The branded mind : what neuroscience really tells us about the puzzle of the brain and the brand

The Branded Mind is about how people think, and in particular how people think about brands. Brand choice decisions ultimately take place inside the consumer's head. Neuroscience, then, holds lessons for how consumers respond to brands and make purchasing decisions. Marketers and brand managers should take note. Erik du Plessis does just that. In this, his second book, du Plessis explores what scientists have uncovered about the structure of the brain and how different parts of the brain interact. He investigates developments in neuroscience and neuromarketing and what lessons this holds for brand managers. What bearing do these developments have on current theories of consumer behavior? How can neuroscience contribute to marketing and brand-building strategies? Including research by Millward Brown, The Branded Mind touches on key topics such as the nature of feelings, moods, personality, measuring the brain, consumer behavior, decision making, and market segmentation. Contents......Page 5 Foreword......Page 12 About the author and contributors......Page 14 Acknowledgements......Page 16 Part One What it is all about......Page 19 1 Introduction......Page 21 Over-claiming......Page 22 The puzzle......Page 23 Why I wrote this book......Page 26 How do people differ from animals on this view?......Page 28 How do we buy a brand?......Page 29 Marketing practice......Page 30 So what is this book about?......Page 31 From Descartes to Damasio......Page 33 Who is Damasio?......Page 34 Who was Descartes?......Page 35 Damasio’s somatic marker theorem......Page 36 4 The brain – the coming together of disciplines......Page 38 Part Two The decision-making puzzle......Page 41 Why the memory system is important......Page 43 The brain......Page 44 Gestalts......Page 51 What do artificial neural networks do very well?......Page 54 Marketing implications of classifying and predicting......Page 57 Interpretation, memory recall, ‘comes to mind’......Page 58 6 Introducing the rat brain robot......Page 60 Let’s look at this robot rat......Page 61 What brain systems does the robot rat need to be more like a human (or just more like a fruit fly)?......Page 63 Move! But where to?......Page 65 Why we need to understand feelings......Page 67 From many gestalts to one: attention and touchpoints......Page 68 Everybody knows what feelings, emotions and moods are – do the scientists?......Page 72 Does it matter?......Page 75 Definition used in this book......Page 76 Time......Page 77 The limbic system: the oldest part of the brain......Page 78 8 The ‘feeling’ brain systems and how they work......Page 80 Reconciling this view with Damasio’s view......Page 82 9 The environmental awareness system: emotions......Page 84 An emotion is a post-rationalization......Page 86 But are advertisements like snakes?......Page 88 Herd behaviour......Page 89 How many emotions do we have?......Page 90 Emotions and marketing......Page 93 10 The ‘state of body’ system: homeostasis......Page 94 Bio-measures and homeostasis......Page 97 11 The ‘state of mind’ system, or moods and arousal......Page 99 Why the brain needs to control its levels of arousal......Page 101 We continuously control our moods......Page 102 Bio-measures, mood and arousal......Page 105 12 The evaluation system: pleasure......Page 107 ‘Dopaminic memories’ of brands......Page 110 Bio-measures and dopamine......Page 111 Human ‘personality’ variation......Page 112 It is not survival of the fittest, but death to the unfit......Page 113 Personality and time......Page 114 Marketing......Page 115 About brand personality......Page 116 Bio-measures and personality......Page 117 The neuro-basis of culture......Page 118 Why do we have an empathy circuit in the brain?......Page 119 Prejudice......Page 120 The marketing error resulting from the empathy system......Page 121 What is culture?......Page 122 Culture and time......Page 125 Language......Page 126 Oatley and Jenkins’s view about culture and emotions......Page 129 Culture is much more than countries......Page 130 Bio-measures and culture......Page 131 15 Gender differences......Page 132 The male/female brain......Page 134 So how do we think we think?......Page 140 ‘Thinking’ involves a lot of brain process......Page 141 Making a choice......Page 142 Feelings and time......Page 143 17 Measuring the brain......Page 145 Electroencephalography (EEG)......Page 146 Magnetoencephalography (MEG)......Page 147 Indirect measures of neural activity......Page 148 ‘Reading’ the measures......Page 149 Creativity in designing brain scanning experiments......Page 150 18 Increasing our brainpower – using neuroscience effectively......Page 151 The current state of play......Page 152 Implicit association measurement......Page 153 Eye-tracking......Page 154 Brainwave measurement......Page 156 Will neuroscience replace conventional research?......Page 158 When should neuroscience-based techniques be used?......Page 159 Getting the best out of neuroscience......Page 160 Part Three Creating mischief......Page 161 The Hidden Persuaders......Page 163 ‘The seductive allure of neuroscience explanations’......Page 165 The buy button......Page 166 Sensationalism will increase......Page 167 20 Buy-ology......Page 168 My view......Page 169 The big subconscious......Page 170 The subconsciousness and religion......Page 171 The confusion that arises when people willy-nilly talk about the subconsciousness......Page 173 A justification for brain scanning projects?......Page 176 Respondents lying and our ethics......Page 177 Part Four Towards insights......Page 179 22 Read Montague’s Pepsi Challenge......Page 181 About Read Montague......Page 182 The contribution of other sciences......Page 183 Montague on culture......Page 184 Decision making......Page 185 Models and measurement......Page 186 Models: the future......Page 187 Part Five Some marketing implications......Page 189 The build-up of the next five chapters......Page 190 The issue......Page 193 Studying for an exam or giving attention to an advertisement......Page 195 Death of the 30-second ad?......Page 196 Some empirical data......Page 197 Why is this in a book about neuromarketing?......Page 199 Inadvertent attention......Page 200 The response curve and re-cognition......Page 202 Media strategy implications......Page 203 Neuroscience and re-cognition (or repeat exposure)......Page 204 But why does the level of awareness matter?......Page 208 Can an advertisement have an effect without it being given attention?......Page 210 The advertising effect of this......Page 211 Du Plessis’s error......Page 212 Conclusions......Page 213 What I mean by the brand soma......Page 215 The brand soma and functionality......Page 216 Brand soma, rationality and functionality......Page 217 Fishbein and brand utility......Page 220 How the brand soma works in practice......Page 221 The dopamine moment......Page 222 ‘How would using the brand make you feel?’......Page 223 Using the halo effect......Page 224 Neuromarketing and heuristics......Page 225 BrandDynamics......Page 227 Different people have different heuristics in different situations......Page 229 Heuristics and questionnaire design......Page 230 Where does this lead us (marketers)?......Page 232 27 Market segmentation......Page 233 Good segmentation should not be like this......Page 235 Some suggestions about segmentation studies......Page 237 Segmentation and neural studies – a chocolate example......Page 239 28 Advertising budget, brand life cycle, synapses and brand soma......Page 241 Peter Field and AC Nielsen......Page 242 The dynamic difference model......Page 244 Implications for ‘percentage of revenue’ budget......Page 245 Brand life cycles......Page 247 Jones’s advertising intensity curve......Page 249 Optimizing advertising budgets......Page 250 The changing pieces of the puzzle......Page 251 Part Six My conclusions......Page 253 29 What this was all about......Page 255 From very small things to very big things......Page 256 What the future will bring......Page 259 Summary implications for neuromarketing......Page 262 References......Page 263 Index......Page 0

