Ever had a glimpse of how things could be in the future? Recently I got such a peek at the E3 conference in Germany where I attended a session on the emerging field of behavioural neuroscience and how it can be applied to optimise marketing.
Let me explain a bit about what this session covered in layman’s terms. (In case there are any passing neuroscientists reading this I only have 800 or so words so I’m hugely aware of the simplifications).
The session discussed how the brain reacts to marketing stimuli. The main example used was variations of layouts for an eBay auction page. It showed that, depending on the copy in the description, the presence of brand, the layout and the price, we can stimulate positive or negative feelings that are likely to trigger the viewer to buy or not buy.
Okay so we know this already; our expertise as marketers and agencies tells us this, right?
What behavioural neuroscience tells us
But what the experiments can measure are the precise responses. You can see exactly at what point they decide to buy, or decide not to. You can then compare different versions of layout, copy or creative, and measure the effect that has on the likelihood to purchase. This is potentially very powerful information.
It measures this by looking at activity in specific areas in the brain. Activity in the striatum, a ‘reward’ area, means we’re generating positive feelings. Activity in the insular cortex, an area that controls our fight-or-flight response, means the opposite. These areas fire-up as we encounter different stimuli, as demonstrated with the eBay experiment.
So I’m listening to the lecture thinking: this is great, all we need to do is co-ordinate recording the brain activity with our eyetracking equipment, and we’ll be able to measure precisely how someone feels as their eyes move across your website. We’ll be able to refine the designs and layouts to get the striatum firing, and minimize the insular cortex activity. We’ll be able to understand in far greater detail how individuals make decisions. It will really show us if the copy or design works and is understood. No more having to distinguish between what people say and what they actually do. Clients are going to love this.
And it’s not just websites that this could be applied to. You can measure response all your marketing activity, and the use of your products themselves, to help you understand where improvements could be made.
For those businesses that understand the need for continual, iterative improvement, it could be a powerful extra tool in the ongoing work to enhance their business effectiveness.
And for agencies, who love to talk about insight, about getting under the skin of the audience and really knowing what makes them tick, what kind of insight would be better than literally peering into the brains of your clients’ audiences to see how they react?
Using biometrics to gauge marketing effectiveness is not new at Base One we use eyetracking successfully to measure user experience however applying behavioural neuroscience is cutting edge and, I bet, certainly beyond the field of experience for most B2B marketers. There are companies emerging who specialise in this field (see www.emsense.com of California) though based on the conference session I attended I do think right now there are some issues to resolve…
The potential pitfalls
For starters, the technology and experimentation protocols (for the kind of application we’re talking about here) need to be refined and improved. Right now, the most effective way to measure brain activity is by MRI scanner that renders it currently unfeasible for any realistic study (the machines cost £2 million ouch).
An alternative is to use electroencephalography (try saying that after a few ales) or EEG for short which is essentially a high-tech cap that you wear that measures electrical activity in the head. You look a bit odd, but the cap will measure brain activity in your head. This seems a lot more feasible, particularly if linked up with eyetracking.
Another issue could be that these simple brain-chemical triggers are too simplistic when discussing how users feel about the brand. It’s not really uncovering users’ motivations: you are essentially seeing a chemical reaction in the head. It also doesn’t tell us how individuals are then influenced by others in the DMU.
But to me the potential is more about being able to accurately dissect the user experience of your website, brand or product and to understand the exact trigger points in their interactions. As B2B comes to rely more and more on digital applications, this could be a powerful tool in gaining competitive advantage, especially as the technology and methodology matures. And while it’s a glimpse of the future, it’s not so distant.
