Siegel+Gale Partners for fMRI Project

US branding consultancy Siegel+Gale has partnered with neuroscience specialist NeuroCompass to pilot the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging technology (fMRI), to uncover consumer feelings about brands.

fMRI technology measures the change in blood flow related to neural activity in the brain, holding out the hope of digging deeper into motivations and feelings than the surface-based EEG (www.mrweb.com/mrt/neu10aug.htm ). In this project, the partners showed 25 volunteers a series of brand attributes describing several consumer retailers, meanwhile capturing 2,400 blood flow measurements to create a detailed picture of the emotions triggered, the strength of each emotion and the level of desire associated with each brand.

Results were monitored and analysed by a team from NeuroCompass including neuroscientists, mathematicians, statisticians and psychologists. Among the insights gained, the research indicates how strongly consumers associate a brand with those of competitors.

'What's great about the fMRI technology is that it reveals the consumer associations that are more deeply-rooted versus those that are more superficial in nature,' states Lisa Bertelsen, Global Director, Research Insights at Siegel+Gale. 'Marketers can then understand the strength of the associations and develop an effective strategy that reinforces strong brand messages - an objective we seek for our clients every day.'

Web sites: www.siegelgale.com and www.neurocompass.com .

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