Neuromarketing and Listening
The crux of neuromarketing is to get to the subconscious brain before the conscious mind kicks in. Why? The neuroscientists would say it is to tap into a mind free from biases, memories and learning. The marketers would say it is to increase the likelihood that a product will sell.
As you know, much of our research at ListeningImpact focuses on the role of the brain in determining listening preferences. We’re pretty sure that there’s an instantaneous reaction when we’re in a listening situation that governs whether we will pay attention to the speaker(s).
The neuromarketers are trying to unravel that same hypothesis. Can we program the brain to pay attention? For us in the realm of listening, it is to help people make better decisions, collaborate more openly, and develop more satisfying relationships that happens when the brain is engaged in listening. For the neuromarketers, it is to reduce the failure rate of new products (80%) and increase the chances people will rush out to buy a product.
What the neuromarketers are doing is fascinating. Let me quote from an article, They Have Hacked Your Brain by Adam L. Penenberg, in the September 2011 issue of Fast Company magazine, p 89 that explains how the neuromarketers track what’s going on in the brain. Hang on, it’s heady:
…neuromarketers can track electrical waves as they relate to emotion, memory, and attention from specific areas of the brain: namely, the amygdala, an almond-shaped region that plays a role in storing emotionally charged memories and helps trigger physical reactions (sweaty palms, a faster heartbeat); the hippocampus, where memory lurks; and the lateral prefrontal cortex, which governs high-level cognitive powers (one being attention). Once the brain waves are collected, complex algorithms can sift through the data to connect each reaction to a specific moment.
What has all that to do with listening? While we don’t attach an EEG machine to people’s heads, we do help people identify what they pay attention to and what they ignore. We also educate people about all the various triggers in their lives that influence their attention. For example, when someone becomes aware of her physical reactions to another person, she can use her body to bring herself back into the interaction just by shifting position.
We at ListeningImpact and the neuromarketers with their very sophisticated technology aim to:
- Tap into the pre-conscious brain to isolate it from conscious thought and resulting behaviors
- Enable people to develop skills that will slow knee-jerk reactions to other people, information, and situations
Channel the brain, body and emotions into maintaining attention
