The Brain Sell Interview New Tools Will Expand the Scope and Scalability of Neuromarketing

Transcription

1 The Brain Sell Interview New Tools Will Expand the Scope and Scalability of Neuromarketing Interview with Duncan Smith, MD Mindlab International

2 New Tools Will Expand the Scope and Scalability of Neuromarketing The Brain Sell interviews Duncan Smith, MD Mindlab International The Brain Sell met up with Duncan Smith in a coffee shop at the University of Sussex s Innovation Centre, the home of Mindlab International for the past eight years. A former science teacher, Duncan now runs a busy laboratory which handles research for a wide range of commercial and government clients. While their work includes conducting neuromarketing studies around the world one of his teams has recently returned from Toronto and he himself was preparing to leave for Portugal the day after our meeting they are also engaged in developing new research techniques and technologies. Their focus, for the past two years, has been on devising more scalable methods for gathering data about the consumers subconscious. The development team, headed by mathematical physicist Joe Hilling, is currently completing the beta testing of a suite of programs due to be launched this autumn. Over coffee, Duncan began by explaining how Mindlab International had been formed and how the company had changed during the seven years he had been with it. Duncan Smith (DS): Dr David Lewis came up the idea of conducting neuromarketing studies way back in the late 1980 s but the company only came into being in For a number of years Mindlab International undertook the research work for Neuroco, the UK s first neuromarketing company, until the company was taken over by Neurofocus. I joined towards the end of 2007 to run the lab and was appointed its MD in Around the same time, we were fortunate enough to recruit mathematical physicist Joe Hilling to head our analysis and development team. We all determined to ensure that, as the company grew, it was built on solid, scientific, foundations. Every process and structure was scrutinised until we had 100% confidence in what we were building. One of the key changes was how we analysed EEG data. The traditional metrics for attention and emotion are based around neural correlates of consciousness.

3 While, in the past, this approach had provided valuable insight the problem is that particularly when looking at measuring emotion - not everyone has the same brain response. Left brain versus right brain differences which some neuromarketing companies use to identify positive emotions, are strong in some, weak in others. In some cases they are actually the opposite way around! Using small sample sizes also means significance in the data is lost. We - I say we but it was really Joe - came up with the idea of using machine learning. We use pattern recognition to determine brain states as part of the calibration. This was part of a suite of measures that makes the equipment more effective and reliable. That said, measuring EEG signals is only a part of what we do. Our aim is to make communications effective and you don t always need to look at brain activity to do that. For example we look at changes in such biometrics as heart rate, skin conductance, ventilation and so on as well as doing eye- tracking. I think that the technology of eye tracking is the one that will really take off. I ve been saying for years that eye trackers will be built into technology all around us. The new Samsung Galaxy S4, for example, has eye tracker functionality built in as does the much anticipated Google Glass. There are adverts that track gaze and systems in lorries to stop drivers falling asleep or reading texts. I expect this to be in most new cars in the next few years. The Brain Sell (TBS): Is most of your neuromarketing work undertaken in the laboratory or in the real world? In retail premises for example? DS: We have conducted this type of study in Canada, the States, Portugal and the UK. However one must understand that there is an inevitable trade- off between the integrity of data and ecological validity. In a store, the brain is bombarded with sensory data. We prefer to get insight with EEG in a controlled environment. There are other things that are of more use in- store such as eye tracking and monitoring how perceptions change having been in store.

