Assessing unsung neuromarketing heroes

By Robin Gurney @ TIPTOP INSIGHTS. Assessing unsung neuromarketing heroes. In this article, we look at implicit reaction time tools. 

Whilst there is still some controversy about what The Implicit Association Test (IAT) exactly measures and how valid/replicable results are, there is no doubt about one thing…

You would be hard-pushed to find a top neuromarketing service provider NOT offering IAT and/or related Implicit Reaction Time Tools (IRTs) within their portfolio. So popular have they become that this article is dedicated exclusively to finding the role of IRTs in helping marketers under the WHY of consumer behaviour and decision making.

Note: IRTs are often used alongside other neuromarketing techniques (see Persuasion sciences and the rise of machines and Neuromarketing tools for hunting the elusive WHY beast ).

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is a psychological test designed to measure “implicit attitudes”. These are the underlying by-products of past experience that influence how we feel about something. These factors may include cognitive processes such as self-esteem, memory, perception and attitudes among others. These cognitive processes are always present in the background of our subconscious even when we are not aware of them. Source: iMotions

Ana Iorga, CEO and Chief Neuroscientist at Buyer Brain explains IRTs ”It’s fairly common knowledge how this technology works, as it’s been around for decades, since psychologists began developing computer-based tests that measure unconscious cognition. IAT, for example, requires subjects to rapidly sort stimuli in varying pairs, while being primed first with an attribute (e.g. easy vs difficult) or an image (e.g. logo), with the time it takes to complete the pairings and the errors made during the process, reflecting the strength of the underlying association between the different classes of stimuli and the primers. As such, a quicker response time indicates a stronger association between a concept and evaluations, a slower response time indicates the opposite.”

Paul Conner CEO (Chief Emotive Officer) at Emotive Analytics, who specialize in consumer research that reveals the emotional dynamics of consumer behavior, claims that Implicit can measure dimensional and primary emotions but can also measure product feature and personality trait attribute associations at the discrete level.

Among BuyerBrains “go-to” technologies are the IRTs which they’ve used IRTs to build a unique, scalable solution – the Effort Assessment Score or EAS. This online platform measures Effort across 4 dimensions: time, physical energy, cognitive load and the emotional impact of expended effort. Effort can be measured at the process or touch point level, at brand or product level or throughout the entire customer journey. EAS collects both implicit and declarative data and calculates an effort score for the entire customer journey and individual scores for each of the studied processes, touchpoints, brands or products.

Maxwell Wiggins, a neuromarketing executive at LAB (an award winning UK digital agency), comments, “Understanding unconscious perceptions is immensely important when shaping future marketing as misaligned customer and company perceptions could create marketing with a backfire effect”.

When we speak about IRT it makes sense to pay attention to Andy Dean, CEO of System1Insights(who have worked with dozens of international brands). They offer a range of IRT Tools run on their own bespoke Brainlink platform. Andy sums up IRTs thus, “IRTs can discriminate and understand the complex emotions and feelings that drive a brand, concept or category and give a quantitative and forensic output. Our implicit tests can’t be faked so the data captured is always high quality. They can be used on laptop, pc, smartphone or tablet, in any language, anywhere in the world, with or without an internet connection. All aspects of a brand can be tested including Brand Identity, NPD, Concepts, Extensions, Ads, Packaging and Sensory Profiling.”

The final word goes to Olson Zaltman, true vanguards, who back in 1997 began applying what they knew about cognitive neuroscience to business goals like brand, innovation, and communications. Lindsay Zaltman, CEO details their use of IAT and their proprietary ZMET tool:

“I believe we were the first to use IAT in the marketing world, having conducted studies for over a decade now. IAT involves consumers using iPads, laptops or mobile phones to take a test that measures implicit or unconscious associations between a concept and various drivers or attributes. We use this for concept testing, communications testing and for measuring key drivers for a brand or category. IAT is one of the most validated quantitative tools used in the social sciences, and it is just now being recognized in the marketing world for its power and efficacy.

The Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) is our proprietary, patented qualitative tool designed to get into consumers’ unconscious thoughts and feelings. From a technology standpoint, we have developed a proprietary software program that builds custom Mind Maps – the shared mental models that consumers have with regard to brands, categories or other topics we pursue for our clients.

We use an AI tool to run sentiment analysis on our ZMET interviews or survey open-ended questions. This AI is able to dissect broader emotions such as “happiness” into very detailed iterations of that emotion. It also tells us quantitatively the percent that each of those iterations is present.

In addition, we utilize a form of ZMET powered by mobile ethnography tools, where we can have consumers go out and perform real-world experiences, capture those on video and then answer a series of questions from us to get the deeper frames hidden behind what we have simply observed.”

For more details on the link between IAT and Neuromarketing there is an excellent article, by Femke van Zandvoort, which summarises additional experts’ opinions on the Neuromarketing Science and Business Association website.

If you would like to reach out to the experts mentioned in this article you can find their contact details in this neuromarketing company directory.

Robin hand picks and shares neuromarketing, including IAT, related case studies, insights and recommendations at www.neuromarketingtips.eu and in his Brainy Business Matters Newsletter.

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