November 2007

I've been waiting for the first news of neuromarketing in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, and it has arrived a full year before the election itself. The first few conclusions seem so obvious as to not require firing up a…

There's more proof that the hormone oxytocin is an important factor in our social behavior. Previously, the brain chemical was shown to be associated with trust (see Building Trust: Chemical Neuromarketing). Now, researcher Paul Zak, a…

This seems too odd to be true, but researchers at Yale and UCSD have found statistically significant differences in outcomes for individuals with names that start with different letters. Students whose names start with A or B earn higher…

Would you be limiting yourself if you targeted advertising only at those who were above average in whatever characteristic related to your product (say, intelligence, good looks, athletic ability, perserverance, etc.)? In a word, NO.…

Neuromarketing readers are by now familiar with the idea of "buying pain" or "pain of paying" - when we buy something, the pain center in our brain can be activated. Work by Carnegie Mellon's George Loewenstein and others shows that this…

Advertising Age revisits neuromarketing, this time in the form of a blog post by Jonathon Feit, Neuromarketing and Diversity Go Hand-in-Hand. Writing about the 2007 American Magazine Conference in Boca Raton (nice work, if you can get…

As we understand more about the workings of the brain, neuroscience is starting to impact diverse areas of society. Over time, it will probably touch many more. This has been acknowledged by the Neurotechnology Industry Organization in…

One of the keys to the phenomenal success of Starbucks has been that its stores offer a consistent and appealing sensory experience. The music, colors, and lighting are all important, but clearly the wonderful coffee aroma is what…