A few days back we, at XIMB, had an immersion course on Neuromarketing by one of our distinguished alumnae. It was a really interesting course which combined the concepts of branding and marketing with biological functioning of human brain. Basically it explained how important role the Neural- connections and mental heuristics play in determining human behavior. In this concept I found a very interesting explanation for the concepts of ‘memory of future’ and the ‘scenario planning’. Let me try to put this in words.
As per my understanding, Neuromarketing (See definition in the box) is based on the concept of Neural-connections or Priming. All the activities in our brain take place in form of electro-chemical signals. These signals are generated in and travel between neurons (See diagram). Brain consumes energy in generating and transmitting these signals. Once a new concept is introduced to the brain it works hard in generating new kind of signals and establishing new neural path for these signals to travel. But once this path is established, next time brain will process the similar concept with much ease, consuming less energy and taking very less time. These established neural paths act as a path of low resistance as compared to establishing a new path for signals to travel. Hence when brain is faced with a challenge to identify a concept which is somewhat similar to some old concept for which neural path already exist; it tends to process in similar way and it is more likely to understand it.
Neuromarketing is a new field of marketing that studies consumers' sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli. Researchers use technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure changes in activity in parts of the brain, electroencephalography (EEG) to measure activity in specific regional spectra of the brain response, and/or sensors to measure changes in one's physiological state (heart rate, respiratory rate, galvanic skin response) to learn why consumers make the decisions they do, and what part of the brain is telling them to do it.
Neuromarketing will tell the marketer what the consumer reacts to, whether it was the color of the packaging, the sound the box makes when shaken, or the idea that they will have something their co-consumers do not.
Priming: One of the main psychology principles behind marketing is the concept of priming. Priming a subject with a certain topic such as "dog" sets off an electrochemical reaction in the neural frameworks that code for dogs. Subsequent exposure to dog-related stimuli is processed faster because of the electrochemical priming. Assimiliation is the process by which new information is assimilated or incorporated into ones' existing neural structures. Advertising agencies know how important it is to repeat their messages so that priming and assimilation can take place. Priming usually occurs without the conscious awareness of the individual, even though the subsequent behavior of the individual may be altered by the priming.
Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromarketing
Concept of memory of future I believe is due to this tendency of human brain only. When a person witnesses too many new things or concepts he is more likely to identify and understand the concepts which are closest match to his past experiences.
In scenario planning we develop and present various possible scenarios which organizations may face in future. In scenario planning workshops, planners present those scenarios in form of comprehensible stories in front of people and make them think about various implications of those scenarios for organization. This exercise makes people process these concepts in their brain, developing the neural paths related to these new concepts.
The environment in which organizations work is usually a complex system. Environment normally doesn’t change all of a sudden. Various day to day events give subtle signals of impending change. Now the person, who already has some understanding of such changes through scenario planning workshops, is more likely to quickly identify those subtle signals of changes. This will reduce the organization’s response time in identifying and understanding the changing environment.
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