The Buying Brain: Secrets to Selling to the Unconscious Mind

Citation

Obhi, S. (2011), "The Buying Brain: Secrets to Selling to the Unconscious Mind", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 162-164. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363761111116033

This book is a timely and interesting read for anyone interested in the application of brain science to marketing, consumer research, product design and branding. The main emphasis of the book, as the subtitle suggests, is to understand the subconscious mind and its response to various product‐ and brand‐related information.

The first chapter introduces the buying brain and the main questions that companies are interested in. In Chapter 2, Pradeep outlines the methods available to the aspiring neuromarketer. These techniques include electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as well as other more peripheral physiological measures such as heart rate and skin conductance, which measure arousal. Whilst reading this section I could not help thinking that it is somewhat biased toward his own approach – that of EEG. Specifically, Pradeep describes EEG in terms of its exquisite temporal resolution but fails to mention its less than excellent spatial resolution. In contrast, he points out the lack of temporal resolution of fMRI, without emphasizing the far superior spatial resolution compared to EEG. He also fails to mention the new multi‐voxel pattern analysis approach for fMRI data, which many believe holds much promise for neuromarketing applications (Ariely and Berns, 2010).

The third chapter provides an engaging if somewhat theatrical account of the evolution of the brain. He highlights the evolutionary advantage of easy target search (i.e. a de‐cluttering of displays), the importance of emotive packaging and product design, and the essential role of the dopaminergic reward system in driving behavior. He also highlights the differences between male and female brains, with reference to different selection pressures during evolution. The next two chapters provide an overview of brain organization and the senses. This will be useful for the non‐neuroscientist.

The book is easy to read and I actually found it quite difficult to put down! However, by about chapter 5 I realized beyond doubt that one aim for the book is to plug Pradeep's company, Neurofocus. While some may find this annoying, I do not think it is a bad thing; the approach that Pradeep advocates is, in my opinion, far superior to standard research strategies involving conscious self‐report. Chapter 6 highlights the importance of understanding the Boomer brain, and Chapter 7 delves into the female brain in detail, pointing out, among other things, that in the USA, women control over 80 percent of discretionary spending. Chapters 8 and 9 highlight the “mommy brain” and the “empathic brain”, respectively, wherein Pradeep underscores the mommy brain as a unique target for marketers and highlights the role of mirror neurons in the brain's response to messaging (more on mirror neurons later).

In Chapter 10 Pradeep introduces the reader to the metrics used in his approach: the neurometrics! He outlines three primary neurometrics:

1. 1.

   attention;

2. 2.

   emotional engagement; and

3. 3.

   memory.

He also outlines three derived metrics, including:

1. 1.

   purchase intent/persuasion;

2. 2.

   novelty and awareness/understanding; and

3. 3.

   comprehension.

The bulk of the chapter considers each neurometric in more detail, but it gives no information about how he calculates them. Of course, the ultimate question that all marketers want answered is “Will consumers buy my product(s)?”. Pradeep claims that a combination of his emotional engagement metric and his memory metric provide an “extremely sensitive predictor” of marketplace success. Although he admits that he does not quite understand why this is, he does put forward some plausible ideas. To me, this brought up the question of whether neuromarketers should care about why their measures work. If the goal of neuromarketing is to be able to predict behaviour better than traditional measures, then the answer is “No”. If the goal is to determine what the mechanisms mediating consumer behaviour are, then the answer is a resounding “Yes”. I have to admit that I was a little frustrated at times whilst reading this chapter. In particular, Pradeep never indicates what he means by an “extremely sensitive predictor” of marketplace success, and certainly does not back up this statement with quantitative data. For example, it is pretty well known that self‐reported purchase intention is poorly correlated with purchase behaviour (correlation of 0.2‐0.3). Is Pradeep's measure giving us closer to a 0.4 or 0.9 correlation? Unfortunately, he does not provide this information. Furthermore, he tells us that he can use his primary and derived neurometrics to obtain an overall “effectiveness” score, but he does not even vaguely describe how! Proprietary; fair enough!

