What can advertisers learn from neuroscience?

Abstract

The insights of neuroscience are only just becoming available for the study of advertising. This paper seeks to consolidate the contribution so far. Advertising works in two ways: it may trigger some immediate response and/or change the respondent's brand memories in some way that influences later behaviour. This paper addresses the latter process. In other words, advertising first changes brand equity, and brand equity, in turn, later affects behaviour. The paper outlines the four main techniques of functional brain imaging and reported research in this area, its limitations and the opportunities for new research. Whether the contribution to date is seen as modest or substantive is a lesser question than what neuroscience could do for our longer-term understanding of how advertising works. Neuroscientists and advertisers need to work together so that research investigates how ads are processed, how brand memories are stored and the subsequent behaviour effects relative to the intentions of the advertisers.