I recently attended NeuroU 2019, and It was a fascinating two days during which I immersed myself in the world of neuromarketing. One key thing became abundantly clear; biometric data is about to become a thing, and marketers better get ready for it. Here are two key takeaways I think you’ll find interesting.
Biometrics Can Provide a Valuable Augment to the Data We Already Collect
When we combine the types of data typically provided by marketing research—survey responses, syndicated data and qualitative learnings—and combine them with sources that measure physiological response to research stimuli, we can add valuable insight to our findings. These physiological metrics can document respondent attention and engagement.
For example, we show a visual stimulus to qualitative research participants such as a print ad, a webpage, a package mockup or a retail shelf set. In addition to discussing the stimulus, we could augment the findings with some eye tracking which would tell us what people actually looked at, when, and for how long. “Hold on,’ you say, ‘eye tracking has been around for decades; what’s new and different about that?’ Now, we can also add in measures like heart rate, pupil dilation and galvanic skin response so we can determine which elements correlate with a physiological response. This informs us as to what elements were actually engaging, and which ones merely elicited attention but no real interest.
Perhaps the stimuli are more dynamic – a TV commercial, or shoppers explore a retail environment. We can now measure EEG response continuously during the exposure period, or gather facial coding data. Both can provide significant insight into the nature of an individual’s emotional responses to a stimulus. When we combine this information with traditional quantitative measures (such as recall and persuasion) and insights gathered during qualitative discussion, we can substantially increase our understanding of how consumers are responding to messages and environments.
The Hardware and Software Are Pretty Much Ready for Mainstream Usage
While biometric data was always interesting in theory, significant logistical challenges made it impractical for typical applications. The software was not user-friendly, the hardware clunky and temperamental, and costs usually prohibitive. Over the past few years, suppliers have devoted significant resources to address these challenges, and now offer turnkey hardware and software suites that can provide reliable data at an extremely reasonable cost.
The upshot—it might be time to start dipping your toe into this end of the pool. Used appropriately, biometric data has the potential to be a major problem-solver for researchers.
