Reading Blink for my freshman year psychology class in college was an eye-opening experience (no pun intended). I became fascinated with psychology and the factors in decision-making. This interest has stayed with me throughout the years.
From my previously pursued career path in the visual arts, I became increasingly aware of the effects of visual aesthetic elements on emotional perceptivity. From color selection to other product design characteristics, the relationship between my design intuition and marketing elements I came across during my daily routine became increasingly evident. This interest/awareness ultimately to my newfound obsession with neuromarketing.
For those who might not know what neuromarketing is, according to Wikipedia, "neuromarketing is a field that applies the principles of neuroscience to marketing research, studying consumers' sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli". In order to measure these responses, researchers use technologies to assess how your brain and body reacts to the color of a logo or the sound the car door makes when shut, for example.
A great example of neuromarketing at work is a recent study put on by eye-tracking firm, Tobii Pro, for Toyota where they had 92 participants wear proprietary wearable eye-tracker glasses and they measured what the users paid attention to, how long they focused on something and what they ignored. The business implications were to use the results to improve the showroom car tour, an important part in the potential car customers decision-making process.
What I've learned in my experience with market research (and pretty much life in general) is that people sometimes don't/can't say what they want. This might be for various reasons (which is why running a research study with acquaintances might not be the best idea). In some cases, people can't really articulate what they want. Or perhaps, what people say isn't what they want. People are fascinating in this way and what neuroscience does is tell it how it really is. It provides a look at why people do what they do, regardless of what they say.
I recently discovered Roger Dooley's podcast and I have to admit that I'm a pretty avid fan. At one point in the recent episode, Brand Marketer Jonathan Gabay, mentions that although big data provides helpful insight in consumer behavior for marketing purposes, from a psychological point of view, neuromarketing differs from big data in that it's not how or where people click, but why they click. To quote him, "Neuromarketing is the way forward."