Ants and Humans

If the late Nobel Laureate Herb Simon were still around, I'm sure he'd be fascinated by neuromarketing. He did a lot to explode myths of human behavior, notably that people always behave in a rational, utility-maximizing, manner. I…

Better Branding: Hire Passionate People

I've been reading Passion Brands: Why Some Brands Are Just Gotta Have, Drive All Night For, and Tell All Your Friends About by Kate Newlin, and am enjoying her analysis of what makes a "passion brand." Passion brands are those with…

Go Viral, the Neuro Way

Much of the content on the web is created by users ("user generated content," or "UGC"), but only a small amount of that is actually interesting enough to generate substantial interest or "go viral." A new study by OTOInsights, a…

A New Look for Neuromarketing

Here at Neuromarketing, we've had the same look (shown above) since we launched in 2006. We've installed a new look with some additional advanced features, like a dynamic list of our most popular posts, a tag cloud, avatars for authors…

One Thought Ordering: The New Buy Button

The idea that there is a "buy button" in the brain which clever marketers can push has been bandied about for years. While I remain skeptical that any marketing technique could work that magically, Intel is working on a new kind of buy…

Hire Articulate Salespeople

Few would argue that one of the most important skills a salesperson can have is to understand what the customer is thinking, but that's a skill that's difficult to measure. Instead, hiring managers rely on evidence of past sales success (a…

Reward Success, Don’t Punish Failure

It's a management maxim that bosses should dole out praise liberally when deserved, although many business environments seem more focused on punishing failure. It turns out there's solid neuroscience behind the idea of recognizing success,…

The Outsider Effect

Trying to juice up your next ad campaign? Develop a clever new product strategy? Research shows that adding an outsider to the mix can improve the thinking of your team and produce better results. According to a study published in the…

Management Lessons from Airplane Crashes

Airplane crashes don't happen often, and when they do they are no doubt among the most-studied failures in any industry. Most bad business decisions, by contrast, are pushed into the past as quickly as possible. That may be one lesson -…

Emsense Raises $9 Million

Neuromarketing firm Emsense has raised $9 million in additional capital. The new round was led by an investment from Technology Partners with existing investor the Foundry Group also participating. This funding will allow EmSense to…