Neuromarketing Defined

Neuromarketing: the study of how and why people make choices:

I think that the marketing industry has been slow to adopt neuroscience as a method is two-fold; the first one being that some of technology being used is sometimes expensive and difficult to understand, and with little track record of success.  Being a marketer I like results I can predict.  Also, the fact that neuroscience was a traditionally biological and scientific study; it has a hard time being accepted.

The research experiment I chose was entitled Prosocial video games reduce aggressive cognition, and set out to prove that prosocial video games can influence people to act as better citizens (Greitemeyer & Osswald, 2009, p. 3). Researchers Tobias Greitemeyer and Sylvia Osswald assigned college students to play one of two video games, one a neutral control game, Tetris, the other a prosocial game called Lemmings.  The subjects were measured as having being affected in their observed behavior as becoming more prosocial or less.  

This was done by having the subjects answer questions about their experience, the game and themselves to see if their answers were more prosocial than those exposed to the neutral game.  The results concluded that there was a correlation between those that played the prosocial game and those that offered to help the interrupted experimenter (Greitemeyer & Osswald, 2009, p. 8).

Some issues or limitations of the study are that they scored the answers to the questions on known scales, provided external validity to the test results.  Also, the strength of the operational definition of what it meant to be described a more prosocial, I find, to be solid, and not to abstract as to dilute the results.  While issues regarding the differences in the sex where raised, the researchers did not find enough data to change their findings.  

References:

Cozby, P. C., & Bates, S. C. (2011). Methods in behavioral research (11th ed.). New York, NY: Mcgraw Hill Higher Ed.

Greitemeyer, T., & Osswald, S. (2009). Prosocial video games reduce aggressive cognition. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(4), 896-900. Retrieved from http://peer.ccsd.cnrs.fr/docs/00/68/77/25/PDF/PEER_stage2_10.1016%252Fj.jesp.2009.04.005.pdf

Pros & Cons of fMRI Scans In Marketing

fMRI scans have both pros and cons associated with their use. I would say that the pros outweigh the cons an An “fMRI is able to shed light on subconscious processes such as affective aspects of consumer behavior,” (Kenneing, et al, 2007), for example, functional MRI (fMRI) is a non-invasive technique for indirectly measuring sections of activity of the brain.  Also Functional MRI is considered superior to both CT and PET scanning for both spatial and temporal resolution.  Additionally, MRI technology does not involve the exposure to x-rays or radioactive tracers required by the other imaging methods.

           While exposure to magnetism is considered safe, the development of more powerful magnets should be accompanied by updated safety assessments. More powerful magnets lead to better images, so it is likely that the technology will continue to move in this direction. Functional MRI shares the problem of expense with the PET scans. Because the technology is so expensive, relatively few participants are included in most studies, leaving the conclusions open to criticism on statistical grounds.

However, Nelson argues that despite the cost of the scan they have bcome an “MRI has become very popular among those interested in brain development, primarily because it can pro-vide such detailed images of the brain and because the exact same procedure can be used across the entire life-span to illuminate brain development,” (Nelson, 2008).

        Functional MRI has provided psychological scientists with a powerful tool for localizing brain activity that correlates with thoughts and behaviors. Although the technology requires careful interpretation, fMRI results have opened up new windows into the activity of the mind. But as Nelson points out there are still many variables as to the standards by which fMRI scans are interpreted and read.  For example, Nelson states that there is often variability in the times, places, and credentials of the people who interpret the scans.  In addition the proliferation of their use and the different types of scanners present challenges to standardizing the interpretation of those images, (Nelson, 2008).

            It is these incidents of misreads or misinterpretations that lead to false or skewed results.  So while there are a lot of pros, there remain issues within the field before the use of fMRI scans can be considered without skepticism. 

References:

Kenning, P., Plassmann, H., Ahlert, D. (2007). Applications of functional magnetic resonance imaging for market research. Qualitative Market Research, 2, 135-152. 

Nelson, C. A. (2008). Incidental findings in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain research. Journal of Law, Medecine and Ethics(Summer), 315-319. 

UCSB Brain Imaging - Home. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2015, from http://www.bic.ucsb.edu/

Adjusting Ad Hoc Personas

          Research is king – so now it’s time to set aside our presumptions and get down to who is really our product / or cause’s audience really is.  Well, for me this was a very revealing experience, upon conducting my research I found that Under Armour’s audience is more women that male, and is most likely to be in school or associated with college sports.  

               

I will be spending some time adjusting my current persona, Mike, and I am thinking about adding a female persona, Michelle, to capture what I am finding is to be necessary to expand the scope of the personas I am using to better segment and identify UA’ s target audience.  

Keyword searches show that people who search the brand frequently use the keyword “new,” in conjunction with their search more often than any other keyword (KewordSpy, n.d.).  This shows me that my initial conclusions about UA buyers wanting what “new,” or trendy was accurate.  

Also, the second most used keyword in conjunction with the brand show that colleges and universities and their branded sports equipment is very highly searched.  It seems there is a very large niche market that is specific to collegiate sports – a sector known for having young people with disposable incomes.  My initial ad hoc persona had the age group as 18-25 – so it seems that is very accurate to the age of college students, so this was correct as well.  

In addition to that I found that while I had initially presumes that the main audience was male, careful analysis of .com traffic and search words indicate that under armour is actually more followed by women and adjusting or adding a persona that is female would be highly advantageous. 

References:

Actionable Analytics for the Web. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2015, from http://www.alexa.com

Digital Marketing Optimization Solutions | Compete. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2015, from http://www.compete.com

Social Media Search Tool | WhosTalkin? (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2015, from http://www.whostalkin.com/search?q=under armour&x=0&y=0

KeywordSpy. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2015, from http://labs.keywordspy.com/plugin/?n=

Keyword Research & Keyword Tracking Categories. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2015, from http://www.keywordspy.com