buy.OLOGYUnderstanding Human Behaviour

Buyology

• Martin Lindstorm• Born in Denmark• Lives in Sydney• World leading brand expert• “buy.OLOGY “ New York Times Bestseller • Pub 2008• Examines customer behaviour.

In Search of the Buy Button

• 150,000 new products launched per year

• 26000 new brands per year• Marketing traditionally uses

questionnaires• Focus Groups• But not very successful• 80% will fail• Why?

fMRI – basic principle

• Neural activity leads to local changes of deoxyHb and oxyHb

• Hemoglobin is diamagnetic when oxygenated but paramagnetic when deoxygenated.

• The magnetic resonance (MR) signal of blood is therefore slightly different depending on the level of oxygenation.

• Cost of scanner: 2 – 2.3m (3 Tesla)• 525 USD / hour Avg 1 hour per

patient

A long time ago … neuroanatomy

• Striatum=Caudate + Lenticular Nucleus + Int Capsule

• Lent Nuc = Putamen + Glob Pall

• Input to BG

Striatum

• * Ventral: Preparation, initiation and execution of reward-related behavior as a result of successful integration of (relevant) emotional and cognitive information (strong connections to the OFC and the ACC) S even when rewards were cued but omitted S

www.brain-maps.com

The Pepsi Challenge• 1975• 68 billion USD soft drinks

industry in US alone• Coke was dominant• Pepsi challenge: blinded test to

see which tasted better.• More than 50% preferred Pepsi

but this did not reflect sales.• Why not?

fMRI & Pepsi• Dr Montague Neuroimaging Lab 2003 repeated the test but

with fMRI (no 67)• Same results when participants were blinded.• fMRI reflected same results in the ventral putamen:

stimulated when we find tastes appealing.• Unblinded: 75% said they preferred Coke.• fMRI: Ventral Putamen AND medial prefrontal cortex

(higher thinking and discernment)• Positive Associations with Coke beat rational Pepsi

preference based solely on taste: history, logo, childhood memories, ads over the years etc. Beat back the taste of Pepsi.

Now v Later

• Psychologists at Princeton Uni.

• Random students, Amazon.com gift voucher

• Choice between now at $15 or 2 weeks later and $20

• fMRI: lateral prefrontal cortex (executive decision making) triggered by both.

Emotion v thought• But $15 now also

produced activity inmost brains in the Limbic areas (emotional life and memory formation).

• The more emotionally excited they were the more likely they were to opt for the immediate gift.

• Emotions won over rational thoughts.

Advert Recall

• By 66y most people will have seen 2 m TV commercials

• 1965 34% recall• 1990 8%• 2007 survey 2.2

commercials recall• Information overload

Product placement works• American Idol• Coke and Ford invested 26 million dollars

on ads• Ford ran traditional ads• Coke used product placement: placed

cups, Coke red walls, furniture in the shape of bottles, judges sipped coke on the show.

• Pre and post show EEG testing was done.• Logo recall of Ford commercials was

suppressed

Unboxing Video• 2006• Nintendo launches Wii• Nick: recorded an opening the

box video• 76000 views on YouTube in the

1st week alone.• Spawned the rise of:

www.unboxing.com & www.unboxit.com

• Aspirers

Cigarette Adverts & Subliminal Advertising

• Phillip Morris offers financial incentives to fill bars with their colour schemes, furnituer, ashtrays

• 20 smokers exposed to images with fMRI

• Explicit cig. ads: Nucleus Accumbens (reward, pleasure, craving addiction).

• Non-explicit images (red Ferrari, camel in desert, boys on horseback) upto just 5 seconds: immediate and greater activity in the same regions of the brain as with watching expicit ads.

• Why? Decreased defence mechanisms

Subliminal effects

• Prior to smoking advert bans• Silk Cut started to use image association ads• Without mention of anything.• Adverts with logos but without health

warnings were less powerful than ads with logos and health warnings.

• Prob. bec more enticing.

Ritualistic behaviour

• 1990s Guiness sales were falling.• Because it took time for the head to settle.• Time was of importance.• Guiniess rolled out adds stating: ‘’Good things

come to those who wait”, “It takes 119.53 s to pour a pefect pint”

• Sales were turned around.• The art of pouring became an awaited ritual.

Somatic Makers• Sound: Kellogs cornflakes crunch is engineered to be unique• Shape: Duracell and bullet shaped batteries. men believed

they wee stronger and more durable but they were the opposite

• Weight: Bang & Olufsen Remote Control a slab of Aluminium is placed inside. 200 customers given one without Al. => broken

• Colour: Egg yolks in Saudi – vitamin mixture to enhance yellow colour because consumers associate colour with quality.

• Smell: RTX9338PJS— code name for the just-cooked-bacon- cheeseburger-like fragrance used by fast-food restaurant

• fMRI : somatic markers activate the same areas of the brain as a logo, but when combined with the appopriate logo do so more intensely.

Nice but so what?

• Our patients are consumers• Compliance is a major problem• Diet effectiveness at 2 years 1:3000• Lifestyle changes• Drs v PLCs• Disarming the PLCs• Dr awareness of technical sophistication of

the PLCs