The final part of Chapter 10 outlines an approach that I actually found quite interesting. It involves two measurements separated by an intervening message or product exposure. First he measures the brain's response to certain concepts related to a brand or product. The logic of the approach is to determine whether the message or product exposure changes the way that the brain responds to the same concepts when presented for a second time. Because the concepts used before and after the “exposure” are the same, any changes must be due to whatever people were exposed to in between. He dubs this procedure the “deep subconscious response” methodology. To me, this is very similar to measuring priming effects. Pradeep's measure seems to provide information on what kinds of messages/designs, etc., produce the greatest priming for brand attributes. This is definitely useful information for marketers. On this note, I think Pradeep does a great job throughout the book of underlining the fact that most brain processing happens well below the conscious threshold. He is absolutely correct when he points out the limitations of self‐report measures in marketing, product, and brand research. If we want to stand a chance of understanding why people do what they do, we have to go beneath the tip of the iceberg.

Chapter 11 outlines in some detail the frameworks that Pradeep uses in his approach. He speaks of a “framework of frameworks” that Neurofocus has developed to ensure that they maintain a holistic approach. This is nice. Very nice! I like the structured approach that Pradeep recommends and I am sure that using these frameworks alone will improve company research success. There are nine frameworks in all, relating to the consumer journey, brand essence, total consumer experience, new product effectiveness, pricing framework, bundling framework, packaging effectiveness framework, shopper experience framework and advertising effectiveness framework. The bulk of the chapter deals with explaining the consumer journey framework in detail. By using these frameworks, Pradeep ensures that his approach is systematic, well organized, and coherent.

The next chapter is all about brands and first outlines the shortcomings of the “gut+traditional consumer research” approach to choosing brand communications strategies. Pradeep then introduces the brand essence framework, which includes the seven dimensions of form, function (broken down into explicit and implicit functionality), feelings, values, benefits, metaphors, and extensions. He points out the importance of emotional significance as a “summarizer” of brand‐related information. Specifically, he highlights that evoking the appropriate emotion can help consumers access a large network of brand‐ or product‐related information. Hence, creating messaging and environments that produce emotion provides a shortcut to other stored information. Another particularly interesting issue discussed in this chapter is the issue of brand extension. The reader is lured in with the tantalizing question of how to assess whether brand extensions violate consumer expectations. Unfortunately, there is no information provided on methods! Neuroscientists know all about ERP (EEG) components that index expectancy violation, but for non‐neuroscientists, there are no clues as to how he goes about measuring expectancy violation. Again, a significant aim of this book is to market what Neurofocus has to offer.

Chapter 13 is all about product evaluation and details Pradeep's total consumer experience framework, which includes visual examination of a package, handling the package with anticipation of product use, extracting the product from the package, the multi‐sensory perception of the first contact with the product, multi‐sensory processing as the product is consumed, enjoying the product again or putting it away, and post‐product consumption/rituals. Pradeep explains that he can measure the brain's response throughout this continuum of the user experience, and can pick out the points of maximal response – which he terms neurological iconic signatures (NIS), another great buzz term! Pradeep then outlines the steps involved in tasting yoghurt. He challenges the reader to guess which aspect of this process produced the largest brain response. After a little build‐up, he reveals that the brain responds maximally to the act of peeling the foil off the top of the container. He then goes on to describe how consumers relish this multi‐sensory experience above all others. This could be true, but there are also other explanations. Just because this event caused the largest deflection in the brain data and/or the largest increase in skin conductance, how can Pradeep infer that this is the most significant part of the process? This is one part of his story that I don't believe, at least not without seeing the data, and what was actually measured. And this is the reason: peeling the foil off the yoghurt pot is also the most complex process in the scenario. Pradeep gives us no reason or data to rule out that the greater response simply reflects the complexity of the task. Let me clarify some more, and at the same time risk oversimplifying things! Say we measured brain activity while we got dressed, and say the brain responded X amount when putting on our hat, compared to X+Y amount whilst putting on our shoes. Does this allow us to say that putting on our shoes was a more meaningful experience for the brain? Could it not instead be that our shoes are heavier than our hat and require more effort to put on? Without accounting for this basic difference in the task, it is hard to interpret the data. Perhaps this criticism is not valid, but at the level at which Pradeep describes his measures in the book, it is very hard to determine what his metrics in this scenario are actually telling us, and we must place faith in his interpretation of the data.

