Bio-Sensory Metrics
I am reminded of the first Superman movie with Christopher Reeve which featured a song with the lyrics: "Can you read my mind? Can you picture the things I'm thinking of?" Today the answer to those questions when it comes to a new frontier of marketing research is most likely, yes. Two Bay Area-based companies are now commercializing university research in neuroscience, or brain studies, to help companies develop better advertising, products, games, and web content. The two companies are NeuroFocus in Berkeley and EmSense in San Francisco.
Leveraging a rapidly growing body of research and insights into how the human brain processes stimuli like ads, messages, and products both companies use bio-sensory measurement to advise large clients like, Procter & Gamble, Disney, and Pepsi-Cola, on how to shape consumer messaging to drive results.
Companies Describe The Technology
EmSense describes its technology in this way:
"Zeroing in on the most critical aspects of advertising response – Cognitive Engagement and Emotion - EmSense provides quantitative guidance for evaluating and optimizing the impact of advertising on your audience. The Emband™ is one of the most advanced neuromeasurement devices in the world, and the only one specifically designed for market research. It records more types of measures than any other individual physiological measurement device, capturing not only brainwaves, but also breathing, eye-blinks, head movement, temperature and changes in heart rate. "
"Emband" device that is placed on user's head wirelessly transmits bio-sensory measurements to a computer.
NeuroFocus describes its technology similarly:
"We are able to track millisecond-by-millisecond brain responses to messaging. Our breakthrough techniques utilize advances in measuring attention challenges, emotional engagement, and memory/retention to measure the effectiveness of advertising. Our measurements are precise, unambiguous, and repeatable. The measurement method is established EEG technology, which is simple, non-invasive, non-influential, and comfortable for and familiar to consumers."
In the video below Dr. A. K. Pradeep, CEO of NeuroFocus describes how to measure what is a "superior experience" or the critical components in the total consumer experience. What he calls the 5-sensory experience.
Neuromarketing
Today with companies looking to fine tune their advertising spending to get the maximum effectiveness in building brand loyalty they are turning increasingly to companies like NeuroFocus and EmSense to lead the way in providing a new research paradigm centered on Neuromarketing.
Who Benefits from Neuromarketing? Just about anyone who sells products designed to build brand loyalty. This includes the companies that develop creative messaging for the brand. Neuromarketing is also increasingly being used in political campaigns including its use in the last election. Whether it's product "hot buttons" or "hot button issues" neuroscience is leading the way to use emotional response to uncover the elements in a message that produce the desired behavior.
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Copyright: F.A. Daniels, August 3, 2009, all rights reserved.