The Branded Mind is about how people think, and in particular how people think about brands. Brand choice decisions ultimately take place inside the consumer's head. Neuroscience, then, holds lessons for how consumers respond to brands and make purchasing decisions. Marketers and brand managers should take note. 

Erik du Plessis does just that. In this, his second book, du Plessis explores what scientists have uncovered about the structure of the brain and how different parts of the brain interact. He investigates developments in neuroscience and neuromarketing and what lessons this holds for brand managers. What bearing do these developments have on current theories of consumer behavior? How can neuroscience contribute to marketing and brand-building strategies? 

Including research by Millward Brown, The Branded Mind touches on key topics such as the nature of feelings, moods, personality, measuring the brain, consumer behavior, decision making, and market segmentation.

The Branded Mind is about how people think, and in particular how people think about brands. Brand choice decisions ultimately take place inside the consumer's head. Brain science, then, holds lessons for how consumers respond to brands and make purchasing decisions. Marketers and brand managers should take note. Erik du Plessis does just that. In this, his second book, du Plessis explores what scientists have uncovered about the structure of the brain and how different parts of the brain interact This book is about how people think, and particularly how people think about brands. It explores what we know about the structure of the brain, explains how the different parts of the brain interact, and then demonstrates how this relates to current theories on consumer behaviour. It investigates developments in neuroscience and neuromarketing, and how brain science can contribute to marketing and brand-building strategies