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Thanks to the wonder of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) technology, many marketing professionals awaken each day to new reports and studies on brain behavior and ponder its use in the world of advertising.
The newest article in the July 5 edition of Newsweek is a must read for every business owner interested in understanding why a customer often tells you one thing but does another.
In a game called “Ultimatum,” test subjects were offered different options in splitting a sum of money with their game partner:
“A low offer stimulates activity in the brain’s insular cortex, a relatively primitive region associated with negative emotions including anger and disgust. This appears to compete with the more highly evolved prefrontal cortex, the locus of the rational impulse to take the dollar and go buy a soda with it. The more activity in the insular cortex, the more likely subjects were to reject the offer.”
“This is a big step toward being able to see on a screen what people actually want, rather than what they say in focus groups or interviews.”
Trust is a big issue, says Paul Zak, an economist at Claremont Graduate University. “Trust encourages savings and investment, and reduces the “transaction cost” of investigating the people you do business with.”
Here is where the difference in brain wiring between men and women chimes in:
“The cingulate cortex, which processes both emotions and abstract thinking, becomes especially active after one player betrays the other by cutting back on how much he shares – as if the brain, or at least this crucial part of it, is “hypertuned” to detect betrayal.
Quartz has also seen intriguing differences between men and women in the scanner. Men’s brains tend to shut down after they’ve made their decision, awaiting a reply from the other subject. But women don’t relax so easily; they show continued activity in at least three areas… Women, says Quartz, seem to obsess more over whether they did the right thing – and how the other subject will react to them.”
With four times as many connections between the left and right brain, it’s only natural that women are going to plug emotional memory and past experience into the equation. It means that a woman isn’t as easily “connected” to a brand… She relies on development of trust and deeper relationship before transforming simple preference into brand identity (associated with her “sense of self”).
Are you developing and delivering the strongest bond of trust possible with your female customers? Are you consistent in your presentation… rock-solid in your business belief system?
Michele Miller is a writer, speaker, and consultant on ways to capture the heart of the female customer. The co-author of The Soccer Mom Myth, she consults with businesses of all sizes across North America
WOW! I can always count on you, Michele. This is tres good stuff! And so interesting…from start to finish. Thanks for posting it, as my Newsweek subscription has lapsed. And thanks for the connection to Andrea Learned and Lisa Johnson. I’m reading Don’t Think Pink right now.
The machine that reads your minds
Newsweek has a fascinating article about fMRI, a giant cylindrical magnet able to show changes in brain activity as they happen—hence the “f,” which stands for “functional.” The fMRI machine can help explain why human beings so often refuse to…
MIchelle, I’m afraid that the tendency in our culture to view “anything worth doing is worth doing to excess,” as I observed in one of my recent blogs, is slated to happen once more as marketers try brain imaging to learn about consumers. Too many marketers are ready to try anything (and to excess), rather than spending some time in the annals of behavorial science to learn about human (consumer) behavior.
I recently presented my opinions on the limits of fMRI’s use in consumer research at Harvard to a team of neurologists who hoped to build an income stream from consumer research to help pay for their $8 million GE MRI equipment. I wasn’t terribly supportive because I believe that without a firm grounding in behavior science, fMRI reports may be as misleading as reports from traditional research so often are.
It’s all very interesting that women’s brains light up differently than men’s brains do, and that women have four times the cell count in their corpus callosums, but that doesn’t tell us anything about what motivates a woman in different seasons of her life — or men, for that matter.
Much of what I have read about brain imaging of consumers is clinically interesting, but I have yet to learn anything that is actionable that I did not already know about in greater depth from other sources including cognitive science, developmental psychology and books about the workings of the brain that tell a great deal more than stand-alone images from fMRI reveal.
So, for the time being at least, I don’t see brain imaging technology doing all that much to advance marketing effectiveness.
Having said all that, thanks for bringing the article to our attention. The more we get marketers interested in the brain, the more we might get them to take greater interest in more classic sources of information about human behavior. As I often say, I think it is shameful that a person can get an MBA in marketing without taking a single course in behavior. fMRI imagery will not make up for this knowledge deficit.
MIchelle, I’m afraid that the tendency in our culture to view “anything worth doing is worth doing to excess,” as I observed in one of my recent blogs, is slated to happen once more as marketers try brain imaging to learn about consumers. Too many marketers are ready to try anything (and to excess), rather than spending some time in the annals of behavorial science to learn about human (consumer) behavior.
I recently presented my opinions on the limits of fMRI’s use in consumer research at Harvard to a team of neurologists who hoped to build an income stream from consumer research to help pay for their $8 million GE MRI equipment. I wasn’t terribly supportive because I believe that without a firm grounding in behavior science, fMRI reports may be as misleading as reports from traditional research so often are.
It’s all very interesting that women’s brains light up differently than men’s brains do, and that women have four times the cell count in their corpus callosums, but that doesn’t tell us anything about what motivates a woman in different seasons of her life — or men, for that matter.
Much of what I have read about brain imaging of consumers is clinically interesting, but I have yet to learn anything that is actionable that I did not already know about in greater depth from other sources including cognitive science, developmental psychology and books about the workings of the brain that tell a great deal more than stand-alone images from fMRI reveal.
So, for the time being at least, I don’t see brain imaging technology doing all that much to advance marketing effectiveness.
Having said all that, thanks for bringing the article to our attention. The more we get marketers interested in the brain, the more we might get them to take greater interest in more classic sources of information about human behavior. As I often say, I think it is shameful that a person can get an MBA in marketing without taking a single course in behavior. fMRI imagery will not make up for this knowledge deficit.
Oooh. My brain hurts, but it’s a good kind of hurt. I always knew my female partners were better at winning business than me, but it’s good to know it’s becasue I’m evolutionarily hobbled and maybe only 1/2 noisy dolt. Nice post, Michele
Carnival of the Capitalists
Welcome to this weeks edition of Carnival of the Capitalists! Thank you for stopping by! We’ve got a long this week, so grab a cup of coffee, or two, and enjoy! Todd at A Penny For posted about the BlogOn conference and comes home with as many question…