Brain Image Bias

The use of brain imaging in evaluating advertising and products is increasing, and one wonders if the judgment of marketing execs could be clouded by the presence of colorful scan images when used to back up humdrum conclusions in the text.…

Mind Reading Progress

Reading a person's thoughts may still be science fiction, but researchers at Carnegie-Mellon University are making surprising progress in specific types of "mind reading." The team, led by computer scientist Tom Mitchell and cognitive…

SF Chronicle on Neuromarketing

I've been trying to catch up on the neuromarketing press after my lengthy trip, and found that an article in the San Francisco Chronicle provided a nicely balanced, if not highly detailed, look at the field. The story focuses on two Bay…

Princess Puts Pain into Cruising

Regular cruise ship passengers almost always say that cruising is the least painful way to travel. Once you are on the ship, there's no packing or unpacking as you visit new destinations, and you are pampered 24/7. Your cabin is…

Money, Social Status Similar in Brain

Why do people do things that will gain them social approval? It turns out that the same parts of the brain are activated for a positive social outcome as for a monetary reward. In other words, the same reward circuitry is turned on both by…

Precise Pricing Pays Off

In my time as a catalog marketer, I almost always priced products just below the next dollar increment - a cheap item might be $9.97 rather than $10, while a more expensive item may have been $499, or even $499.99, instead of $500. My…

More Choices, Fewer Sales

Consumers must like lots of choices - why else would there be hundreds of shampoo brands and variants on a typical supermarket shelf? Actually, its been known for years that too many choices can reduce consumer purchases. A 2000 study at…

Web Branding

Book Review: The Art of Digital Branding The Art of Digital Branding by Ian Cocoran is intended to provide a set of best practices for marketers who want to ensure their branding message is conveyed at least as effectively on the Web as…

Sexy Pics Beat Ugly Spiders

  Erotic images sell better than pictures of office supplies, and a lot better than photos of hairy spiders. Who knew? Actually, that's a bit of an oversimplification. Stanford researchers led by neuroeconomics prof Brian Knutson have…