首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Inside the mind of the consumer Could brain-scanning technology provide an accurate way to assess the appeal of
Inside the mind of the consumer Could brain-scanning technology provide an accurate way to assess the appeal of
admin
2014-12-30
38
问题
Inside the mind of the consumer
Could brain-scanning technology provide an accurate way to assess the appeal of
new products and the effectiveness of advertising?
A
MARKETING people are no longer prepared to take your word for it that you favour one product over another. They want to scan your brain to see which one you really prefer. Using the tools of neuroscientists, such as electroencephalogram(EEG)mapping and functional magnetic-resonance imaging(fMRI), they are trying to learn more about the mental processes behind purchasing decisions. The resulting fusion of neuroscience and marketing is, inevitably, being called ’neuromarketing’.
B
The first person to apply brain-imaging technology in this way was Gerry Zaltman of Harvard University, in the late 1990s. The idea remained in obscurity until 2001, when BrightHouse, a marketing consultancy based in Atlanta, Georgia, set up a dedicated neuromarketing arm, BrightHouse Neurostrategies Group.(BrightHouse lists Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines and Home Depot among its clients.)But the company’s name may itself simply be an example of clever marketing. BrightHouse does not scan people while showing them specific products or campaign ideas, but bases its work on the results of more general fMRI-based research into consumer preferences and decision-making carried out at Emory University in Atlanta.
C
Can brain scanning really be applied to marketing? The basic principle is not that different from focus groups and other traditional forms of market research. A volunteer lies in an fMRI machine and is shown images or video clips. In place of an interview or questionnaire, the subject’s response is evaluated by monitoring brain activity. fMRI provides real-time images of brain activity, in which different areas ’light up’ depending on the level of blood flow. This provides clues to the subject’s subconscious thought patterns. Neuroscientists know, for example, that the sense of self is associated with an area of the brain known as the medial prefrontal cortex. A flow of blood to that area while the subject is looking at a particular logo suggests that he or she identifies with that brand.
D
At first, it seemed that only companies in Europe were prepared to admit that they used neuromarketing. Two carmakers, DaimlerChrysler in Germany and Ford’s European arm, ran pilot studies in 2003. But more recently, American companies have become more open about their use of neuromarketing. Lieberman Research Worldwide, a marketing firm based in Los Angeles, is collaborating with the California Institute of Technology(Caltech)to enable movie studios to market-test film trailers. More controversially, the New York Times recently reported that a political consultancy, FKF Research, has been studying the effectiveness of campaign commercials using neuromarketing techniques.
E
Whether all this is any more than a modern-day version of phrenology, the Victorian obsession with linking lumps and bumps in the skull to personality traits, is unclear. There have been no large-scale studies, so scans of a handful of subjects may not be a reliable guide to consumer behaviour in general. Of course, focus groups and surveys are flawed too: strong personalities can steer the outcomes of focus groups, and some people may be untruthful in their responses to opinion pollsters. And even honest people cannot always explain their preferences.
F
That is perhaps where neuromarketing has the most potential. When asked about cola drinks, most people claim to have a favourite brand, but cannot say why they prefer that brand’s taste. An unpublished study of attitudes towards two well-known cola drinks, Brand A and Brand B, carried out last year in a college of medicine in the US found that most subjects preferred Brand B in a blind tasting — fMRI scanning showed that drinking Brand B lit up a region called the ventral putamen, which is one of the brain’s ’reward centres’, far more brightly than Brand A. But when told which drink was which, most subjects said they preferred Brand A, which suggests that its stronger brand outweighs the more pleasant taste of the other drink.
G
’People form many unconscious attitudes that are obviously beyond traditional methods that utilise introspection,’ says Steven Quartz, a neuroscientist at Caltech who is collaborating with Lieberman Research. With over $100 billion spent each year on marketing in America alone, any firm that can more accurately analyse how customers respond to brands could make a fortune.
H
Consumer advocates are wary. Gary Ruskin of Commercial Alert, a lobby group, thinks existing marketing techniques are powerful enough. ’Already, marketing is deeply implicated in many serious pathologies,’ he says. ’That is especially true of children, who are suffering from an epidemic of marketing-related diseases, including obesity and type-2 diabetes. Neuromarketing is a tool to amplify these trends.’
