Introduction to Consumer Neuroscience & Neuromarketing Copenhagen Business School (Coursera)

Transcription

1 Introduction to Consumer Neuroscience & Neuromarketing Copenhagen Business School (Coursera) Final Assignment: by Mark Jansen December 28, 2014 Final Score: 17/20 (peer graded) Case Procter & Gamble (P&G) is a multinational consumer goods company, and is listed high on the Fortune 500 index. Among its many brands within hygiene products, Oral B is a brand that includes toothbrushes, toothpastes, mouthwashes and dental floss. Today, Oral B is estimated to have the majority of the market share on these products. One pertinent problem for dental care not only for P&G is that consumers do not switch toothbrushes sufficiently often. From a dental health point of view, one should at least buy a new toothbrush four times per year. The average in Europe and USA is 1.4 times per year. Of course, from a P&G approach, more purchases will also produce higher revenue. But it is also a good case for everyone if consumers start switching toothbrushes more often. To approach this, P&G are interested in rethinking their marketing strategy. They would like to have evaluated a new and an old style of their commercials. Ad 1: Ad 2: Page 1

2 1. Please analyse the two ads in terms of their effect on emotions and feelings. Could there be a difference in the way in which the Oral B ads are intended to work, and how people perceive them? How would you measure emotions and feelings with traditional AND neuromarketing measures? The two advertisements present differing styles and focuses. The 2012 (PowerBrush) commercial focuses entirely around the product and technology, while the 2014 (Kids/Halloween) commercial focuses on the reactions of children to a scenario not directly related to the product itself. It would appear that the ads are intended to work differently. On a basic level the 2012 (PowerBrush) ad cannot be mistaken for anything other than a toothbrush commercial with a focus on technology and product superiority; while the 2014 (Kids/Halloween) ad keeps viewers guessing until the end what it is about and focuses on reactions to what appears to be an unrelated theme until the end. For P&G s stated aim of increasing the frequency of replacement toothbrush purchases the 2014 (Kids/Halloween) commercial incorporates an evident link between sugar (candy) and the product while the 2012 (PowerBrush) does not. In order to understand how best to measure emotions and feelings it is first important to understand what exactly they are. To use a definition from Thomas Zoëga Ramsøy of the Copenhagen Business School, emotions are "an expression of an inner or bodily states, a response to an event with a mechanical and stimulus response to basis that typically occurs without awareness". Standard market research methods of price, product, promotion and place deal with rational factors rather than emotional responses and feelings. In order to incorporate emotions traditional methods could include surveying people after they have viewed the ads with such lead in questions as; what did you think of the kids in the commercial (2014: Kids/Halloween), what did this ad make you think (both ads), or isn t this product great? (2012: PowerBrush). Another method may be to ask people to record Page 2

3 their mood immediately before and after watching the ad to note any changes. Phrased appropriately such methods may help gauge a basic insight in to emotional response, however the level of and accuracy of the data returned would be fairly limited. Potential neuromarketing measures for assessing these ads include the use of Electroencephalography (EEG) where signs of strong activations in the frontal lobe, a portion of the brain that deals with emotion, can indicate a emotional response. Further information can be gathered through measurement of the left right asymmetry of the frontal EEG. Studies suggest that a greater activation in the left frontal region is associated with positive emotions. [Davidson, Ekman, Saron, Senulis, & Friesen, 1990]. For this case the subjects being monitored though EEG would be monitored for brain activations while watching both advertisements. By observing changes in activations of the frontal lobe plus the left right asymmetry and cross referencing this with the part of the ad being watched at that moment it should be possible to gain an insight in to the emotional response of the viewer. By repeating this process numerous times with a variety of subjects an overall insight in to emotional response can start to be formed. Page 3

4 2. Please identify a suitable neuromarketing model for understanding consumer choice, and discuss how this model can be used to better understand the customer purchase process for the present case, and by using the ad examples. A neuromarketing method making use of multiple technologies may be the most appropriate solution. In this case example, P&G are looking to increase the number of toothbrushes sold through convincing consumers to switch to a new toothbrush more often than now. It is worth bearing in mind for this case that the consumers episodic memory of other toothbrush products may be triggered through the strong visual demonstration. This is potentially true for both current advertisements however the product centric imagery of the 2012 (PowerBrush) commercial puts this front and center. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fmri) could be a useful method for aiding the understanding of consumer choice for the presented case. Studies have linked activity in different regions of the brain with different human responses. A recent study [Knutson, Rick, Wimmer, Prelec, and Loewenstein (2007)] found that product preference activated the nucleus accumbens, a brain region associated with anticipating gain. Further studies [H. Plassmann et al. / Journal of Consumer Psychology] have demonstrated a likely linkage between the medial orbitofrontal cortex, plus areas of the brain that receive inputs from it, and sensory pleasantness. A suitable neuromarketing model for this case therefore would be the Value Signals Important for Brand Decisions framework set out by [H. Plassmann et al. / Journal of Consumer Psychology]. This framework divides the stages involved of brand decisions in to the following components: Representation & Attention, Predicted Value, Experienced Value and Remembered Value & Learning. For the purposes of this Page 4

5 evaluation the first two of these stages would form an appropriate neuromarketing framework. Representation & Attention: The processing of incoming information is the first process when it comes to forming brand decisions. Most of the information we receive as humans is visual. The 2012 (PowerBrush) ad uses product based salient imagery which suggests a strong basis for generating bottom up attention with a continual focus on the product. The 2014 (Kids/Halloween) ad also uses strong imagery although this is not related to the product and is negative. Predicted Value: This is the consumers evaluation of enjoyment of, or relevance of, the brand at a point in the future. There are differences in the likely brand preferences between positive, factual and negative associations. The 2012 (PowerBrush) ad with its predominant focus on factual product information is likely to result in a slight positive association. The 2014 (Kids/Halloween) ad has an almost entirely negative focus around an unrelated topic but is linked to the brand by its advertising association. This is therefore more likely to result in a negative association to the product. To conclude: Neuromarketing studies have shown results that could refocus P&G marketing strategy when applied to both of the advertisements in this case example. P&G would be advised to maintain the concepts of strong, salient imagery to generate and command bottom up attention. It would however be advisable to move away from negative associations, for example kids throwing up in the 2014 (Kids/Halloween) ad, in order to reduce the likelihood of unintentionally creating a negative product association. It would also likely be beneficial to develop the factual association, as seen in the entirety of the 2012 (PowerBrush) ad, to display positivity. Developing the factual statements to display a greater positive is likely to have a corresponding positive effect on the brand/product association as a whole. Page 5