4 We have developed a visual attention tool that will show standout of packaging and design elements that can be conducted with a larger sample away from a store. This coupled with eye tracking would be a more cost effective method of getting insights in store than using EEG. TBS: Tell me a little about the key members of your team? DS: At the heart of Mindlab is Joe, who I ve already mentioned, and Amy Maddock, a cognitive neuroscientist who had extensive experience running an EEG lab at Wellington University New Zealand before joining us. Then, of course there s David Lewis who has been called the father of neuromarketing. We also have a number of partners in other countries. For example, in Spain and Portugal we are represented by a marketing company QSP who have a great understanding of what clients in Iberia need and how our services can best be utilised. TBS: We understand that Mindlab have been working on some other techniques for analysing subconscious responses can you tell us about them? DS: We have built our business around the use of technologies such as EEG and Eye- tracking. The problem is that it s not perfectly scalable and in times of global austerity there are many companies which, while they would like the insights such research can provide, find the costs of using the more traditional approach prohibitive. To enable us to provide more affordable services we developed a set of programs we call Tootsuite. This is an online platform hosting a number of tools that allow us to gain deep insights into the non- conscious. Using this platform enables us to recruit and test thousands of people all around the world quickly, easily and at lower cost. We believe that access to this type of tool will give companies greater confidence in using these non- verbal types of market research. TBS: Can you give us some examples of how Tootsuite works in practice? DS: Most NM companies answer this question in the same way sorry our clients don t let us discuss our findings in public. I m afraid I am going to say much the same due to the non- disclosure agreements and our company s policy of never talking about the work we do without our clients written permission.

5 There are a few exceptions that I m able to discuss though. For example, last year we worked for the municipality of São Paulo in partnership with a think tank called FGV. The aim was to help a creative team to come up with a communication strategy to educate pedestrians about the dangers of jay walking. Over 600 people a year are killed trying to cross the street. The stakes were high! Thankfully the campaign was a success and deaths from crossing the road dramatically reduced during the campaign. We also recently conducted a study looking at how people react to party political messages in relation to their voting intentions. This was for a recent national election in a South American country. On this occasion, not only did our client not want us to talk about the work but we were asked not to even mention the country! It s a shame because this particular candidate shot up almost 20% in the polls during the seven weeks we worked on the campaign. We worked with DraftFCB in 2010 to look at the influence of online advertising. We found that the social side of advertising was incredibly powerful and that group think recommendations such as Facebook s like button had huge impact. That may seem pretty obvious now, but when we did the research the like button was all shiny and new and was going unnoticed by many. One other thing that we found was that when people commit to invest, brain activity doesn t go up it actually decreases. Why should that be? Well, to evolve as a species we needed to have an efficient brain. Conscious deliberation takes up time and energy. It s more efficient for our auto- pilot - what David Lewis called System I in his recently published book Impulse - to take the decisions. The same happens with brands. The recognition heuristic is an efficient way to sidestep any computational costs involved with making a decision. TBS: As you will be well aware, neuromarketing has been criticised by some leading neuroscientists. For example, Professor Geriant Rees, Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, at University College, London, whom we interviewed, pronounced himself more than a little sceptical about the whole industry.

6 DS: While there are some excellent practitioners around the world, there are also very unfortunately - a few who are jumping on the bandwagon, using what are essentially toys and calling themselves neuromarketers. There use low cost EEG systems with built in metrics that are misused. Putting the equipment aside the key to a successful study is an understanding on how to put a study together. In simple terms you should only alter one variable at a time. If many variables are changing, how do you know which ones are the cause for a change? We participated in the American Research Foundation s Neurostandards collaboration project, in 2011, and were really pleased with comments that we received about our methodology and approach. This project was an open review of current neuromarketing methods and it recommended that neuromarketing should be in addition to and not a substitute for traditional measures. We fully agree with them. To give an example. You are examining the EEG output from someone watching a TV commercial and you detect a peak in attention for a particular shot. Well, what does that mean? Different images or sounds elicit reactions with different lag times. This makes analysis difficult since cause and effect are not always clear. It is better to use a multi- modality approach, rather than to just look at one type of data to understand the effect that a commercial has on someone. TBS: What role does psychology play in your work? DS: There s real benefit in using psychology effectively in marketing and communications. I m really glad that behavioural economics is being used on a large scale now. It s an excellent example of how economic theory is coupled to the scientific research on the psychology of decision making. As Professor Dan Ariely has said: People are predictably irrational. TBS: As MD of one of the UK s leading research companies in this field, how do you see the future? DS: We re going to continue doing what we do constantly striving to be better. We have confidence that our online tools are going to make a big difference to the number of companies we work with and we continue to grow year on year. Watch this space. End