The Branded Mind

Citation

Aslanbay PhD, Y. (2012), "The Branded Mind", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 21 No. 6, pp. 486-488. https://doi.org/10.1108/10610421211264973

Traditional data collection tools for marketing research have frequently been criticized due to their inability in measuring buying consumers' motivations. While the revelation of motivations behind consumption are might be threatened by misleading responses and non‐articulation of consumers, neuromarketing research, combining neuroscience, brain imaging technology, and marketing, increases the objectivity of the research by measuring observable brain activities. Through the developments and remarkable researches in this very new field, marketers are now able to monitor how consumers think directly and to understand the behavioral psychology of consumers in more depth.

Aiming to unveil the “the puzzle” (p. 6) of the brain with a follow‐up to his first book after ten years, du Plessis introduces the total picture of brain functioning in the brand choice decision‐making process. Broadening the scope of his former book, du Plessis aims to get into the heads of consumers to reveal the enigma behind each brick placed in the architecture of the brain, where brand choice decisions are formed. Memory storage, emotional engagement, attention level and evaluation, leading to the consumer's preferences, are common metrics in this continuum.

The systematic presentation of du Plessis about the consumer decision‐making process will absolutely attract structured readers. Furthermore, introduction of the rat‐brain robot, a fusion of 300,000 living rat neurons, will not only offer a surprising read, but will also provide an explicative experience that will encourage readers to comprehend the way they react to the outer world and respond to brands.

Du Plessis starts the book by emphasizing that the brain does not “switch off” (p. 36) against the continuous flow of stimuli. He explains the process by acquainting readers with the involved parts of the brain: the frontal lobe and the limbic system, as well as neurons and synapses, transmitters of messages in between. The frontal lobe is responsible for planning, focusing attention, controlling emotions, problem solving, rational decision making, and goal‐directed behavior. The limbic system is critical for composing memories and experiencing pleasure. Memory formation within the brain can be seen as a recording of emotions experienced. When a memory is triggered, it gives rise to associated memories. These associations are unique to individuals. The author grounds this difference among individuals basically on personality and culture.

The Branded Mind explains how thinking starts in the frontal lobe and then is transmitted chemically by neurons to the limbic system, where feedback is prepared with a feeling connotation based on previous memories. The anticipated pleasure derives not only from functional rewards but also from emotional benefits that precede feeling and give rise to it.

Reminding us that the marketer's objective is “making sure that the brands will make consumers feel good” (p. 10), the author bases his discussions to Damasio's work that changed the paradigm of Descartes after 300 years about rationality being the prime factor in decision making of humans. The author underlines that “emotions are not in conflict with rational behaviour”, but they actually “cause rational behaviour” (p. 18).

Du Plessis probes the dependence of brand decisions on homeostatic factors and underlines how the feelings of pleasure come into being in the limbic system. Homeostasis, a state of balance in the body, is maintained through a series of negative feedback mechanisms, signaling that some part of the body is not comfortable, creating a feeling of discomfort in the brain. In order to overcome this feeling, the consumer buys a product and chooses a brand that gives the most pleasure, relying on the activation and release of dopamine, which can also be measured by the fMRI machine.

Revealing and explaining the latest techniques of brain imaging, Du Plessis persistently underlines that neuroscience has the potential to enlighten marketers on, basically, what makes a marketing action work or fail. The findings in the field bring out many hints towards generating successful advertising executions, branding, communication, market segmentation and budgeting, which are diligently categorized in Part Five of the book, as follows:

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  Attention: to follow up new discoveries regarding attention is a challenging fact for companies aiming to design effective advertising. Consumers simply filter out most stimuli they are exposed to. They pay attention to stimuli relevant to their needs and interests. Branded Mind explains how attentions come into being “when people see an advertisement they have seen before they re‐cognize it” (p. 181). Along with these internal factors, external factors like unexceptional advertising designs can gain attention. However, as creativity is subjective and intangible, marketers focus on understanding reflexive control by stimulus factors in general attention research.

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  The brand soma: in relation to branding, the concept of the ‘soma’ (p. 197) is deciphered as the overall feeling that a consumer has towards a brand or an ad. A consumer may have a negative or positive soma towards the brand or ad, as he or she will relate it to memories of emotions (somatic markers) that are associated with stimuli experienced in the past. This generally ends up with the halo effect thus high rates received by popular brands on many of their attributes through the brand soma effect.

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  Heuristics: heuristics are general decision making tactics people use as mental shortcuts. Decision making mostly occurs as a struggle between intuitive‐heuristics and a logical reasoning process. “Emotions as vital inputs to decision making... are used by the brain as part of a heuristic” (p. 213). By emphasizing the importance of emotions, the author successfully deliberates and describes the role of experiences, moods, personality, and culture in determining heuristics.

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  Market segmentation: market segmentation is a result of heterogeneous consumption behavior due to the diversification among consumers. Du Plessis explains that neuromarketing can be used to understand “what different heuristics are for different segments” (p. 221).

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  Brand budget: setting an advertising objective is easy, but achieving the objective requires a well designed strategy assessing all the contingent paths. Neuromarketing has contributions on “reviewing potential campaigns” (p. 223) to find out the most effective one to reach the target.

The practice of neuromarketing is not without its critics. While emphasizing the contribution of neuroscience to marketing, Du Plessis also cautiously treats the potential of “over claiming” (p. 4). I believe neuromarketing is yet in its infancy and it still has a lot to learn from cognitive psychology. The most important point is to conduct researches within an ethical frame.

As a well‐written and interesting book, The Branded Mind provides a clear and useful grounding for all marketers, academics, and science enthusiasts, who can benefit from the most recent and interesting findings of neuroscience. For brand managers, this book can be the leading source to keep up with the developments in neuroscience, to better understand the expectations of their customers, and ultimately to better serve them. The Branded Mind is also a useful guide for eager readers, and conscious consumers, who can keep this book on their desks to evaluate themselves on each purchasing occasion.