BIBLIOTECA IPAM | Dezembro, 2010
E N T R E V I S TA David Lewis
“PAI DO NEUROMARKETING”
David Lewis é o fundador e Director de Pesquisa da empresa de consultoria MindLab Interna onal. É autor de vários best-sellers e par*cipa em diversas conferências internacionais. É apelidado de "pai do neuromarke*ng" pelos seus estudos pioneiros na análise da ac*vidade do cérebro para pesquisa e fins comerciais. Actualmente é especializado em técnicas não-invasivas para medir as reacções humanas em condições de vida real.
BIBLIOTECA IPAM | Dezembro de 2010
BIPAM: How will neuromarke*ng take ac*on in this scenario of crisis? David Lewis: I think there will be increasing concern is that every penny spent on market research is well spent. There is currently, a great deal of cri cism about tradi onal market research methods. Indeed, a book on this subject has just been published which describes in great detail how ineffec ve many tradi onal methodologies are. The argument is, basically, that one cannot understand the mo va ons and decision making processes of consumers by merely asking them as for example, in surveys or focus groups. Because newer marke ng enables us to see the underlying, and typically unconscious, responses of the brain under real-life condi ons we can obtain valuable informa on about such cogni ve factors as for example, emo onal responses, level of a"en on, and the likelihood that a key marke ng message will be remembered.
BIPAM: Can neuroscience iden*fy new trends and pa;erns of consump*on? D.L.: This is more difficult to say, this sense of what new marke ng does is measure brain responses to specific situa ons. As in any scien fic study the framing of the ques ons to be answered and the protocol designed to obtain those answers are of cri cal importance. In our laboratory we have conducted studies looking at the responses to new products and innova ons, such as for example the Apple I-pad.
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BIBLIOTECA IPAM | Dezembro de 2010
BIPAM: Is there any legal limita*on to the use of this science? D.L.: Not at present. This is, however, an area of considerable concern to many neuroscien sts and steps are being taken within the industry to establish code of conduct. At present virtually anyone can set up in business as a neuromarketer without possessing any deep understanding of neuroscience. Such companies are li"le be"er than a snake oil salesmen working on what has been called the "greater ignoranceâ€? principle. By this I mean they are able to peddle their products to companies that have a "greater ignorance" of neuroscience and your marke ng then they do themselves. Currently a worldwide study is being undertaken to assess the ability and reliability of claims made by new marke ng companies. All the key players in this ďŹ eld were invited to take part in this study, and Mindlab Interna onal is among those that are par cipa ng. However two of the major US players have refused to take part in this exercise, a decision that one must interpret in any way one sees ďŹ t.
David wiring up a volunteer in the
Mindlab
neuroscience
laboratory.
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BIBLIOTECA IPAM | Dezembro de 2010
BIPAM: Considering that neuromarke*ng is in constant evolu*on, we can say that it's moving towards a future where marketers will find techniques capable of influencing the purchasing
behavior ruthlessly?
D.L.: Currently I believe that in Europe, as compared United States, there is no real market for neuro marke ng, with companies preferring to remain loyal to the tradi onal methods of market research with which they are comfortable and familiar. In United States by
contrast and there seems to be a very ac ve neuro
marke ng scene. We believe that a similar market will develop in Europe over the next 10 years or so, as more and more companies realise the tremendous benefits and advantages to be gained from this form of research. This should enable companies such as our own, which already set aside a major por on of its income to research and development to increase investment in this area. In the 20 years since I first pioneered the use of EEG equipment for market research purposes (some result of my work were presented on BBC television way back in 1990) there had been an exponen al increase in both the technology and so8ware. At MLI
We are developing ever more
powerful algorithms and methods of analysis that will enable us to decode the signal from the brain with an ever greater level of sophis ca on. Will these new techniques provide methods for influencing purchasing behaviour more ruthlessly, and some might say less ethically,
than at present. While this is a concern to many
consumer protec on groups, especially in the United States, and while the situa on certainly needs to be watched carefully I do not
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BIBLIOTECA IPAM | Dezembro de 2010
believe that, at least in the foreseeable future, techniques will be developed that essen ally remove individual choice from the consumers. The purpose of all adver sing and market research is of course to influence the consumer and to persuade them to buy product A rather than product B. The fact that NM enables us to be achieved more efficiently is surely no great cause for concern. An area where there may be more social unease is in the field of poli cal marke ng, especially at mes elec ons. We are currently involved in a number of projects in countries which are not at liberty to specify where we have been using NM very successfully to analyse poli cal messages, especially vídeo campaigns. In all cases these have enabled our clients to achieve electoral success.
Dr Lewis with a toy train that can be controlled by brain power alone, an early stage in the development of equipment for use by people with spinal injuries. (Photo Steven Ma!hews)
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BIBLIOTECA IPAM | Dezembro de 2010
BIPAM: The appeal to the senses through sensory marke*ng is a new marke*ng trend for the future? D.L.: Yes, I firmly believe that sensory marke ng will become an increasingly important part of brand differen a on and play an ever more important role in sales and marke ng. I think that more and more companies are star ng to understand that consumers are basically make the majority of their purchasing decisions using the emo onal parts of their brain and only subsequently jus fy these purchasing decisions by using ra onal arguments, to persuade both themselves and others of the soundness of their decisions. By coupling more and more sensory modali es to decision-making process, it seems to me that the emo onal a"rac on of many products and services will come to play a greater role in the success. That said, it is important to understand that most of what we take to be reality is an illusion or inven on with only about 2% of the white ma"er arising from our senses (e.g. our eyes, ears and skin) and over 95% of the fibres being self referen al, that is part of the cortex talking to a different part of the cortex and in cor co-thalamic inputs in a con nuous process of predic ng the future and match mismatch of inputs giving rise to a moment-to-moment recrea on of "reality". Which is why police reports of an incident find that people view the same events differently.
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BIBLIOTECA IPAM | Dezembro de 2010
BIPAM: In the near future what's the greatest challenge for neuromarke*ng? D.L.: I would say that the greatest challenge within Europe is to establish neuromarke ng as a valid and reliable source of informa on about the consumer. Informa on that cannot be obtained in any other way and which can give companies that employ these techniques a powerful compe ve edge over their compe tors.
BIPAM: How do you see neural science in the future? D.L.: There will be increasing sophis ca on in terms of both hardware and so8ware.
many of the problems currently associated with
obtaining good quality, artefact free, data will have been overcome. EEG equipment and a sense of required to obtain informa on from the scalp will becomes smaller, lighter, even less intrusive than they are today and far easier to use. So8ware for analysing the data will become ever more powerful and sophis cated, enabling real- me informa on to be presented to clients in the most user-friendly way possible.
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BIBLIOTECA IPAM | Dezembro de 2010
Dr Lewis at work with a subject during his early studies of EEG
The term ‘Neuromarke)ng’ was only coined - by Professor Ale Smidts in 2002 and it was not un)l 2004 that the first ever Neuromarke)ng conference was held at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Today many leading market research professionals are describing Neuromarke)ng as represen)ng the greatest advance in their industry for more than quarter of a century. by David Lewis in EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT NEUROMARKETING BUT DIDN’T KNOW WHO TO ASK!
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