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The Time article also cited research that seems to have solved that eternal mystery – why people prefer Coke over Pepsi. The answer lies in how people identify with brands. Although consumers preferred Pepsi’s taste they choose Coke because they identified with its brand better.
A branch of cognitive neuroscience, neuromarketing relies heavily on
ability to visualise how brain sees choices and takes decisions, using brain scans and a process called functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI. fMRI measures level of oxygen in blood and tells scientists which parts of brain are most active. http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,65775,00.html
According to Wired article, this research even recently revealed differences in brains of Democrats and Republicans.
Consumer groups worry that research could lead to companies using more effective "mind control" to brainwash consumers into decisions that companies desire, and have issued calls to ban technology. http://www.commercialalert.org/index.php/category_id/1/subcategory_id/82/article_id/202
Imagine if tobacco, alcohol, and gambling industries (or even worse, politicians) should start exploiting such information to manipulate weak minds of their zombified consumers.
But experts insist we are light years away from such an Orwellian scenario, and believe that research will help businesses better understand needs of their consumer and show them how to make life better for their consumers.
Whatever outcome, neuromarketing is certainly going to be a bone of contention between marketers hoping to get a better grip on their consumer’s decision making processes, and consumer activists seeking to help consumers retain control over their minds.
Priya Shah is the CEO of eBrand360. She writes the Marketing Slave blog. This article may be reprinted as long as the resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.
