Neuromarketing - The Neuromarketing Concept

The Neuromarketing Concept

The neuromarketing concept was developed by psychologists at Harvard University in 1990. The technology is based on a model whereby the major thinking part of human activity (over 90%), including emotion, takes place in the subconscious area that is below the levels of controlled awareness. For this reason, the perception technologists of the market are very tempted to learn the techniques of effective manipulation of the subconscious brain activity. The main reason is to inspire the desired reaction in person’s perception as deeply as possible.

The base of neuromarketing is “meme” (by Richard Dawkins - a unit of cultural information similar to gene). Meme is a unit of information stored in the brain. These units are effective at influencing a person who is making choices and decisions within 2.6 seconds. If “meme” is chosen properly we remember the good, joke or song and would share it. “Memes stay in memory and they are affected by marketers”.

Examples of memes: Aromas of fresh bread, sweets, grandmother's pie; Characters in fairy tales, melodies that cannot be out of head. Thus neuromarketers examine people (brain scan, revealing subconscious motives) and manipulate them.

Best-known technology of neuromarketing was developed in the late 1990s by Harvard professor Jerry Zaltmen (Gerald Zaltman), once it was patented under the name of Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET). The essence of ZMET reduces to exploring the human unconscious with specially selected sets of images that cause a positive emotional response and activate hidden images, metaphors stimulating the purchase. Graphical collages are constructed on the base of detected images, which lays in the basis for commercials. Marketing Technology ZMET quickly gained popularity among hundreds of major companies-customers including Coca-Cola, General Motors, Nestle, Procter & Gamble.