Dr. Deep delves deeply into the consumer’s brain in search of pleasure.
Marketers need to go there as well, so they can learn how to better engage with their customers on a more emotional level, which will lead to increased purchases and brand loyalty. So says Dr. A.K. Pradeep, or “Dr. Deep,” as I 
call him.
Dr. Deep is founder and CEO of a company called NeuroFocus, which is the self-proclaimed world leader in EEG-based full brain measurement of consumers’ subconscious responses. EEG (electroencephalography) is basically a recording of electronic activity produced by the firing of neurons within the brain based on certain stimuli, or whatever.
Basically what he does is measure, record and analyze brain activities responding to different stimuli like brand messaging, advertising and buying experiences. In doing so he has identified increased activity in the pleasure center of the brain, creating what he describes as “little moments of luxury.” Apparently, this is our subconscious desire to feel better, attempting to escape the stress and anxiety of our lives. The little moments, he contends, are also markers that indicate our precognitive responses to different brands, products, advertising, and customer engagements — how they affect purchase behaviors and emotional connection with the brand. He refers to it as a “Luxury Perception Framework” (LPF).
The brain values and seeks out even small amounts of pleasure and satisfaction in daily life, he claims, but in tough economic times the subconscious pursuit of luxury becomes even more intense and harder to satisfy. That’s deep.
Dr. Deep: “Smart marketers who look for ways to fulfill our universal but deeply-submerged yearning for luxury, especially in difficult economic times, are likely to reap rewards in terms of purchase intent and brand loyalty.”
He outlines this approach in his upcoming book, The Buying Brain: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind, offering examples and case studies to support his theory. He cites the repeated successful launches of Apple products such as iPad and iPhone, where the brain is rewarding Apple with attention, emotional engagement, memory retention and loyalty. Not so deep.
There are six critical metrics Dr. Deep uses to measure LPF brain activity. I call them “Deep Six”: attention, emotional engagement, memory retention, purchase intent, awareness and novelty.
As a marketer, this is hard to argue with. Anybody who can gain better insight as to how consumers react to marketing — how to better connect with and instigate purchase intent… that’s like selling world peace. If he can get customers to allow him to put electrodes all over their heads and measure what’s going on in their brain, I’m all for it. But personally, I’m keeping my little moments to myself, when I can find them.
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Interesting. A few days ago I read an article about information architecture and usability and it had a similar approach measuring “cognitive load” (read content) and “extra motor activity” (move mouse) to determine the optimum design. I thought to myself – if I will start thinking which specific muscles I need to use while walking I’d probably fall right away. There’s certainly a limit to how far you can analyze things.
Comment by Alex July 14, 2010 @ 2:11 pm