'Tata Group, LinkedIn among firms adopting neuro research marketing'

NEW DELHI: Tata Group, LinkedIn, Vodafone, Mars and Kimberly Clark are among large companies adopting neuro research to gauge effectiveness of marketing, advertising and packaging, Nielsen consumer neurosciences president Joe Willke said.

The neuro science research technique collects data from respondents by brain recordings and facial coding in specialised labs, instead of verbal or emailed responses. It involves respondents, who are paid to sign up for the research, after which they are invited to a Nielsen lab which collects data from them through brain mapping, facial coding and biometrics.

“The key differentiator of this type of research is it gives second by second insights on whether a particular brand, pack, ad or promotion is working or not. From traditional research methods, you don’t get this granularity,” he said.


On a visit to India, Willke said India is now among the top five markets globally that are adopting market research based on neuroscience given its high potential of over a billion consumers and added that companies are increasingly including neuroscience research along with traditional research for marketing purposes.

“The former throws up entirely accurate findings since it is non-verbal. And India is one of the markets that’s been adopting some of the new techniques faster,” he said.

He said costs involved in the specialised research, which were steep earlier given the high technology it involves, are increasingly coming down with scale. He said packaged consumer goods companies have been some the largest and earliest adopters of the neuro research data, but declined to divulge specific names, citing confidentiality clauses.