Marketers’ Next Trick: Reading Buyers’ Minds

Facebook this spring asked SalesBrain, a San Francisco company, to gauge how consumers responded to ads viewed on a smartphone vs. a TV screen. Neural researchers used various sensors to measure perspiration, heart rate, eye movement, and brain activity of 70 study participants. They came to the surprising conclusion that people get more out of information on a mobile phone than on a TV and that watching television forces their brains to work harder to combat distractions. “Our physical closeness to the mobile screen has shifted our perception of the size of the device,” says Helen Crossley, the head of audience insights for Facebook IQ, the company’s internal market research unit. “It is drawing us in to be more attentive and feel more positive about the content.”

A host of new companies founded or staffed by brain researchers has some advice for advertisers: Read your customers’ minds. In a world of ever-shrinking attention spans, where consumers flit through social media sites and skip right past online ads, advertisers are turning to neuroscience to better understand how to steer buyers toward their products. “People are not governed by the rational side of their brains, so the majority of purchase decisions are made irrationally,” says Itiel Dror, a Harvard-trained neuroscientist engaged by London consultants BrandOpus to test the redesign of a logo for Canada’s McCain Foods. Dror asked 1,700 shoppers in seven countries to match phrases such as “family,” “warmth,” “mass-produced,” and “factory” with McCain’s old logo—the company name within a plain black box—and a new one depicting a sun setting over farmland. McCain is rolling out the new version in 160 countries.