A Small Frog That Makes a Big Difference: Brain Wave Testing of TV Advertisements

It is important for the marketing industry to better understand the role of the unconscious and emotions in advertising communication and shopping behavior. Yet, traditional consumer research is not enough for such a purpose. Conventional paper-and-pencil or verbal declarations favor conscious pragmatism and functionality as the principles underlying consumer decisions and motives. These approaches should be combined with an emerging discipline (consumer neuroscience or neuromarketing) to examine the brain and its functioning in the context of consumer choices. It has been widely acknowledged that patterns of brain activity are closely related to consumers cognition and behavior. Thus, the analysis of consumers neurophysiology may increase the understanding of how consumers process incoming information and how they use their memory and react emotionally (See “Three Types of Brain Wave Research on TV Advertisements”): Moreover, as the majority of consumer mental processes occur below the level of conscious awareness, observations of the brain reactions enable researchers to reach the very core (which is consciously inaccessible) foundations of consumer decisions, emotions, motivations, and preferences.