Neuromarketing e pubblicità: il caso Marlboro e Coca-cola

Indice / index

• Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………..
• Introduction………………………………………………………………………………
• Chapter I. Between neuroscience and marketing………………………..
• I.1 What is neuromarketing .........................................................................................................
• I.2 Consumer behavior and its relevance in neuromarketing………………………………….
• I.2.1 Recognition of a need ...................................................................................................
• I.2.2 Information research and assessment.........................................................................
• I.2.3 Purchase decision ........................................................................................................
• I.2.4 After the purchase ........................................................................................................
• I.3 Measurement techniques …………………………………………………………………...
• I.3.1 Neural analysis techniques .........................................................................................
• I.3.2 Physiological analysis techniques …………………………………………………..
• I.3.3 Behavioral techniques .................................................................................................
• I.4 Neuromarketing areas of application....................................................................................
• I.4.1 The packaging ………………………………………………………………………..
• I.4.2 Product placement ………………………………………………………...................
• I.4.3 Advertising ……………………………………………………………………………
• I.5 Criticality of neuromarketing .................................................................................................
• Capitolo II. L’applicazione del neuromarketing nell’ambito pubblicitario………………………………………………………………………………
• II.1 Uno sguardo alla pubblicità …………………………………………………………………
• II.1.2 Una comunicazione argomentativa……………………………………………………
• II.2 Efficacia pubblicitaria: condizioni e obiettivi……………………………………………….
• II.3 Gli effetti della pubblicità…………………………………………………………………....
• II.3.1 Effetti sull’economia.......................................................................................................
• II.3.2 Effetti sulle vendite…………………………………………………………………….
• II.3.3 Effetti comunicativi…………………………………………………………………….
• II.4 Tra emozione e decisione…………………………………………………………………….
• II.4.1 La rilevanza economica delle emozioni.........................................................................
• II.4.2 Ruolo delle emozioni nella pubblicità…………………………………………………..
• II.5 L’inconscio nei processi decisionali .......................................................................................
• II.5.1 Generazione delle decisioni: le intercorrelazioni tra sistemi cognitivi ed emozionali e tra sistemi controllati e automatici……………………………………………………
• II.5.2 Differenza tra inconscio cognitivo e inconscio emotivo....................................................
• II.6 Il potere della persuasione …………………………………………………………………….
• II.6.1 Persuasione o manipolazione? …………………………………………………………....
• II.7 Tecniche di persuasione nell’ambito pubblicitario ..................................................................
• II.7.1 Marcatori somatici: paura e sensory branding..................................................................
• II.7.2 La pubblicità subliminale...................................................................................................
• II.7.3 Rituali e superstizioni.........................................................................................................
• II.8 Limiti del neuromarketing alla pubblicità ……………………………………………………
• Chapter/capitolo III. Case studies…………………………………………………..
• III.1 The origins and strategies of the Coca-Cola brand…………………………………………..
• III.1.1 The brand as a cultural medium………………………………………………………….
• III.1.2 Packaging as a means of expression……………………………………………………...
• III.2 Slogans and advertising campaigns ………………………………………………………….
• III.3 La storia del marchio Marlboro………………………………………………………………..
• III.3.1 L’evoluzione del packaging………………………………………………………………
• III.4 Strategie di marketing e di comunicazione……………………………………………………
• III.4.1 Ricerche sugli stili di vita…………………………………………………………………
• III.4.2 Ricerche sul marchio………………………………………………………………………
• III.4.3 Ricerche sulla comunicazione pubblicitaria………………………………………….......
• III.5 Comparazione delle tecniche di neuromarketing adottate da Coca-Cola e Marlboro………..
• Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………
• Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………
• Web references……………………………………………………………………………..

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Abstract

L'utilizzo sempre più accentuato del neuromarketing da parte di aziende nasce dalla necessità di integrare strumenti tradizionali, da sempre utilizzati per le ricerche di mercato, con nuovi metodi e nuove tecnologie, al fine di avere una maggiore comprensione di ciò che realmente influenza i comportamenti dei consumatori e le loro scelte di acquisto. Coca-Cola e Marlboro studiano i veri driver ricercati nella sfera inconscia e istintiva della mente, capaci di modellare i comportamenti, gli atteggiamenti, i modi di pensare e di agire delle persone in base alle emozioni che un prodotto, un marchio e soprattutto una particolare pubblicità sono in grado di suscitare in loro.

The increasing use of neuromarketing by companies stems from the need to integrate traditional tools, which have always been used for market research, with new methods and new technologies, in order to have a better understanding of what really influences consumer behavior and their purchasing choices. Coca-Cola and Marlboro study the real drivers sought in the unconscious and instinctive sphere of the mind, capable of modeling the behaviors, attitudes, ways of thinking and acting of people based on the emotions that a product, a brand and especially a particular advertisement are able to arouse.

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Introduction

The goal is to analyze the recent field of study known as neuromarketing, a discipline that arises between marketing and neuroscience. Various scientific techniques are applied to these studies in order to reveal the most hidden insights of the human brain; according to Lindstrom, "neuroimaging can discover truths that half a century of market research, focus groups and opinion surveys have not even managed to touch."

