Neuromarketing. Report to accompany the Zotero database. 4 December Nicoline Beun MSc. Department of Marketing Management

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1 Neuromarketing Report to accompany the Zotero database 4 December 2013 Nicoline Beun MSc. Department of Marketing Management

2 Table of Contents Introduction... 2 Basic metrics... 2 Number of items... 2 Images... 7 Tags... 7 Size... 8 Search... 8 Keywords... 8 Google... 8 Lexis Nexis... 9 Saving documents... 9 Ambiguities Experiences of the research assistant december 13

3 Introduction On the 20 th of January 2009, the creation of a database containing information on neuromarketing commenced. The instructions were clear and broad: make a survey of the topic neuromarketing using the internet. This survey only entailed the popular press; for instance blogs, magazine articles, and newspaper articles; and information about available websites and organizations, involving neuromarketing. A survey of scientific publications will be outsourced. Browser and search engines The browser used for this survey is Mozilla Firefox. This browser has been chosen for its convenience in storing the retrieved websites and information. Mozilla Firefox allows Zotero, a research tool, to store all data in one convenient data base. Zotero makes it possible to store entries, save snapshots of websites, place entries into different categories, and attach tags to the entries. Google and Lexis Nexis have been used to search for neuromarketing information. Time frame The term neuromarketing was first coined by Ale Smidts in Therefore, the decision has been made to only search for information from and onwards. A quick search from 1980 until 2002, revealed that this has been a correct decision: the query came back with no results on neuromarketing. The search has therefore included the following time period: until Basic metrics Number of items The total number of items in the database is In table 1.1 and figure 1.1 the items have been divided by year. Table 1.1 Items per year Year Number of items december 13

4 2009 (incomplete) 665 No date available 1135 Total 3578 Figure 1.1 Items per year Items from 2009 In first instance, the query did not have the limit of and just searched for all entries until the present. However, in a later stage, it became apparent that capturing all items published in 2009, would not be possible in the provided time. Therefore, the decision has been made to only include items from before However, the already indexed items published in 2009 have been retained, for possible future purposes. Double entries The total, as displayed in table 1.1, differs from the total number of items of This is due to the fact that some items have been saved into two categories, for instance interviews and magazine article. This item will appear as one item, when looking at the total number of items. However, when looking into the different categories, the item will be counted twice, which explains the difference. Categories The categories used to organize the database have been displayed in table 1.2. The number of items per catagory have been displayed in right column. These figures display the 3 december 13

5 number of items found within the time frame The number of items, which were published in 2009, have been put between brackets. Table 1.2 Items per category Categories Number of items (entries 2009) Blog entries 1021 (409) Book reviews 51 (14) Books 75 Careers 2 Cases 11 Columns 28 (3) Events 36 Forum discussions 6 (1) Groups 7 Images - Brains - Brainwaves - Commercials - fmris - Heat maps - Logos - Miscellaneous - People Interviews 1 (3) Labs 16 Law reviews 3 Lectures 1 Magazine articles 540 (98) Objection letters 3 Opinions 1 Organizations 67 Paper articles 136 (17) Podcast 12 Presentations 36 (5) Programs 30 Questions 4 Radiobroadcasts 12 Researchers/experts 38 Tweets 8 (34) Universities 11 Videos 90 (68) Watchdogs 3 Web definitions 20 Websites 38 Wikipedia entries 7 (2) Total 2937 (654) 4 december 13

6 Languages In order to include more information and not only limit the search to English, the query also included several other languages. Entries from seven languages have been included in the database. These languages have been displayed in table 1.3. Table 1.3 Languages Languages Dutch/Flemish English French German Italian Spanish Portuguese For a more structured overview, some categories have been divided by language. In table 1.4, these particular categories have been displayed and the number of items have been specified. Table 1.4 Items per category divided by languages Language Number of items (items 2009) Dutch/Flemish 61 (6) - 25 (3) - Book reviews Columns Interviews - 0 (2) - Magazine articles - 24 (1) - Wikipedia entries English - Book reviews - Cases - Columns - Forum discussions - Law reviews - Magazine articles - Objection letters - Podcast - Presentations - Questions - Radiobroadcasts 1278 (340) (224) 8 (13) (3) (1) (51) - 99 (15) (3) 2 5 december 13

7 - Tweets - Web definitions - Wikipedia entries French - Book reviews - Forum discussions - Interviews - Magazine articles - Presentations - Tweets - Web definitions - Wikipedia entries German - Book reviews - Magazine articles - Podcast - Presentations - Tweets - Wikipedia entries Italian - Magazine articles - Presentations - Wikipedia entries Portuguese - Book reviews - Magazine articles - Presentations Spanish - Book reviews - Cases - Columns - Interviews - Magazine articles - Opinion - 6 (28) 6 (2) 39 (6) - 8 (5) 0 (1) (25) - 29 (16) (5) 3 (1) - 2 (2) (1) 17 (4) - 2 (3) (1) (4) - 26 (3) - 0 (1) (201) 98 (155) (1) 51 (39) - 6 (1) 6 december 13