This brings in a key point about neuromarketing in general: Neuromarketing, owing to its sophisticated methods and complicated procedures, can be both overwhelming and very tantalizing in its appeal. Prospective neuromarketing service providers will play up the latter, but marketing professionals need to avoid being overwhelmed, and indeed, possibly duped. For me the take‐home message is: Marketers need to be aware of basic experimental methodology to avoid being “blinded by the (apparent) science”.

The next few chapters go on to discuss new product launches and packaging, and they provide further explanation of the deep subconscious response approach. Chapter 15 talks in detail about in‐store experiences and outlines how EEG technology can be used to measure NIS even in real‐world environments. Pradeep provides a useful framework for considering the in‐store experience and discusses many important ideas from cognitive psychology such as perceptual filling in and repetition blindness. With regard to the former, he argues that partial occlusion of information can provide a simple puzzle that will intrigue people to linger over the information just that little bit longer than they otherwise might. I found this interesting. Again, I really liked Pradeep's framework as it provides a comprehensive way in which to understand what is going on within this particular problem space.

Chapter 16 considers advertising and again, Pradeep outlines the same basic EEG‐based approach to measuring implicit processing of ads. He espouses a number of key ideas, but my favorite as a neuroscientist is the emphasis on engaging the mirror neuron system. The mirror neuron system is thought to underlie our ability to resonate with others and mirror neurons provide the machinery for vicariously experiencing observed acts. Hence, ads that depict actual usage would seem to activate these neurons and provide observers with the next best thing to actually experiencing the product. This is a very interesting area of current research in neuroscience, including in my own laboratory, and a better understanding of the full nature of the human mirror system, and how it responds in advertising contexts will undoubtedly emerge over the next few years.

The new social media is the hot topic in Chapter 17, which also considers the (very relevant) effect of screen size by comparing the brain's response to small mobile screens and larger screens. Pradeep explains the huge significance of faces to human beings and suggests that the popularity of many social networking sites is due to the fact that they feature faces. He talks about the need to get through the attentional filter of the brain, in the midst of literally thousands of competing stimuli. He suggests some concrete approaches to facilitate the processing of your message including the use of action words and the use of simple puzzles among others.

In the final chapter of the book, Pradeep sums up his approach as identifying the most brain‐friendly ways of delivering messaging and product offerings. He points out the rise of neuroscience and the promise that it holds, as well as the growing movement to build neuromarketing courses into marketing programs in universities.

1 Conclusions

In conclusion, The Buying Brain is a well‐written and comprehensive book that clearly outlines a meaningful approach to understanding the consumer brain. Over the past few years I have read many books on neuromarketing, including Buyology by Lindstrom and Neuromarketing by Renvoise, and I can unreservedly recommend Pradeep's book as the best neuromarketing book on the market for the intended audience. It may not be perfect, and some scientists may find it a little sensationalized, but it avoids being purely gimmicky and over‐simplified and does not lose the reader in technical details either. This is a tough balance to achieve. Pradeep is to be commended for developing an integrated, holistic framework within which to explore the consuming brain. This is a key strength of his approach and, to me, is a breath of fresh air. As my review suggests, I have some questions about some of Pradeep's claims, which would probably be answered if I saw the actual data, and some will find the constant plugging of Neurofocus somewhat tiresome! This, however, does not reduce the importance of the book's message for marketing professionals, product designers, advertising executives and other readers. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in developing a better understanding of the buying brain.