Brain Branding: Beyond Marketing Surveys to Actual Brain Response

A recent study about brain function and branding has some interesting implications. The findings were presented November 28, 2006 at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Your brain may be determining what car you buy before you've even taken a test drive. A new study gauging the brain's response to product branding has found that strong brands elicit strong activity in our brains.

Christine Born, MD, a radiologist at the University Hospital at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, studied the effect of brands on the brains by showing 20 participants fleeting images -- each lasting three seconds -- of 16 car brands and their logos. Half the brands were "strong" brands, meaning they were well-known.

"This is the first functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) test examining the power of brands," said Christine Born, M.D., radiologist at University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany. "We found that strong brands activate certain areas of the brain independent of product categories."

Popular Brands May Brand the Brain from the Washington Post.
The actual presentation at the Radiological Society of North America.
Psychology Today: Your Brain on Mercedes

From focus group rooms to MRI machines. Hmm. At first glance, it seems like it could have some expensive implications for market researchers, but then, think of the payback on investment. If you could actually measure the scientfic impact your branding efforts had on the brains of the individual, you could determine even more closely how to influence brand perception.

Tags: Marketing Branding Marketing Research Marketing and Brain Measurement Brand Research