantly sorting the outside world of activities and products into categories and groups, and valuing those groups relative to each other, often without overt conscious thinking being involved. These two invisible activities of valuing and categorising are the key in understanding how neuromarketing might work.
A paradigm case that is often quoted is that of Apple Computers and the positioning of this brand as ‘Us’ against the ‘Rest’ of the MS-DOS operating system world. While Apple did not set out to use neuromarketing techniques, some scientists consider that understanding deeply embedded behaviour patterns and preferences help explain the effectiveness of advertising techniques that said little about the product, and a lot about the sort of people that did (or did not) use it. This relies upon the perspective that people intuitively want to belong to distinct groups, and will even implicitly or subconsciously categorise products into desirable or undesirable without even the obvious prompt of direct advertising messages. Furthermore, neuromarketing can help explain why some messages or images grab our attention in the first place, and convince us of the value of a product or service thereafter.
as the automotive industry contemplates a difficult and uncertain future in the transition to an array of alternative technologies, the insights from neuromarketing may serve as something of a guide
In the automotive industry, OEMs have tended to shy away from direct comparisons with rival vehicle brands or models. On the other hand, users do happily make those comparisons and distinctions, fiercely defending the merits of ‘their’ model or brand against others – the persistent attraction of car owners clubs is but one manifestation of this trend. Moreover, OEMs do spend vast sums on market research through mechanisms such as focus groups where potential consumers give their stated preference reactions to products. Unfortunately stated preferences are often a poor guide to actual choices.
Now that OEMs are introducing radical new technologies into their product ranges there are fresh opportunities for substantive ‘us versus them’ situations to develop but the issues are complex and potentially difficult to understand. Neuromarketing suggests a focus on the people that might use the products and the creation of a ‘clan’ feeling among consumers making that choice could be key to future market success.
Dr Peter Wells is a Reader at Cardiff Business School, where he is a Co-Director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research and leads the automotive industry research programme within BRASS, also in Cardiff University. Dr Wells is also a director of AutomotiveWorld.com’s sister website AWPresenter.com. He can be contacted on wellspe@cardiff.ac.uk.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Automotive World Ltd.