I
Dr. Quartz counters that neuromarketing techniques could equally be used for benign purposes. ’There are ways to utilise these technologies to create more responsible advertising,’ he says. Brain-scanning could, for example, be used to determine when people are capable of making free choices, to ensure that advertising falls within those bounds.
J
Another worry is that brain-scanning is an invasion of privacy and that information on the preferences of specific individuals will be misused. But neuromarketing studies rely on small numbers of volunteer subjects, so that seems implausible. Critics also object to the use of medical equipment for frivolous rather than medical purposes. But as Tim Ambler, a neuromarketing researcher at the London Business School, says, ’A tool is a tool, and if the owner of the tool gets a decent rent for hiring it out, then that subsidises the cost of the equipment, and everybody wins.’ Perhaps more brain-scanning will some day explain why some people like the idea of neuromarketing, but others do not.
Reading Passage 2 has ten paragraphs A-J.
Choose the correct heading for Paragraphs B-G from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number(i-x)in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.
List of headings
i A description of the procedure
ii An international research project
iii An experiment to investigate consumer responses
iv Marketing an alternative name
v A misleading name?
vi A potentially profitable line of research
vii Medical dangers of the technique
viii Drawbacks to marketing tools
ix Broadening applications
x What is neuromarketing?
Example
Paragraph A x
Paragraph G
选项
答案
vi
解析
... any firm that can more accurately analyse how customers respond to brands could make a fortune.
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/qtNO777K
本试题收录于:
雅思阅读题库雅思(IELTS)分类
0
雅思阅读
雅思(IELTS)
相关试题推荐
A、Thesheepwaschosenasanidealsubjectbecauseofitsgeneticdevelopment,notforitsprecedenceasaresearchsubject.B、T
CORRECTIVE:AMEND::
Thedistinctionbetweenmakingartandthinkingandwritingaboutitshouldimplyneitheramutualexclusivenessnorahi
Thedistinctionbetweenmakingartandthinkingandwritingaboutitshouldimplyneitheramutualexclusivenessnorahi
Thus,global-warmingskepticswriteoffthe______ofclimateresearchinvestigators,emphasizingthe______ofothers’reasoning,b
Takingthenation-stateasourpointofspatialreference,wecandifferentiatenotonlybetweenhistoriographiesonasu
Wemustlearnto______sentencesandtoanalyzethegrammarofourtext,forthereisno______tothegrammarofpoetry,tothene
WhatoccurredduringthefourcenturiesofattemptedEuropeanconquestintheAmericasmerelyextendedthecontinuumofh
(Thispassagewaswrittenpriorto1950)Wenowknowthatwhatconstitutespracticallyallofmatterisemptyspa
WhichmistakehavestaffattheCRUandIPCCmade?
随机试题
Whenwe______oneaspectofaproblem,wetendtoignoretheotheraspects.
把符合t检验条件的资料做秩和检验,则
患者,女,32岁。因缺铁性贫血给予口服铁剂治疗,用药2个月后检查血常规恢复正常。下一步的治疗措施是
老年心力衰竭患者症状加重的最常见诱因是
患者,女,18岁。因失血性休克给予特级护理。不符合特级护理要求的是
属地人民政府安全生产监督管理部门检查组在企业进行安全生产检查时,针对发现的隐患和问题,不属于安全生产监督管理部门采取的措施是()。
建设工程施工总承包单位依法将建设工程分包给其他单位的,关于安全生产责任的说法,正确的是()。
为了督促学生不断进步,某班在运动会后进行了一次班会,授予在比赛中获得好成绩的学生“运动健将”的称号,授予在活动中为班集体辛勤服务的学生“后勤标兵”的称号。这样的德育方法是()。
在平面直角坐标系中,函数y=x+2的图象不经过第四象限。()
在物理学上,把人们引向一个新的王国——微观世界的是()。①居里夫妇②爱因斯坦③吉尔伯特④伦琴
最新回复
(
0
)