John Fleming (gmi.gallup.com) provided some interesting evidence relating brain activity to customer behavior. The brain activity patterns of engaged, unengaged and actively disengaged customers were found to be dramatically different. Engaged customers showed greater levels of activity in the orbitalfrontal cortex where emotion and cognition are integrated.Â
This is both good and bad news for those who think neuromarketing is the answer to advertising’s declining effectiveness. Neuromarketers believe that if they can determine what lights up the areas of the brain in customers, they can devise increasingly effective advertisements. Since both Gallup and I (www.addictedcustomers.com) have made the case that engaged customers have greater value, including greater lifetime value, this should be good news to neuromarketers.Â
The bad news for them is that engagement is an active process that requires the mental effort of the customer. Advertising is usually a passive trigger that might capture attention, be sensorially pleasant and might even result in a sale. But, it doesn’t lead to greater and enduring desire in the customer. Getting to this state is not an event but it takes a systematic journey.Â
For more on the systematic journey, stay tuned to this blog and check out my new book at www.AddictedCustomers.com.
At one level, neuromarketing can be merely a way to devise a more clever and effective ad campaign. If you get a little better at pushing the customer’s buttons, you’ll sell more. If you really want to turn customers into long-term fans, though, the characteristics of the product as well as the entire experience (sale, use, support, post-sale interaction, etc.) will obviously make a big difference.
Neuroscience can inform the broader scope of customer interaction, too - if we better understand how a customer reacts to the product itself, or to different types of personal interaction, etc., companies can design better products and support systems. Norman’s “Emotional Design” touches on how we react to well-designed products and how that influences our perception of usability and satisfaction.
Left by NeuroGuy on February 6th, 2006