Eliminating guesswork is a marketer’s dream, which is now a definable reality with quantifiable results. The notion was put to the test to see if neuroscience could be used to help a magazine sell more copies.

Few sectors of the economy have been as tarnished during the global recession as banks and financial institutions.  With the closure of some well-known industry names and the billions in losses racked up at others, it is understandable that consumers may feel some nervousness when it comes to the stability of their banks.  The fact is, however, that most banks are secure, and to communicate that fact, they have increasingly shifted the focus of their advertising to brand building.
According to a new report from Nielsen UK, total UK ad spending …

It’s a long running joke: men and women are wired differently.  But the field of neuroscience has proven that this is no joking matter, and the ramifications are tremendous for consumer goods manufacturers, as women buy or influence the purchase of 80 percent of all consumer goods in the U.S.
So what are the key differences between the male and female brain? There are some key structural differences, such as a larger hippocampus in women, as well as a heavier reliance on brain areas that contain mirror neurons, which enable a …

When Frito-Lay wanted to increase the appeal of its calorie-conscious snacks to women – who are snacking more than men – it turned to NeuroFocus, a research company that brings neuroscience to the world of advertising, messaging, packaging and product development.  By measuring brainwaves, eye-tracking and skin conductance, researchers can, for example, determine whether a message resonates with a consumer.
In Frito-Lay’s case, NeuroFocus was enlisted by the ad agency charged with re-defining calorie-conscious snacks such as Baked Lays and 100-calorie packages to make them appeal to women.  To learn more …

Neuroscience has a surprise for marketers: the way we are neurologically wired can actually prevent us from accurately reporting what we really think and remember, when asked.
Writing in the January issue of Nielsen’s “Consumer Insight” online newsletter, Palak Patel of NeuroFocus Inc., explains that the real truth lies beyond the reach of typical consumer research methods, like surveys and focus groups — in the subconscious mind.
According to Patel, answers are essentially corrupted information — biased by the conscious mind, which is influenced by everything from what language you speak to …