8 - Podcast - Presentations - Questions - Tweets - Web definitions - Wikipedia entries (5) Images The images, which appeared on websites, have been saved in the database in the category: images. These images have been linked to the entry in the database of the particular website. In this way, for all images the original source can be found. However, due to time limits, the images have not been renamed and thus carry names like jpg. Furthermore, during the query all images on the websites have been saved. The image category would be more useful, when irrelevant images have been deleted from the database. Next to that, due to the different names of the images, the database contains several files which contain the same image. When these images would have been identified and put under one file with one name, the database would be better organized. Tags Tags have been create to facilitate the analysis of the data base. For an exhaustive lists of the tags, please refer to the Zotero database. All entries have been scanned and tags were created when information on the website referred to the following categories: o Country, e.g. USA, Japan o People, e.g. Martin Linstrom, Tom Cruise o Brands, e.g. coca cola, Daimler chrysler o Fields of science, e.g. neuroscience, psychology o Organizations, institutions, and research facilities, e.g. Brighthouse, Baylor College of Medicine, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience o Titles of movies and books, e.g. 1984, Minority report o Journals, magazines, e.g. Nature o TV Networks, e.g. PBS o Diseases, e.g. ADD/ADHD o Concepts, e.g. Emotions, decision making, advertising o Events, e.g. Neuromarketing Congress 2009, Cannes 7 december 13

9 A tag was always generated, when the text included information within these categories, even when the information did not involve neuromarketing. Only one exception to this rule has been made. In some cases a tag has been generated without an exact reference on the website. This has only been done when two concepts were obviously linked. The only instances in which this happened, have been the following: - When the entry stated the name of a university, the country of that university was also tagged. For instance, Baylor University USA. - When a department or separate school of a university was mentioned, the name of the university was also tagged. For instance, Harvard Business School Harvard University. In this way, by selecting the tag Harvard University all post related to Harvard will appear and not just the ones were the university was explicitly mentioned. - When a concept has different names, the overarching concept has also been tagged. For instance, ADHD ADD/ADHD and BrightHouse Neurostrategies group and BrightHouse Institute of Thought Sciences BrightHouse. In this way, when selecting either tag, all relevant entries will appear. Size The size of the Zotero database is bytes Search Keywords The query only contained the keyword: Neuromarketing. Different keywords have been discussed, however due to the immense amount of information found with only this keyword, the decision has been made to limit the search to only neuromarketing. Google Google has been used to gather information on neuromarketing. The search engine has been searched in different languages, for instance, Google.nl, Google.com, and Google.es. All search results have been opened. The entry has been saved in the data base and tagged and the particular website has been further searched for other entries on the topic. In order to do so, the search option on the website has been used. When more than two items were found on 8 december 13

neuromarketing, a RSS subscription has been created, in order to be able to check for newer entries on neuromarketing, when needed for future research.

10 neuromarketing, a RSS subscription has been created, in order to be able to check for newer entries on neuromarketing, when needed for future research. When no RSS subscription was available, a bookmark has been created. The RSS subscription and bookmarks are available in a separate file. Lexis Nexis To include entries, for which subscriptions were needed, for instance, Advertising Age or NewsWeek, Lexis Nexis has been used, using the subscription of RSM Erasmus University. Search term: Neuromarketing. Search data: 01/01/2002 until 31/12/2008. News sources: international and all languages. See figure 1.2 for specifics. Number of items found: 698. Figure 1.2 Snapshot of Lexis Nexis search instructions Saving documents All websites, which contained information about neuromarketing were saved to the database by making a shapshot. When two different websites contained the exact same information or text, no new entry has been created. The two websites have been saved by creating two snapshots for the same entry. 9 december 13

11 Ambiguities Ambiguities during this yearlong search have been handled in the following way. When a website stated the word neuromarketing, the content was investigated. When the word was only mentioned once and in the context of, for instance new trends: subliminal advertising, neuromarketing, and this item was discarded. However, when these trends were more elaborately discussed, for instance: o Subliminal advertising [text] o Neuromarketing [text] o Then the item has been included in the database. When neuromarketing was mentioned more often or the information obviously concerned the topic, an entry has been created. When the information was non-conclusive, the item was saved, just to be sure. Experiences of the research assistant In this section, I will give a brief overview of my experiences during the creation of the database. I will explain what surprised me, shocked me, and I will also share two topics which I found particularly funny. First of all, I was startled by the amount of data available on neuromarketing. The number of blog entries and websites expand every day. Therefore, it was not possible to capture all entries until the present. I was especially surprised about the number of entries in Spanish. However, when thinking about it, the Spanish-speaking world is large: Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Chili etc., which explains the large amount of entries. When I first started the query, many entries on ethics appeared and fewer entries on how to disprove these issues. Since the topic was completely new to me, these critics started to get to me. Not specifically the issue on mind reading, since I understood this was not the purpose of neuromarketing. However, the issue of the buy button did get to me. I figured, 10 december 13

12 what if researchers can discover ways to activate certain parts of the brain with advertising, in ways that people feel the need to buy something. Would this not mean that free will is comprimised. However, after further investigation it became apparent that this was not the case and that neuromarketing will only create more reliable sources of market research, which will lead to more effective advertising and more desirable products for consumers. This first step: using it for market research, indicates that it is just a more reliable method than surveying. However, in my opinion in popular information on the internet too little effort is being made to make this clear, leaving a lot of space for criticism, which will influence the opinion of laymen, as I was in the beginning. However, not all experiences with the topic have been negative. Two funny topics caught my attention. First, the Pepsi Challenge by Read Montague. It is very interesting to see the power of a brand and the fact that this can also be discovered by neuromarketing. The fact that most people like Pepsi better in taste, does not change the fact that they prefer Coca Cola. What I find most particularly funny, is that Pepsi still catches at that taste straw to indicate that their product is superior. Second, the notion by Martin Linstrom that sex does not sell is very interesting. Particularly, since in my opinion this idea has not been adopted by advertising and marketing in business. A lot of brands and advertising still focuses on sex or the promise of sex. I believe, in this area neuromarketing has a gap to bridge: how to translate and apply it to (consumer) marketing. 11 december 13

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