Neuroscience Could Make You a Better Marketer

Understanding what consumers think about your brand, and how that impacts on their behaviour, is the holy grail of marketing effectiveness. In pursuit of finding out what makes audiences tick, research methods are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

Neuro-research is one such method. By measuring brain activity, neuroscience offers a picture of subconscious responses that traditional question-based research can’t reach. Neuro-researchers aren’t able to read your mind, but good neuroscience-based methodologies can shed light on subconscious cognitive processes.

Using methods such as Steady State Topography (SST) – a modified EEG that records the brain’s electrical activity – researchers can build a picture of a subject’s responses to stimulus material. Marketers have long recognised that many decisions (including purchases) are not motivated by rational thinking but by rapid, subconscious emotional reactions. By identifying the parts of a creative idea that resonate most strongly, it’s possible to identify the most effective parts.

“…to the brain, there are no silos, or distinctions between content and context.”

The most impactful messages also use a combination of elements that help to drive memory encoding. If a message is not remembered it can’t possibly affect our future behaviour – but the brain is very selective about what goes into the memory. If an image, brand or communication is stored, or encoded, it’s probably because the brain has already, at a subconscious level, identified a potential use for it. This element of intent is what links memory and future decision-making/purchase behaviour.

Thus, the most effective campaigns successfully utilise key drivers of memory, in particular, narrative, emotional intensity and personal relevance. For example, Always’ #LikeAGirl ads have a narrative structure that engages viewers from the start by asking “What does it mean to do something like a girl?” Our brains are strongly driven by puzzles and stories, and will follow a problem/solution narrative closely to find clues that may help solve it.

Always' #LikeAGirl engaged audiences with its problem/solution narrative.

Channel 4’s We’re the Superhumans also leverages a key driver of memory encoding: emotion. The ad takes us on a journey that elicits fluctuating emotional reactions. Neuro-Insight’s study of the ad found that viewers’ emotional responses shifted from negative to positive as the narrative unfolded. Initially, the extreme stunts on display elicited concern from audiences, but by the second half of the ad we saw more positive responses, suggesting that viewers had overcome their concern and simply enjoyed the spectacle. 

This kind of journey drives memory encoding due to our evolutionary tendency to encode memories associated with emotionally intense moments. For advertisers, it’s an opportunity to make key messages land with impact, as Channel 4 did to empower Paralympians in this ad.

Channel 4's We're The Superhumans took us on an emotional journey.

Neuroscientific research can also be applied across new tech and digital media. Despite the pace of technological advancement, many neuroscience fundamentals remain unchanged in the digital realm; to the brain, there are no silos, or distinctions between content and context, i.e., how the message is received. 

In a recent study conducted in partnership with Mindshare Futures and JWT Innovation Group we looked at brain responses to voice-activated devices in order to understand the relationship between users, technologies and brands. We discovered that new users gave quite strongly negative emotional responses to using a voice assistant for the first time. But, as users became more at ease with the technology, we recorded more positive responses from them.

New users initially react negatively to voice-activated tech.

The research raises an interesting question: how far along the human-machine spectrum should an AI device go? While total realism is an obvious objective, our previous experiences tell us there is also a point on the human-tech spectrum which falls into uncanny valley territory. This phenomenon occurs when we encounter an image or representation of a person that falls between the human and robotic categories – almost human, but with something not quite right. The uncanny valley tends to trigger strong feelings of unease, and is something for brands to be aware of when entering the world of AI and voice-tech.

While there is still, of course, a valuable role for interviews, surveys and suchlike, measurement of audiences’ brain activity provides clarity on issues that people might not be consciously aware of, or which they would find hard to articulate. These insights could be invaluable, not just to help the creative process behind campaigns, but to inform and shape technologies of the future which could one day change our lives.