The choice to address this issue comes from the interest in the practical applications that are characteristic of the matter: it is now well known that companies try to create increasingly favorable situations for the purchase of their product, but what techniques do they implement to make the consumer unconsciously pushed towards their aim?

The barrage of media that we are subjected nowadays and the diversified offer at our disposal, don’t favor the attachment to a specific brand and much less the memorization of it. For this reason, it is in the company's interest to know how to communicate a greater value than its competitors and to adopt strategies that are increasingly similar to consumer psychology. Hence, the need for many companies to approach neuromarketing with the aim to increasingly understand what the consumer really wants.

What is illustrated in the three chapters that makes up the thesis focuses on some specific aspects of neuromarketing that will be analyzed in detail. In the first chapter I will try to define neuromarketing also providing a general overview of its measurement techniques; in particular, specific areas of application and the related ethical issues will be reviewed. As to the second chapter, it is the core of the dissertation – namely, the application of neuromarketing to develop measurement techniques and advertising campaigns.

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First of all, the role that the emotional unconscious plays in the consumer's decision-making process will be considered without underestimating how it can be measured through neuromarketing. Subsequently, this essay will analyze the different communication strategies that companies adopt today, with a particular focus on the role of persuasion and how neuromarketing techniques are used with the aim of proving their efficiency, and if necessary, improving it.

Finally, the analysis of the case studies, presented in the third and final chapter, aims to report and confirm what was briefly anticipated in the drafting of the two previous chapters. Two of the most famous business cases in the world will be reported: Coca-Cola and Marlboro.

This chapter will be designed for a historical company excursus, in which all the marketing and communication strategies adopted by them will be examined in depth, just as the reason why they have begun to undertake numerous market analysis using neuromarketing techniques.

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Chapter I: between neurosciences and marketing

I.1 What is neuromarketing

Neuromarketing is part of an economic branch of neuroeconomics which uses neuroscientific methods to analyze consumers' economic behavior. 1

The term of this recent and innovative discipline arises from the merger of two different fields of study; the first one has to do with neuroscience, which studies the nervous system (central and peripheral) and tries to understand and explain human behavior through neural mechanism; the second one is specifically dedicated to marketing.

By analyzing in detail the meaning of the term, one can infer that the prefix “Neuro” refers to the branch of biology that focuses on neuroscience.

The ones that neuromarketing relies on are the following: cognitive and behavioral neuroscience, which explore neural pathways and explain how they produce psychological functions; systemic neuroscience, which relates to sensory information such as perceptions of the external world, decision-making, motor control and voluntary attention; neuroimaging, which measures the human nervous system by resorting to mapping techniques.

Since the ‘50s, this scientific subject has been showed for the first time an interdisciplinary approach to different application fields, including economics and marketing.

Thanks to such approach, a new discipline started to be investigated – namely, neuroeconomics – and this was the first step that led to the development of neuromarketing. It merges psychological with economic insights for a better understanding of the decision-making process that is activated when purchasing. 2

The first neuromarketing trials and experiments started to be conducted in the '90s; the assumption was that humans are driven by the impulse of automatic and unconscious neuronal processes that are independent from their will. 3

This means that human economic behavior is considered the outcome of a neural dispute between rationality and emotionality, automatic reactions and awareness.

An example is the “Pepsi challenge”, a trial carried out in 1975 on the two most famous American multinationals, as well as competitors in the same food and beverage sector: Coke and Pepsi. 4

The enrolled respondents were given two glasses containing the two different products without knowing which was which.

Such experiment proved a clear preference for Pepsi, despite Coke had a bigger market share. This said, traditional marketing techniques - such as interviews, focus groups and questionnaires - that had been used for years with the purpose of discovering consumer preferences had never been able to give companies the needed information because what people claimed during the surveys didn't reflect their actual behavior.

At that time, marketers were realizing their weakness in monitoring customers in a one-to-one perspective; moreover, the rapid spreading of Internet usage with the resulting marketing approaches focused on managing customer relationships in the digital ecosystem further increased such perception. It is precisely in this scenario that the newborn discipline of neuromarketing begins to take its first steps.

One of the first published studies was conducted in 2001 by two researchers, John Rossiter and Richard Silberstein, who discovered that the most recognized TV advertising scenes were those that provoked greater activation in the left cerebral hemisphere of individual. 5

1 Camarer C., Loewenstein G., Prelec D., Neuroeconomics: How neuroscience can informs economics in Journal of Economic Literature, vol 43, 2005.

2 Lee.N, Broderick.A.J., Chamberlain.L., “What is ‘neuromarketing’? A discussion agenda for future research” in www.researchgate.net, Marzo 2007.

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Basically, the research showed that the action of visual memorization (transfer of visual information from short-term to long-term memory) didn’t take place in the right hemisphere as the experts had thought until then, but conversely in the left hemisphere.

Only a year later, the

3 Lindstrom M., Neuromarketing. Attività cerebrale e comportamenti d’acquisto, tr.it. Apogeo Education, 2009 (2008)

4 Ibidem

5 Garofalo C., Gallucci F., Speciale Neuromarketing in Harvard Business Review, nº11, Novembre 2008.

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