Over the past 20 years, market research in retail has become increasingly sophisticated. We’ve moved from paper surveys to digital surveys that automatically adapt to the profile of the individual consumer. We’ve learned how to host focus groups online and how to exploit a growing number of data analytics tools.

Some of these tools allow us to view the customer journey in “real time.” For example, website analytics can monitor a customer’s visit to an online store click by click. Existing technology now makes it easy for e-tailers to view a customer’s decision path, from the home page, through the online catalogue, to the shopping cart and the purchase. AI-driven software can even respond to and shape customer actions, by customizing product views, for instance, or adjusting .

But the next generation of marketing tech is now redefining our current notion of “real time” insights into customer behaviour. Neuromarketing is the next frontier of market research, and the David Sobey Centre is doing pioneering work in this field.

Shifting the focus from results to process

Conventional marketing research—even when it yields so-called “real-time” insights—relies on data generated after the customer has made a decision.

For example, let’s say we’re analyzing data on the amount of time a web user spends on the home page before moving on to a catalogue page. That data becomes available to us only after the user has decided to click through. Web analytics can’t tell us why the user chose to go deeper into the site. To figure that out, we’ll have to make some inferences and test them (through A/B testing, for example, which involves running two different versions of a web page and comparing data on the user response).

Neuromarketing eliminates the time lag that requires marketers to invest in so much expensive, time-consuming trial-and-error. By leveraging biometric tools, we can now see inside the consumer’s mind during the decision-making process.

Welcome to the brave new world of neural psychology and biometrics. Neural psychology anchors our understanding of human behavior in the physiology of the brain. Biometrics enables us to gather biological data and apply statistical analysis to it. Together, these two emerging fields are revealing consumer behavior in moment-by-moment granularity.

Seeing through the consumer’s eyes

Katelynn Carter-Rogers is the Senior Research Associate at the David Sobey Centre. As part of her role, she helps conduct neuromarketing studies with retailers from across Canada. 

According to Carter-Rogers, such brain-based research addresses “a massive gap.” Conventional market research gives us plenty of data and data analysis methods for examining the decisions customers make. But the influences and the cognitive processes leading to those decisions remain mysterious.

Neuromarketing makes the invisible visible, and one of the primary technologies for doing so is eye tracking. Research subjects simply put on a pair of special glasses and view a piece of marketing collateral through them. For example, they might look at an advertisement, a set of logos, web pages, or product packaging.

As the subjects interact with the material in front of them, the glasses gather data on the locations that attract visual attention. Analyzing this data enables researchers to answer questions such as:

• Where do people look first?
• Where do they spend the longest time looking?
• Where do they return to the greatest number of times?

While graphic design provides theories about what should attract customers, eye-tracking technology shows us how real people truly respond.

Watching the buyer’s brain at work

Once upon a time, the only way scientists could see a human brain was via an autopsy. Now, EEG (electroencephalography) technology records brain activity through (painless) electrodes on the scalp. In neuromarketing studies, customers participate in EEG research by wearing a special cap as they view marketing materials.

For instance, a participant in an EEG study might be shown a brand message. As they consider the message, the electrodes in the EEG gap register electrical activity in different parts of their brain. By examining the intensity and frequency of this activity, the researcher can answer questions such as these:

• To what extent does the message activate an emotional response?
• How does the message connect with long-term memories?
• Does seeing the message trigger a mental calculation about the value of the product?

As Carter-Rogers points out, conventional approach to market research results in a lot of wasted time and money. Marketers have to build a product, such as an ad campaign, distribute it, and then assess its effectiveness. In contrast, EEG studies enable companies to test marketing materials while they’re still in development.

Carter-Rogers explains: “It’s basically a crash test. Instead of just throwing out an ad and seeing how it performs, you see someone’s actual reactions in real time.”

Learning from the mind-body connection

Part of what EEG technology can show us is brain activity that indicates an emotional response to marketing materials. Another biometric tool, Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), goes one step deeper into the emotional realm: it detects when intense feelings cause perspiration.

Although you probably don’t notice it happening, when you experience intense feelings, such as excitement or desire, your skin sweats. GSR technology picks up on this physiological change through two electrodes placed on the fingers and attached to a wristband.

GSR enables marketers to find out how strong an emotional response their materials are evoking in the target audience. When combined with eye-tracking technology or EEG, GSR also provides insight into the particular features of a piece of collateral that are evoking emotions.

You may think the giant purple daisy in the centre of an in-store sign is getting your audience excited, but the biometrics may tell a different story. For the first time in the history of marketing, technology is empowering us to move beyond hunches, even beyond user-centred design, into the domain of data-driven design.

How to get started with neuromarketing

So how do you access the biometric data that will take your retail marketing to the next level? You’ll need access to both equipment and expertise.

Because the equipment is expensive and continually evolving, most retailers outsource neuromarketing research to a private consultant or to a research lab, such as the David Sobey Centre.

Bear in mind that the equipment is worthless without a skilled operator to use it. Carter-Rogers recommends that retailers look for neuromarketing professionals who have at least a Master’s degree in psychology or neuroscience.

Carter-Rogers also emphasizes the importance of planning as it takes months to design, set up, conduct, and interpret a proper neuromarketing study.

Fortunately, the David Sobey Centre can help you during every step of the research journey. We are eager to collaborate with retail partners, so if you have a list of questions that you think neuromarketing research could answer, let’s connect!

To explore possibilities in neuromarketing research, reach out to davidsobeycentre@smu.ca.

Check out Part 1 of this edition of the David Sobey Centre Retail Insights Series as Katelynn Carter-Rogers discusses "Biometric Breakthroughs in Marketing Research":