Will Eye Tracking Take Neuromarketing to the Next Level?
With new technology often comes a certain creep factor, and eye tracking, head tracking, and neuro/biological is no exception. In a recent post on the Atos Origin blog, Steve Nimmons makes an effort to help us understand the potential of neuromarketing. That word in itself sounds quite scary, really, but has a look at his page to see some of the brighter sides of such a loaded phrase.
Neuromarketing, he says, extends traditional marketing techniques through the application of neuroscience, leveraging advances in greater understanding of brain function and developments in brain scanning techniques. The ability to observe the brain while it’s functioning makes for new opportunities to understand and measure the effects product design, advertising, and marketing has on the brain. Not to mention, it can help give insight to the most effective ways to sell a product.
Ethical application is extremely important in this field. Of course, as Nimmons writes, neuromarketing has its detractors who fear exploitation and “idea implantation.” Nimmons thinks it’s a needless fear, and says that it’s mostly a tool for marketers to know whether they have a good product or if the campaign is working.
He goes on to list some of the potential benefits of neuromarketing. It can present a radical new approach to focus groups and product testing. Insights into deep brain function without having to have participants fill out a survey can be a great advantage to marketers, designers, and engineers alike.
It can also create what Nimmons calls “emotional heatmaps” – understanding emotional engagement with content as opposed to just, for example, seeing where the eyes are looking. It can make for improved product design and surety of that design through improved analytical technique, process optimization, reduced cost and reduced risk. There’s also an opportunity to rethink and restructure web content and its presentation (this is important for a lot of our readers).
Beyond commercial usage, neuromarketing technology could also be used for more altruistic applications; for example, to design advertising for safety campaigns that would convey simple, engaging and memorable information. There’s also potential to design health campaigns and public information campaigns that are emotionally engaging and memorable as well.
The list goes on and there are some other interesting points on neuromarketing that he brings up. Have a look and let us know what you think…
Understanding the Potential of Neuromarketing
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