Overview of Chapter 1, Book Buyology by Martin Lindstorm. The largest Neuromarketing Study ever conducted.

1. Buyology Presentation
“Chapter 1”
By: Sadia Javed
(15277)

2. A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE
HEAD
The Largest Neuromarketing
Study Ever Conducted
Neuromarketing, it’s about uncovering what’s
already inside our heads —our Buyology
Martin Lindstrom - Buyology

3. Overview
• Neuromarketing is the new key tool which will
revolutionize marketing strategies in future and help
understand the logic behind purchase behavior.
• Subconscious thoughts, feelings & desires that drive
the purchasing decisions we make each & every day.
• The summary highlights the major concepts from
the book which can help in building better marketing
campaigns
• Examining efficacy by:
 Tracking sales
 Market research

4. Introduction
People are constantly surrounded by
brands and messages from marketers &
advertisers
• Some information is retained and some
is instantly forgettable
• To make the brand message stay with
the consumer and to induce product
cravings, research in “Neuromarketing”
is being done
• Neuromarketing is the window key to
unlock the subconscious thoughts,
feelings & desires that drive purchase
decisions

5. Neuromarketing study
• Study Duration: Three years (2004-2007)
• Cost: $7 million (provided by 8 MNCs)
• fMRI Scans: 102
• SST: To measure the degree of emotional engagement,
memory, approach & withdraw i.e. how different parts of
the brain talk to one another
• Volunteers: 2,081
• Countries: America, England, Japan, China, Germany
• Research Team overseen by: Dr. Gemma Calvert,
Chairperson Applied Neuroimaging at University of
Warwick, England

6. Problem
• Companies often are not able to
carefully detect what to do to engage
the consumers authentically.

7. • Product placements
doesn’t really work.
• Fragrance and sound
are better than any
singular logo.
• Subliminal messaging
still happens and works
really well.
• Buying is affected by
religion.
• Sex doesn’t really work
all that well anymore.

8. • The traditional marketing research -
Qualitative & Quantitative research
techniques are not well equipped to evaluate
what the consumer wants
• The smokers replied in negative to purchasing
cigarettes when shown the warning signs on
cigarette packs
• Whilst the actual buy behavior has not much
changed as despite the results of traditional
marketing research tests, the smokers went
and purchased the cigarette packs
• Hence a new marketing tool –
Neuromarketing is required to test how the
consumer‘s brain evaluates and responds to
the brand messages it encounters

9. fMRI
• functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• The most advanced brain-scanning technique
was used that measures the magnetic
property of hemoglobin that carries oxygen
in the body. More worked up a part of brain
is, more is the flow of oxygenated blood to
that part of the brain
• The study was conducted using the fMRI
technique to assess which aspects of the
brand or product message stimulate which
part of the brain that ultimately induces the
need to buy that product

10. Experiment with smokers
• Test: Smokers were shown cigarette warning
packs
• Questions asked: Are you affected by these
warnings? Will you smoke lesser?
• Answers were a quick ―Yes‖ to both
• Analysis & Results: When these respondents
went through fMRI, it was observed that
Warning signs on cigarette boxes do nothing
to hinder the urge. Actually stimulated the
craving spot. (Nucleus accumbens)
• This part of the brain when stimulated
requires higher and higher doses to get it
fixed
• Such cigarette warning signs, encouraged the
smokers to buy more cigarette packs

11. Study - Importance
Therefore, traditional marketing research techniques are not reliable to
know what consumers really wants because the irrational mind shaped
via social & cultural bias acts in a conditioned manner
Hence, what consumers think why they have a particular behavior, a
closer look into the mind tells a different story
Unconscious minds are a lot better at interpreting behavior than the
conscious minds which is what works when traditional marketing research
is conducted
Consumer experience is more likely to be found in brain, in the
nanosecond lapse before thinking is translated into words, the truth –
unplugged & uncensored, what causes us to buy

12. Sip test
• Pepsi Challenge or Sip Test,
showed that more than half of
the volunteers prefer the taste
of Pepsi over coke, this was
confirmed by the fMRI
techniques
• The later Brain scan
techniques revealed when test
subjects know whether they
were sampling coke or Pepsi
before they tasted it, 75% of
respondents claimed they
prefer Coke.

13. • Positive associations the subjects
had with Coca cola- its history, logo,
color, design, and fragrance, their
own childhood memories of coke
• Emotions are the way in which our
brain encode things of value, and
brands that engages us emotionally
will win every single time

14. Other Tests
• Immediate reward is far greater
than waiting for something to
come.
• What your brain thinks is going
on plays an important role.
• People liked the Mini Cooper
because it looks like a face.
• Something as simple as baby
faces can impact decisions and
feelings.

15. Thank you! 