Much of the fear expressed by critics of neuromarketing seems to be based on an implicit assumption that consumers need to be protected from neuromarketing because they’re weak and passive and, therefore, easy dupes of wily and clever marketers. This is an ironic assessment, because if these critics took the time to understand the brain […]
(This is the third post in a series about neuromarketing criticisms. The first two posts are here and here.) People doing things that aren’t good for them is a serious personal and public policy problem, sometimes with tragic consequences. But it’s a problem that was with us long before the birth of neuromarketing, and it’s […]
(This is the second of three posts in a series about neuromarketing criticisms. The first post is here.) This concern is closely to the question from the previous post about mind-reading. If neuromarketers can read our minds, they can discover ways to manipulate us into buying things that we wouldn’t buy otherwise. In other words, […]
A big concern of some commentators is that neuromarketing is a kind of mind-reading technology that can probe into our private thoughts and expose them to marketers. This concern vastly overestimates the power of neuromarketing and misrepresents the sciences that underlie it. We cover this topic in detail throughout Neuromarketing for Dummies, but for now […]
Recently I read a very thoughtful blog post on neuromarketing ethics by Barry Adams, a web developer and provider of digital marketing services in Ireland and the UK. Barry’s post, entitled “Friday Commentary: A Crossroads for Marketing – The Ethics of Neuromarketing” is worth reading in full. Here’s an excerpt that caught my attention: … as […]
A really fascinating, and in several ways disturbing study recently crossed my desk. Authored by Jennifer Harris, John Bargh, and Kelly Brownwell, the article is called “Priming Effects of Television Food Advertising on Eating Behavior”. It was published earlier this this year in Health Psychology. Abstract and online access are available here. The study shows in undeniable […]
(Since the Murphy et al. article was published in 2008, further academic work on ethical principles for neuromarketing has been sparse. We provide an updated discussion of all five of these principles in Neuromarketing for Dummies.) We’re finally starting to see some serious examination of ethical issues in neuromarketing. A recent issue of the Journal of […]
I have written several posts about the the question of whether nonconscious processes need to be “protected” from stimuli that trigger them. The need for protection is derived from a belief that these processes are somehow more vulnerable than conscious processes, and further, that stimulating them can make us do things (specifically, buy things) that […]
In 2007 there were a number of reviews and appreciations of The Hidden Persuaders written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its publication. I just finished reading a very interesting account by Michelle Nelson, called “The Hidden Persuaders, Then and Now,” published in the Journal of Advertising, Spring 2008. Diligent googling might find you a […]
Neuromarketing is starting to do a better job developing industry standards that clients can understand and use to evaluate neuromarketing practitioners and practices. In the past, I believe this has been a big factor in the failure of neuromarketing to grow as quickly as many of us believe it should have (see my blog post “Can Neuromarketing Get It’s Groove Back, […]
Five intuitive marketing principles marketers can start using today
In a recent article promoting my new book, Intuitive Marketing, I outlined some common mistakes marketers make when they try too hard to persuade consumers to buy their products and brands. That advice was necessarily negative—it described what not to do. Now I’d like to consider the opposite question: what are some positive ways marketers […]
The Mere Exposure Effect is Not a Silver Bullet for Marketers
Robert Zajonc first published his findings about the mere exposure effect in 1968. In an article titled “Attitudinal Effects of Mere Exposure,” he described a series of experimental findings that fundamentally challenged the psychological understanding of preferences accepted at the time. According to that understanding, preferences were a result of conscious thinking. Cognitions were believed […]
How Consistency, Reliability, and Trust Achieve Influence Without Persuasion
In the traditional model of persuasive marketing, the purpose of marketing is assumed to be the achievement of short-term transactional persuasion. In the newer model of intuitive marketing, the purpose of marketing is seen as something very different: the achievement of long-term influence through deep and authentic customer relationships. When adopting the intuitive marketing perspective, […]
What Do Replication Failures Tell Us About Priming?
Despite extensive evidence for priming in general and behavior priming in particular, there has emerged in recent years a backlash against this research, based largely on the publication of a number of replication failures of highly-cited priming studies.[1] Some observers have suggested these results are symptomatic of a deeper replication crisis (sometimes called a reproducibility […]
10 mistakes persuasive marketing makes (and intuitive marketing avoids)
My book, Intuitive Marketing, challenges a fundamental assumption of traditional marketing—that the purpose of marketing (and advertising) is to persuade. I knew when I started this project in late 2014 that two things were true: First, marketing and advertising were starting to bug me. They were becoming more disruptive and intrusive every day and marketers […]
Science under the hood 5: Implicit decisions, Reverse inference
This post is part of a series covering the 10 most important scientific principles underlying neuromarketing. Implicit decisions As we establish in Chapter 1 (“What Neuromarketing Is and Isn’t”) and elaborate on throughout this book, human brains are cognitive misers — thinking is hard and we try to avoid it if we can. A particularly […]
Science under the hood 4: Low attention processing, Implicit memory
This post is part of a series covering the 10 most important scientific principles underlying neuromarketing. Low attention processing Another counterintuitive finding that is important to neuromarketing is the discovery that attention may not be good for advertising effectiveness. Attention would seem to be a necessary condition for advertising effectiveness, but brain research has shown […]
Science under the hood 3: Misattribution, Nonconscious goal pursuit
This post is part of a series covering the 10 most important scientific principles underlying neuromarketing. Misattribution One of the things scientists have learned from studying System 1 and System 2 processes separately is that System 1 is sloppy. It makes connections and guides behavior based on simple associations, not logic. When System 1 makes […]
Science under the hood 2: Emotional “somatic markers,” Processing fluency
This post is part of a series covering the 10 most important scientific principles underlying neuromarketing. Emotional “somatic markers” Emotions operate at two levels in our mental lives: one conscious, the other non- conscious. Conscious emotions are what we usually call feelings. Nonconscious emotions are what psychologists call affective states, and they include emotional somatic […]
Science under the hood 1: System 1 and System 2, Priming
This post is part of a series covering the 10 most important scientific principles underlying neuromarketing. System 1 and System 2 Daniel Kahneman didn’t invent the System 1–System 2 model of brain processes, but his work over the last several decades has popularized it as one of the most useful overarching frameworks for understanding how […]