The Buying Brain: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind

Dr. Pradeep makes the case for the potential of the dynamic new field of neuromarketing as a multi-faceted marketing tool and he does so with the combination of passion, intellect and insight for which he is renowned. A must read for any marketing practitioner seeking to advance the field.

 -- David F. Poltrack, Head of Research, CBS

Each year a trillion dollars is spent on communicating to and persuading the human brain, yet few understand how the brain really works—what’s attractive to it, how it decides what it likes and doesn’t like, and how it chooses to buy or not buy the infinite variety of products and services presented to it every day. Dr. A.K. Pradeep, in his new book THE BUYING BRAIN: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind (Wiley, August 18, 2010, $27.95), reveals a myriad of fascinating information that he and his cutting-edge team of neuromarketing experts at NeuroFocus have discovered and developed to help improve the effectiveness of every aspect of clients’ brands, products, packaging, in-store marketing, advertising, and entertainment content.

Dr. Pradeep takes readers on an amazing journey through the most powerful and yet least understood organ in the body—the brain, providing surprising insights into the supercomputer inside each person. For example, people’s senses can take in about 11 million bits of information every second. But their conscious minds can process, at best, only 40 bits of information per second. To access as much of the information in the subconscious as possible, Dr. Pradeep and NeuroFocus’s group of world-class neuroscientists, neurophysiologists, and marketing experts measure and analyze brainwave activity across the full brain using a combination of electroencephalographic (EEG) testing and sophisticated eye tracking equipment that records exactly where a person is looking while experiencing a stimulus. “This combination allows us to measure, with extreme precision, exactly how that

person’s brain is responding to a certain stimulus in terms of our three primary NeuroMetrics of Attention, Emotional Engagement, and Memory Retention, and correlate that with exactly where that person’s eyes are focused at that same millisecond,” explains Dr. Pradeep. “The results are unprecedented in depth, accuracy, and detail, and unequalled by any other form of research.”

Companies around the world, including the largest and most successful global giants, are increasingly turning to EEG-based neuromarketing that measures the whole brain because it offers far more accuracy, reliability, and actionable results than conventional market research methods such as surveys and focus groups. “In the near future manufacturers, marketers, retailers and content creators that take the time to know you, the real you, the brain that is you, will survive and prosper,” says Dr. Pradeep. “Those that treat you like a number in a survey or a nameless voice in a focus group will perish.”

As Dr. Pradeep explains, while human brains are remarkably similar in structure and function, there are some fundamental differences that affect how we respond, such as age and gender. THE BUYING BRAIN addresses three examples of these differences: the Boomer Brain, the Female Brain, and the Mommy Brain.

The Boomer Brain: There are 44 million baby boomers in the U.S. who control 77% of all financial assets. After 50, the brain becomes less able to screen out distractions, presenting a huge implication and a great opportunity for marketers. A key difference between the older and the younger brain involves the amygdala, the brain area devoted to primal emotions, which in young people responds to positive and negative stimuli but in older people predominantly to positive stimuli. A real-world example of how this neuroscience discovery is useful for marketers is when crafting a message for the Boomer Brain, say, “Remember the milk” not “Don’t forget” it.

The Female Brain: Despite the fact that women’s spending capacity has increased to a whopping $13 trillion annually worldwide—more than the GDPs of China and India combined—it has only been in the last decade that the female brain has been studied in any depth and detail. Marketers are waking up to the fact that the female brain has four times as many neurons connecting the right and left hemispheres, greatly enhancing its ability to process information through both rational and emotional filters—a fact that must not be ignored when crafting a message.

The Mommy Brain: Pregnancy and motherhood present women with the most significant changes their brains will experience in their adult lives. Importantly, most of those changes will last their entire lifetimes. The highly evolved Mommy Brain is largely responsible

for humans’ status at the top of the food chain and mothers control 80-85% of all household spending. “The millions of moms across the country are an army—mobile, nimble, vigilant, and powerful—if your product or messages hit home with them, you have won over powerful

allies who will support you through multiple networks—including social media—beyond anything you could create for yourself,” says Dr. Pradeep.  

In THE BUYING BRAIN Dr. Pradeep, citing fascinating research, takes readers on an unprecedented tour into the five major areas of neuromarketing practice: brands, products, packaging, advertising, and in-store marketing. “The brain makes behavior. As companies and other organizations learn about the profound implications that fact has for them, they are seeking to understand how to appeal to the subconscious in the most efficient and effective ways,” says Dr. Pradeep. “My purpose in writing THE BUYING BRAIN is to give them the knowledge and the tools necessary to do that on a very practical level, with specific examples of what we call ‘Neurological Best Practices’ to follow in order to win the brain’s Attention, generate Emotional Engagement, and stimulate Memory Retention. Those are our primary NeuroMetrics because they are the critical gateways to understanding consumers’ subconscious responses and purchase behavior.”

“Neuroscience has come out of the lab and the clinic, and is now changing how marketers communicate with their customers. Using principles of neuroscience and marketing strategy, Dr. Pradeep brings the new field of neuromarketing alive for businesses of all categories,” says Stanley Roth, Sr., Professor of Retailing, Harvard University.