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People's brains respond more easily to well-recognised brands, and have a tougher time reacting to less famous ones, regardless of the product involved, German researchers report.
Brain scans with functional MRI, an imaging test that measures how much energy the brain is using, revealed that volunteers' brains worked harder when they evaluated a so-called "weak" brand, and that activation occurred in areas tied to negative emotions. Conversely, strong brands elicited less activation, centred on brain areas involved in self-identification, rewards and positive emotion.
Dr Christine Born, of Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, and a team which included advertising and marketing professionals, conducted the first-ever test of "brain branding" in 20 men and women.
Participants were shown a typical advertising image representing the brand, with its logo, for three seconds, and pressed a button in response to a question about how they perceived the brand.
The brands they evaluated - car makers and financial services firms - had been rated on their relative strength or weakness by a separate group of volunteers.
Born and her team theorised that the brain would respond similarly to "strong" more famous brands no matter what product was being sold, with the same being true for "weak" less well-established brands.
The volunteers' brains indeed reacted similarly to well-known brands with activity localised in parts of the brain involved in self-identification, rewards, and positive emotion. This suggested, Born said, that the stronger brands were "more fixed in the brain" and "perceived more easily".
But for the "weak" brands, activation was diffused across the brain to a greater degree and brain activity was stronger overall, suggesting it spent more energy recognising these brands. Weak brands also produced more activation on the right side of the brain, which Born says is involved with "more negative emotional input and conflict-solving strategies."
The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago.
Bown says this technique may be useful in helping to market products more effectively to groups that are traditionally ignored by advertisers, such as the elderly , who may have plenty to spend.
Research in more diverse groups to investigate how brand perception may vary is planned.
- REUTERS
