Fabio Babiloni

Methodology of a Typical “Neuromarketing” Experiment

The present Chapter illustrates the scenario of a series of neuromarketing experiments we performed in the last years to investigate the EEG cerebral activations correlated with memorization, attention and emotional processing of individuals while watching TV commercials. A large space to the basics knowledge of the high resolution EEG technology is provided. Specifically, we show how it is possible to enhance the spatial resolution of the EEG by solving the related linear inverse problem in order to obtain an estimation of the cortical sources. In addition, the theory we used to perform the spectral statistical analysis is also presented along with a direct example on fake data.

Application to Real Cases

In this chapter, an example of the practical application of the previously discussed neuroelectrical imaging indexes is provided for the evaluation of a commercial advertisement before its TV launch on air. The aim is to describe which kind of additional information the analysis of cerebral signal could bring to the industry in this area of research.

Patterns of Cortical Activity Related to Public Service Announcements and Commercial Advertisements

The purpose of this Chapter is to illustrate the potential of the high resolution EEG techniques when applied to the analysis of brain activity related to the observation of TV commercials and Public Service Announcements (PSAs) to localize cerebral areas mostly involved. In particular, we want to describe how, by using appropriate statistical analysis, it is possible to recover significant information about cortical areas engaged by particular scenes inserted within the video clip analyzed. The brain activity was evaluated in frequency domain by solving the associate inverse problem of EEG with the use of realistic head models. Successively, the data analyzed were statistically treated by comparing their actual values to the average values estimated during the observation of the documentary.

The Track of the Electric and the Magnetic Brain Activity

The most popular brain imaging method adopted in the neuromarketing field is the functional Magnetic Resonance Image (fMRI), a techniques that returns a sequence of images of the cerebral activity by means of the measure of the cerebral blood flow. Although such as images are “static”, i.e. they are related to around ten seconds activity, they have a high spatial resolution that no other neuroimaging method can offer. Nowadays, fMRI scanners are currently used in the neuromarketing field and in literature there exist some scientific studies showing the activation of particular cerebral areas during the tasting of a couple of popular drinks such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi (McClure et al., 2004).

How Marketing Meets Neuroscience

The issue of how we make, and should make, decisions and judgments made think philosophers for hundreds of years and kept alive some disciplines such as philosophy and some branches of psychology. A recent approach, known as neuroeconomy, suggested to merge some ideas and scientific discoveries coming from psychology, neuroscience and economy fields as an attempt to accurately specify the models of decision-making of human mind.

The Added Value for the Evaluation of Marketing Stimuli

The aim of this Chapter is to show how it is possible to extract cerebral indexes which are able to describe memorization, attention and pleasantness processes running during the observation of ads. In particular, we show the existing linear correlation between the memorization index and the explicit report of subjects enrolled in the experiment. In addition, we also illustrate that the increase of cerebral variables of interest occurs in short time intervals. This information could be used by marketers in order to insert in this specific time slots the message to promote to people (Vecchiato et al., 2012d).

Cerebral Indexes of the Experienced Pleasantness

Nowadays, researchers are attempting to investigate the signs of the brain activity correlated with an increase of emotional involvement during the observation of commercial advertisements (Langleben et al., 2009; Vecchiato et al., 2010b). In fact, indirect variables of emotional processing could be gathered by tracking variations of the activity of specific anatomical structures linked to the emotional processing activity in humans, such as the pre- and frontal cortex (PFC and FC respectively; (Davidson and Irwin, 1999)). The PFC region is structurally and functionally heterogeneous but its role in the generation of the emotions is well recognized (Davidson, 2002).

The Next Frontier in Neuroimaging Methodologies: Assessing the Functional Connections between Cortical Areas

In the previous chapters it has been described the methodological approaches useful for the analysis of neurophysiological data provided by the EEG recordings related to marketing stimuli. Such approaches involved essentially the estimation of the power spectrum of the EEG data in particular cortical locations, such as the prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices, estimated by using the solution of the electromagnetic linear inverse problem (as described in the chapter 2). In addition, statistical analysis of the resulting cortical estimated distributions have also illustrated in order to get robust results from the undergoing EEG “noise” (e.g. EEG activity not related to the observation of marketing stimuli).

Cortical Correlates of Cognitive and Emotional Processes

In the present Chapter we are going to illustrate the details of an experiment which helped us in understanding the cortical correlates of cognitive and emotional processes during the observation of TV commercials. Particularly, we investigated the cerebral activity of fifteen healthy subjects by gathering and analysing the EEG, GSR and HR activity while they were watching a documentary intermingled with a series of advertisements.

Cultural Similarities and Differences in Advertising between Western and Eastern Consumers

Advertisings related to the fruition of carbonated beverages are intensively presented on the usual TV programs worldwide. Such as advertisements are also present on journals, street posters, fast foods and supermarkets in a pervasive way and could have a deep impact on human behavior. Recent functional neuroimaging studies have begun to investigate how commercial brand information is processed in the brain (Frank, 2003; McClure et al., 2004; Deppe et al., 2005). Although the experimental designs vary, each of these studies report activity in ventral and/or medial prefrontal cortex during the contemplation or consumption of familiar brand-name products. Since lesion studies indicate ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC) is critically involved in emotion, emotional regulation and decision-making (Koenigs et al., 2007), ventromedial prefrontal activations can be interpreted as evidence for emotion playing a pivotal role in brand preference (Frank, 2003; Deppe et al., 2005).