@marketingmag
THE TRUTH ISSUEdictate behaviour, it is responsive
and refl ective of our behaviours.
“There were some experiments
done in the 1980s and ’90s that
led us to thinking and speaking as
though the brain were a driver but,
free will aside, that’s not how this
ballgame works anymore.”
True neuroscientists talking
about the brain will say ‘it correlates
with this behaviour’ or it ‘refl ects’
this behaviour. “They don’t say it
‘drives’ this behaviour.”
For neuromarketing to be
viable and of worth to marketers,
it has to be predictive. We have to
be able to look at a brain response
and say ‘this person will do the
following’. “Until you can reach that
prediction point where you can say,
‘I can guess your decision before you
do it,’ then it all becomes nonsense,”
he says.Memory
“Any time a neuromarketer comes
out and says ‘we can tell you’re
forming a memory’? No. You
cannot,” Cooney Horvath asserts
dismissively.
Memory is a very long process.
To measure if a subject has formed a
memory takes weeks, and to know if
they have in fact done so, a marketer
would still have to ask them or test
them.
“Once you reach the stage where
you’re asking me, why do you need
to measure my brain? Just ask me!
All the information you need to know
comes out of that question.”Attention
Along with emotion and memory,
attention is the fi nal “big ticket item”
as Cooney Horvath calls them.
First, while it may be refl ected inaction.” The difference? It’s a choice.
“When I’m watching a basketball
game, I’m doing it; when I’m
watching a movie, I’m doing it.
“It’s not a mirror thing, it’s not ‘I saw
it and it fi red off in my brain’; it’s ‘I
saw it and I chose to enact it so I
could feel closer to that moment’.”
We only choose to do it with
people we trust. “We have all this
research that says mirror neurons
activate only when somebody feels
safe around the other person... but
they don’t fi re off when you’re a
stranger or if I don’t like you.”
So does showing someone
drinking an icy cold beverage make a
consumer think of that product?
“If you do it right, yeah.”
Will it make someone more likely
to buy it later?
“I don’t know, but that’s an
easy data question, which appears
to be no.”
The only time we are covertly
activated without choosing is in
instances of seeing pain. It’s why we
fl inch when we see somebody stack
in a skating video. It helps us build
our understanding of the world, and
make predictions and decisions
about what to do and what not to do
in the interest of keeping ourselves
safe from harm.- PREDICT VERSUS
EXPLAIN
THE STORY: armed with a clear
enough understanding of how
their brains work, we are able
to to predict and infl uence
consumer behaviour.
The truth: that’s impossible
“The conception of the brain as being
a driver is essentially wrong,” says
Cooney Horvath. The brain doesn’tthe brain, “attention doesn’t happen
in the brain”. Today, eye tracking
is very commonly rolled out as a
measure of attention. If a consumer
looks at an ad or a certain part of
it, you have their attention, right?
(Another thing Cooney-Horvath
points out is that eye tracking has
nothing to do with neuroscience and
everything to do with psychology,
but neuromarketers still love it.)
An exercise: pick a word in this
sentence. Focus on it, then listen to
the world around you.
“Right now your eyes are focused
on this word, so if I was using your
vision as a proxy for your attention,
I would assume you really love this
word, but actually, your attention is
way out here listening.”
Attention is just a fi lter. “The eyes
let everything in and attention fi lters
the shit out of that stuff.”
There’s a famous example –
a video of two basketball teams each
passing a ball around. Viewers are
instructed to count how many times
the team in white passes the ball.
During the action, a person in
a gorilla suit walks through the
action, beats their chest and then
wanders off. Viewers are then asked
how many times the white team
passed the ball. They may get the
answer right, but seldom notice the
gorilla. “You totally miss it,” says
Cooney Horvath. (This test can be
found easily online, but it won’t work
on you now that you’ve read about
it – sorry!)
“When we use an eye tracker,”
he asks, “how many people look at
the gorilla? 100 percent!” Everyone
looks at it all the time, yet they still
don’t notice it until prompted at the
end of the video. “You look at it, but
you don’t see it.”