Neuroscientist David Eagleman, whose unique brand of “guerilla science” was recently featured on NOVA, just delivered his new keynote on consumer research — specifically, what does traditional consumer research get wrong? And why is brand loyalty even more important than we assume?
 

Emotion, Motivation, and Reputation: What Matters to the Mind of the Consumer

What motivates people to care about a brand?  Why do people show loyalty to corporations?  What is the role of emotion in decision-making? Brain scientist David Eagleman marshals surprising new data from social neuroscience to show that people use the same brain circuitry to relate to brands as they do to one another. This suggests strong motivation for companies to work on reputation, loyalty and trust – subconscious issues which powerfully navigate customer decisions, but are missed by traditional methods of market research. Traditional research fails for two reasons: (1) it usually probes the conscious mind of the customer, which is not, in the end, what drives actual purchasing decisions, and (2) it is geared to measure the immediate influence of branding changes, while investments in social reputation pay off on a slower time scale. In this talk, Dr. Eagleman translates cutting-edge neuroscience into everyday examples to illuminate customer motivations, emotions, and decision-making from new angles.

Photo above is by kk+ from Flickr, CC

Read more about neuroscience speaker David Eagleman