OPINION
Less intrusive and more aff ordable methods of neuromarketing opens up its possibilities to new audiences
NEUROMARKETING Ask an expert
Could this neuroscience-inspired branch of market research hold the key to fi nding out what spa consumers really want? Rhianon Howells investigates
U
nderstanding what custom- ers want, think and feel is at the heart of great service – but in reality we all know that gauging exactly what
this might be is not always as easy as it sounds. Increasingly, research shows that a large part of consumer decision-making takes place in the non-conscious part of the mind and is infl uenced by factors we’re not even aware of. In an attempt solve this conundrum
and to unlock consumers’ true feelings about everything from ad campaigns to products and experiences, businesses are turning to neuromarketing – the application of neuroscience technologies to the field of market research. In its infancy neuromarketing focused primarily on expensive methods that
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monitored brain activity, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which focuses on blood flow, and electroencephalography (EEG), which detects electrical activity. But over time the toolkit has widened to include eye- tracking technology, which records where customers direct their visual attention, and facial coding technology, which captures and identifies the emotions behind fleeting facial expressions. Most recently, there’s been a move
towards online methods, including web-based versions of eye-tracking and facial coding, as well as psychology-based implicit-association tests. The latter assesses the strength of our unconscious associations between concepts (eg fat/ thin people) and evaluations (eg good/ bad) or stereotypes (eg athletic/clumsy).
Less intrusive and more affordable
methods of neuromarketing opens up its possibilities to a new audience, including the spa industry. Spa Business identified it as a trend to watch in its 2014 Spa Foresight™ (see SB14/4 p30). However, not everyone believes it’s worth the investment, with detractors arguing that the science behind it is tenuous as best. We ask four experts if neuromarketing
lives up to the claims and how the spa industry might benefit from it.
Rhianon Howells is a business journalist and the consulting editor of Spa Business magazine Email: rhianonhowells@
spabusiness.com
ORIGINAL: LEUNGCHOPAN/
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
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