David Lewis - The Brain Sell: When Science Meets Shopping

Dr. David Lewis is an acknowledged world leader in the application of neuroscience to the buying brain.

Dubbed the father of neuromarketing, David started his pioneering work back in the late 1980s at the University of Sussex, attaching electrodes to the scalps of plucky volunteers in order to track the electrical responses of their brains to various television commercials.

Since these pioneering days, Davidwith his colleagues at cutting-edge research consultancy Mindlab Internationalhas used increasingly sensitive and sophisticated technologies to reveal how the human body and mind react when we shop. He has also witnessed the emergence of what is now a multimillion-dollar industry, dedicated to exploring and exploiting this knowledge for commercial use.

Chairman, co-founder, and Director of Research at Mindlab, as well as a Fellow or Associate at numerous professional bodies, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, David continues to be active in the field. He is also a much sought-after broadcaster, conference speaker, and workshop presenter, and has worked with scores of Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies.

A Chartered Psychologist, David has written bestselling books on many aspects of psychology, including The Soul of the New Consumer: AuthenticityWhat We Buy and Why in the New Economy (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2000).

Dedication

To Steven Matthews with grateful thanks for all the help and
encouragement he has given me over many years

When Science Meets Shopping

How the new mind sciences
and the persuasion industry
are reading our thoughts,
influencing our emotions
and stimulating us to shop

Dr. David Lewis

First published in the UK by
Nicholas Brealey Publishing in 2013

www.nicholasbrealey.com
www.thebrainsell.co.uk

David Lewis 2013
The right of David Lewis to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBN: 978-1-85788-601-6
eISBN: 978-1-47364-499-1

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording and/or otherwise without the prior written
permission of the publishers. This book may not be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise
disposed of by way of trade in any form, binding or cover other than that
in which it is published, without the prior consent of the publishers.

The views expressed in this book are entirely those of the author and do not,
necessarily, reflect those of the board of Mindlab International Ltd. and its
employees, or of the many industry professionals and academics who have been
kind enough to assist in the research.

Printed in Finland by WS Bookwell.

The stuff with which we work is the fabric of mens minds.

Vance Packard, The Hidden Persuaders

More than half a century ago, American journalist Vance Packard shocked consumers by revealing the extent to which they were being manipulated for commercial gain. In his bestselling expos The Hidden Persuaders, he revealed the dark side of advertising, warning: Large-scale efforts are being made, often with impressive success, to channel our unthinking habits, our purchasing decisions, and our thought processes. Typically these efforts take place beneath our level of awareness; so that the appeals which move us are often, in a sense, hidden.

That was in 1957. Since then, scientists have learned more about the workings of the human brain than was discovered throughout humankinds entire previous existence. Although these advances do not, at present, allow scientists actually to read minds, they are not far short of achieving that goal. Already there is a growing understanding of what changes in blood flow to different regions of the brain, or in the electrical signals by which these regions communicate, reveal about our thoughts, emotions, and actions.

Today, every major company in the world is engaged in a race to use advances in neuroscience to develop techniques for influencing (or, as critics would argue, manipulating) consumersa race not only to win their hearts, but also to influence their minds.

I know because, for more than 30 years, the focus of my neuro-science research has been the vulnerabilities of the human brain and the various ways in which it can be influenced.

My interest in this now rapidly developing field of study began during the late 1980s while I was working in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Sussex. I attached electrodes to the heads of pioneering volunteers to record the patterns of electrical activity in their brains as they watched television commercials. These very early studies would, over 20 years later, help launch what has become the multimillion-dollar neuromarketing industry.

Since then, Iand my colleagues at Mindlabhave been using increasingly sensitive and complex equipment to analyze what goes on in someones mind and body as they shop. I have recorded the brain activity, changes in heart rate, respiration, skin temperature, and physical arousal of individuals in retailers from small-town Mom and Pop stores to the marbled halls of luxurious malls. I have seen how spotting a bargain sets the pulse racing, and how the color red stimulates arousal.

I have taken saliva samples to assess stress levels and used eye-tracking equipment to identify how long customers spend studying different displays. More recently, as the internet and social media have become ever more important in their reach and influence, I have examined how consumers shop online. Recording their direction of gaze and level of attention, I have explored the way people surf the internet, scan web pages, and buy online; and how they react to different forms of advertising and participate in social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn. My purpose has been to put the seemingly mundane activity of shoppingin all its guisesunder the microscope, not merely to observe how consumers behave, but to reveal their thoughts and feelings as they search for products ranging from washing-up liquid and floor polish to designer sunglasses and the latest must-have smartphone.

This book offers you an insiders account of the extent to which our rapidly growing understanding of the brain (coupled with advances in neuro/behavioral economics and consumer psychology) is resulting in ever more effective ways of advertising, marketing, and retailingan ever more powerful brain sell.

As an advertiser, marketer, or retailer (or indeed a member of the wider persuasion industry), you will discover the latest techniques and technologies and how you can exploit them. As a consumer, you will learn how you are increasingly being influenced by this

As this book explores, even the environment in which a consumer shops can have an influence on purchasing. For example, lighting in a discount store will be bright and even to show off products to best advantage, while an upmarket cosmetics store may opt for soft lighting to enhance customers perceptions of their own appearance. The tempo of the music being played can affect the speed with which shoppers move around a store, while in many casinos scented air creates an aroma that relaxes gamers and actually slows the perceived passage of time. These atmospherics control behavior and attitudes in imperceptible ways that consumers cannot control. Similarly, the emergence of so-called choice architecture is enabling our decision making to be manipulated in subconscious ways.