Ramblings of an old Doc

 

What do Pepsico, Intel, Microsoft, Google (eBay), Paypal, Frito-Lay, various media companies (ESPN, CBS and A&E), The California Olive Ranch and HP have in common?

Don’t rack your brain for an answer – let them. LOL.

You’ll never guess, anyway. It’s too far ‘out there’.

These companies do a ‘unique brand’ of market research. It’s called neuromarketing.

Q - Where does modern neuromarketing exist?

A - At the very creation of an unconscious idea, in the 200 milliseconds of time between the instant your brain receives a stimulus and subconsciously reacts, and before the conscious mind does it’s thing and rationalizes, processes, etc.

It’s about getting your truest reaction to taste, sight, smell, touch and sound and then to crunch that data to produce things which they will tailor to fit your unspoken “gut” desires.

These corporations share the same goal: to mine your brain so they can blow you away with stuff you’ll find irresistible. They believe they can know you better than you know yourself. They do it by employing firms which use a few dandy gadgets to to watch the brain as it’s exposed to stimuli.

All you need is an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) machine, an EEG (electroencephalograph), and a video machine adapted to working in a magnetic field 60,000 times stronger than the earth’s magnetic field to detect how the brain ( in which different areas) utilize oxygen while being tasked with different stimuli (words, pictures, vids). Then, after running the test three times (to get reliable baseline and comparison results) a good picture can be put together of which advertising video will bring the best results for sales. You see, this is pushed as a means of making advertising (some 80% of which currently fails) more effective. Why not use the ultimate buzz word?  “Greener”.

So what?

Well, you as the target audience, have not been informed about this new form of subliminal suggestion. That minor ethical hiccup aside, the fact that this will become more and more employed, to get more ‘bang’ for the advertising buck is going on relatively unnoticed. I believe this article might help change that. Naïve, huh? I bet very few people will take the time to read it. I hope I’m proven wrong. I hope you start reading about this here and continue to research the topic. Make your voices heard.

Also, think about what this technique will mean when it is extended to the political arena. You rarely get the truth as it is. With this technique, the falsehoods will be tailored to be what you really wish to hear. You think this hasn’t happened? The head of one company stated it already has to help shape messages of one party in the 2010 midterm elections.

How about intelligence work, police and other interrogations? How about it being used to target potential scape goat groups when things go wrong and powerful need someone to blame?

All this from trying to understand how the brain works and machines designed to help people and ease suffering. I don’t know about you folks, but to me this comes as close to mind rape as you can get. Until the next “advance”.

Source: 

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/158/neuromarketing-intel-paypal

http://www.fastcompany.com/1772167/ak-pradeep-neurofocus

 

 


Comments (Page 1)
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on Aug 14, 2011

Well, it's hard to extrapolate from a few people the whole of the marketetable population.  So unless it gets more extreme, I've decided I'm not going to get really excited about it.

Best regards,
Steven.

on Aug 14, 2011

i believe everything written on the internet.

on Aug 14, 2011

The Motion Picture "Inception" comes to mind.....

Edit: "Comes to mind" ...  lmao.

on Aug 14, 2011

I would be very scared of this, if I thought it would ever actually work. I've always had my doubt about the potency of fMRI technology to target anything more specific than "vision" or "reasoning" in the brain. These companies seem more like Dr. Lashly slicing up rat's brains to try and find the specific spot where they store how to run through a maze than anything else (no such spot existed). Even assuming they can analyze with that kind of accuracy, individual brains differ and differ a lot in their layout, and don't have to conform to conventional demographics- the test subject may react with a subconscious positive, but people on the street may feel nothing at all, or a gut revulsion.

Advertisers have been playing with psychology for decades, sometimes successfully and often not. If somebody makes decisions on what product to buy based on an initial gut reaction to an ad, then heaven help that poor soul once advertisers start using *gasp* attractive women in advertisements.....

on Aug 14, 2011

Scoutdog
I would be very scared of this, if I thought it would ever actually work. I've always had my doubt about the potency of fMRI technology to target anything more specific than "vision" or "reasoning" in the brain.

