I am fascinated by Neuromarketing, because I like psychology, I like user experience and human factors research, and I like selling stuff and making money. A lot of people have a bad impression of neuromarketing because they worry about Evil Marketers tapping into our brains to get information about how to influence us… and that may be an aspect for some companies that spend money on this research. But trying to understand what customers want and need and how to appeal to their sense of style, tastes or desires is also what we do in user experience testing, so I look at it more positively than negatively.

This week I saw a great example of neuromarketing and wanted to share it with you. I think this is just so neat, that the Campbell’s company put the time and effort in, but I like this example most for the enhanced user experience. Check out this new label…

The Wall Street Journal says that the research was conducted over a two year period, to figure out how to get consumers to buy more soup. From the PSFK blog:

For the past two years, researchers studied microscopic changes in skin moisture, heart rate and other biometrics to see how consumers react to everything from pictures of bowls of soup to logo design.  They combined these biometric tools with a different type of deep interview to more accurately gauge which consumer communications worked better.

These labels are not just pretty to look at – they will actually make locating the right soup for your needs much easier… right now the logo on red really does draw your eye to it much more than is helpful – it’s distracting compared the often lighter-colored soups. Color-coding the cans will also be helpful – so though this was done to make soup a more appealing purchase decision, it also makes buying it quickly easier, so the user experience has been improved also. I can’t wait till these cans hit the shelves.

If you want to learn more about neuromarketing (as a layman), my two favorite resources are Roger Dooley’s blog and the book Buyology. Roger Dooley is a fantastic guy to talk to – I’m lucky to have him as a friend on Twitter, and his blog is so educational and interesting. What I love about his posts is that he uses lots of examples and then explains why and how the example is effective or not, all without overloading you with information or too-complex details for those of us not immersed in this field of study everyday. I read everything he ever writes and highly recommend it: Neuromarketing, Where Brain Science and Marketing Meet. Read Roger’s take on the new packaging in Your Brain on Soup.

Buyology, by Martin Lindstrom, is a book, a site, and an experience. You can view chapter summary information, buy it at numerous places, or read many news articles about the book and Lindstrom’s take on what makes people buy something. Visit the site – there is a lot of information to explore!