Brand Management: Topic Summaries

Prepared for:

Mushtaque Ahmed

Professor

Course Instructor: Brand Management

BBA Program

Prepared by:

Nahian Rahman Rochi

Roll: 14, Section: A

BBA-19

Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka.

22th March, 2014

What Neuroscience Tells Us About Consumer Desire

Human brains are a lot different and more complicated than other animals. We are largely motivated by what makes us feel good, especially when it comes to our purchasing decisions. Carmen Nobel, Senior editor of Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, in this article published on Mar 26 2012, tries to explain how businesses always try to keep track of what we buy, but it is harder for them to figure out why we buy them. A nascent field called neuromarketing helps us to understand our purchase decisions & consumption preferences with the use of brain tracking neuroscience tools. Major corporations today have begun to take special interest in neuroscience that can help us understand the hidden elements of the decision process of consumers. Neurocscience uses electroencephalography (EEG) or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology to track brain functions. EEG with the help of electrodes in the subject’s head, measure the electric patterns and intensity of brain waves. The fMRI uses a giant magnet to track the blood flow throughout the brain of the subjects in response to the visual, audio, or even taste cues. Neuromarketing provides important & diverse observations to companies across global cultures. For example, expressions of happiness in Eastern cultures are expressed as a sense of calm or peace, whereas in Western cultures, happiness means jumping around with joy and excitement. But the use of neuroscience in marketing also brings forward a host of ethical concerns. For consumers, the idea of giving advertisers additional insight into the subconscious mind prompt privacy concerns. But the writer defends the use of neuroscience saying that it helps us only to understand how customers make product choices, it does not at any point influence their decision making process.

Connecting with Consumers Using Deep Metaphors

In this e-mail Q&A published on May 05 2008, Gerald Zaltman, an emeritus professor at Harvard Business School, & Lindsay Zaltman, managing director of Olson Zaltman Associates, described the thinking behind Marketing Metaphoria and how insights about deep metaphors improve brand success. Consumer decision making occurs without awareness. Even our conscious thoughts originate in unconscious processes. Growing recognition of this crucial insight has increased interest among marketers to focus on the role of emotions & deep metaphors in decision-making. Deep metaphors are basic frames or orientations we have toward the world around us. They are largely unconscious and universal & they recast everything we think about, hear, say, and do. Deep metaphors, being a part of our unconscious language of thought, have three special implications for marketers. First, they are the best and often the only way to learn about the content of emotions. Second, deep metaphors provide the basic foundations for the brand stories people create based on marketing communications. Third, they become very powerful tools for developing new product concepts, communicating about them and simplifying product design processes. It is also important for marketers to view band loyalty as a reciprocal process. Many consumers often suggest an asymmetry in brand loyalty. That is, the consumers feel more strongly connected to the brands than the brands are to them.

Connection is a two-way street, and consumers will feel loyalty to brands and companies if they feel those in charge have a commitment to them.