They put it together with the EEG data, and use the two to get the 200 ms data. The fMRI produces images every second. The EEG is instantaneous.

on Aug 14, 2011

They'd have a really tough time getting me to find something "irresistible", I don't believe in that crap. No way do they get me to buy something I don't need.

on Aug 14, 2011

DrJBHL
They put it together with the EEG data, and use the two to get the 200 ms data. The fMRI produces images every second. The EEG is instantaneous.
Then they'll probably be able to measure some degree of emotional response. But I still don't think they can determine specifically what that response is.

My US history teacher worked in advertising for a while before he went back to school to get his teaching degree, and he told us that they've been doing stuff like this with polygraphs since the late 80s. The instrumentality may have changed, but it' nothing we haven't seen before.

on Aug 14, 2011

Getting three fMRIs and EEGs isn't exactly the kind of thing they can get without your consent short of kidnapping you...

 

on Aug 14, 2011

Kitkun
Getting three fMRIs and EEGs isn't exactly the kind of thing they can get without your consent short of kidnapping you...
I think the idea is that they scan test subjects, who would in theory react the same way you would. However, as I said previously, individual brains differ and they differ a lot. Which brings up an interesting question: is it still considered an invasion of privacy if the spy is too technically ignorant to realize he is not, in fact, spying?

on Aug 14, 2011

Scoutdog
I think the idea is that they scan test subjects, who would in theory react the same way you would. However, as I said previously, individual brains differ and they differ a lot.
Kind of my point as well. The whole thing is pointless without a massive sample size, and an hour plus of tests isn't the kind of thing you can get by having people stand around in a mall asking questions. It's not much more likely to be accurate for any one person then current advertising.

Not to mention, as you noted above, that the whole thing seems to be based on rather shaky psychology...

 

on Aug 14, 2011

Remember that next time you buy a Pepsi or Coke... or Windows, or an iPad....

It exists. It works. It makes big bucks.

on Aug 14, 2011

The biggest market for sheep-herding is in the Supermarket aisles.

But whether it's the 'emotive' choice of colour on the box of cornflakes...or the suggestive 'curves' of something tactile like an iPhone.... subliminal marketing has ALWAYS been here...in one form or another.

Stupid thing is....so much of the market revolves around the teenager - preferably middle-class and 'WASP' that don't the advertising fuckers realise they are ONLY pre-occupied with sex and anything else is a lost cause? ....

on Aug 14, 2011

Now I know how my parents controlled me and my two sisters when we were growing up.  Oh my. 

on Aug 14, 2011

Q - Where does modern neuromarketing exist?

A - At the very creation of an unconscious idea, in the 200 milliseconds of time between the instant your brain receives a stimulus and subconsciously reacts, and before the conscious mind does it’s thing and rationalizes, processes, etc.

It’s about getting your truest reaction to taste, sight, smell, touch and sound and then to crunch that data to produce things which they will tailor to fit your unspoken “gut” desires.

 

This is news? They've been focusing on subconscious messages for the better part of a decade. No, the news is just that they can measure it more accurately wiith new toys.

the Ultimate Invasion of Privacy

Really? I don't think so. This seems like the study of human nature, rather than the study of people on an individual level. If they can find out 20 archetypes of humans that they want to target, as long as I don't reveal any information about what archetype I am I say my privacy remains untouched.

I'm far, far more concerned about the automated storage and analysis of everything I do on the internet. Be it government road blocks, facebook "like" pages monitoring my whereabouts, or google messing up my search results.

on Aug 14, 2011

Heavenfall
This is news? They've been focusing on subconscious messages for the better part of a decade. No, the news is just that they can measure it more accurately wiith new toys.

So decide.. is news? Isn't? You knew about SST, EEG and fMRI usage? Not interesting?

Heavenfall
Really? I don't think so. This seems like the study of human nature, rather than the study of people on an individual level. If they can find out 20 archetypes of humans that they want to target, as long as I don't reveal any information about what archetype I am I say my privacy remains untouched.

Their actions are unethical. Yes, your privacy has been invaded since that which is your sanctum sanctorum has been invaded... that which belonged to you is theirs. They use it to take your money. They take your preferences and produce according to them to limit your choices. All done without your knowledge and without declaring how they got to their super selling product....

Naaah. If you can't see it, you can't. If you don't want to, you won't. You're being manipulated in an extremely underhanded way.

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