Photos for class presentations (May 30)

Maiko

 Taiju

Takuya
Atsutomo

Notes for presentation 5/30 (p. 13 F

Use these phrases to organize your presentation.

Recently, I bought                    called                    made by                   . (point to the photo on the screen). I decided to buy it because                                    . I was influenced by these factors:            .
How is this product different from others I could have bought? Well,  first,                      ,  and second,                          .                                .
(you finish the outline for the rest of your presentation).

You should add more sentences to the outline to make it longer and more interesting. Include other details that you think are interesting or important.

Don't forget to send Ms. MacGregor a photo of your product by 17:00 on May 29. If you don't, you will lose points from your presentation grade.

You will be graded out of 10 points for this presentation. 5 points are for your delivery (see page 12). 5 points are for the content and organization and correct usage of English.

TV commercials for May 23 class

Atsutomo's ad is for Coca-cola

Takuya's ad is for Nissin Cup noodles.

Taiju's ad is here.

Maiko's ad is for Evian.

And here are mine. Yesterday, I watched this commercial for Asahi beer. It reminded me of a series of Suntory ads featuring the same actress that started a few years ago. Both are short, have impact, and are memorable because of the way the actresses move, what they say, and how they look, not to mention the catchy music. I particularly like the music for the Suntory beer commercial. Can you answer the 5 questions for my ads?

To remind you, here are the five questions:
1. Describe the CM - the scene, the characters, what happens.
2. Who is the target audience?
3. How do you know that?
4. What is the message of the CM?
5. What is your opinion of this ad?

Answers to Homework for May 9 (Chapter 1) and HW for May 23

Exercise A (p. 7) - this is an example of a possible answer.

Marketing strategies & activities: Product and Pricing
  1. Product/Service/Idea
        Determine target market (people who will buy)
        Meet target market needs
   2. Pricing
        Too expensive—people won’t buy
        Too cheap—no profit (won’t make enough money)
Exercise B (p. 8)
Answers will vary. Possible answers:
1. I expect to learn more about market research.
2. I expect to learn more about focus groups.                    3. I expect to learn more about how companies market products.
Exercise E (p. 9)
1. Neuromarketing is different because it studies the unconscious reactions to
products and advertising.
2. Researchers can determine what type of reaction a person is having while
looking at an advertisement or product by knowing what part of the brain is affected.
3. In the blind taste test, the results were equal. When the brand names were given, 75% preferred Coke over Pepsi.
4. They worry because neuromarketing could be used to unconsciously influence people.
HW for May 23
First, do p. 9 E. Answer the 4 questions in sentences. If you need more space, write your answers in your notebook. 
Second, watch this 30-second TV advertisement for Calbee Jagabee and answer the questions below. Make sure to write your answers in your notebook.
Part 1:
1. Describe the CM - the scene, the characters, what happens.
2. Who is the target audience?
3. How do you know that?
4. What is the message of the CM?
5. What is your opinion of this ad?
Part 2:  Introduce one of your favorite TV CMs to us during the next class. Send Ms. MacGregor the link to the CM by 17:00 on Thursday May 22, and she will put the link on this HP. Then, we can watch it together in class, and you can present it. Answer questions 1-5 for this CM too. Start your presentation by saying, "This is a commercial for xxx (product name), made by yyy (company)."  Please prepare this carefully and practice your presentation before the class.
Remember, we will have a make-up class on July 18 (second hour). Please put that in your appointment book and be sure to come.

Chapter 1: Lecture

Good morning. We have a lot to cover. OK? So let’s get started. Today, we are going to continue talking about marketing research, and we’re going to be focusing on a trend called neuromarketing.

Now first, I’m going to talk a little bit about why it developed. Then I’ll explain how neuromarketing works, and we’ll look at a couple of examples of how it’s been used so far to illustrate it. And then finally, I’ll cover some future possibilities and concerns some people might have about how this new type of research works. OK? Let’s get started.

OK. First, why it developed. Now, advertisers have understood for a long time that buying decisions are not always rational, that emotional factors, . . . irrational reasons, . . . can be much stronger than the logical reasons, like price, quality, performance, taste. Get the picture? Now, the main motivations for many purchases are unconscious. They’re under the surface, so people don’t realize them. So this means that focus groups and surveys can be useful, but their effectiveness is limited. And that’s because most people are not fully conscious of how they differentiate between products. So, in other words, people don’t always know the reasons they choose to buy one product over another.

So, here’s how neuromarketing . . . neuromarketing comes in. Researchers wanted to find other ways, other methods, besides surveys and focus groups, to do marketing research. So, they wanted to find a more scientific method to understand the target market. In fact, they’d like to understand the target market better than it understands itself.

Now, that’s why neuromarketing developed. So, now let’s move on to how neuromarketing works.

Neuromarketing researchers use machines designed for medical purposes, specifically, magnetic resonance imaging, otherwise know as MRI. OK? And this medical technology can take pictures of brain activity. But marketers are using it to find out how people are thinking. Uh huh. How they process information about products, brands, and of course, advertising.

So here’s how it works. While a test subject is connected to the MRI machine, researchers might show him a picture, maybe of a person like Arnold Schwarzenegger, or an activity like rock climbing, or they might show him a new TV commercial they’ve created. At the same time, the researchers are looking at a picture of the person’s brain, at the activity going on inside the brain as the person looks at the image. They look at which parts of the brain are being used and the patterns of activity between areas of the brain. OK. You see, where in the brain something is processed suggests to the marketers how people are processing it, OK or thinking about it. And this is because the brain uses different areas to do different things, and researchers now know a lot about where different functions of the brain are located.

So, do you understand? Different areas of activity in the brain can suggest to researchers if a person is responding positively or negatively to something and how strongly. Interesting, huh?

Now, let me give you a couple of examples that illustrate how it works. A 2004 study at Baylor College of Medicine tested people’s responses to the taste of two different colas. All right. They had Coca Cola . . . and Pepsi. And they found that during the blind tastings, where volunteers didn’t know which brand they were think. . . they were drinking, the results were split. Roughly fifty percent chose Coke, and fifty percent chose Pepsi as the better tasting.

They also found that people were using the part of the brain connected to the feeling of reward. OK. This meant that their brains were focusing on the taste and how much they liked it. However, when the brand names were given—when people knew which cola they were tasting—the results changed. Now . . . three quarters, three quarters of the people chose Coke over Pepsi. So only a quarter, or twenty-five percent, chose Pepsi.

They also found people were using a different part of their brain than before. They were using a part that’s more closely connected to personality and self-image. Now this suggests that the image of the brand (what people associate with the brand) was responsible for the Coke preference. So, participants in the study preferred Coke’s image, not necessarily its taste. And this is important because this image preference translates into sales. Coke is the market leader in colas.

Now, let me give you another quick example to show what else brain-imaging technology can show researchers. Yes. Here it is. Ulm University in Germany, in a study funded by Daimler-Chrysler, used this technology, this MRI technology, to see how men reacted to pictures of cars. And guess what? They found that men use the back of the brain, a part of the brain used to recognize faces. Now, we don’t know for sure exactly how this connects to buying behavior, but one possibility is that men process the design of a car like it was a human face. So this may cause them to prefer a car that has a “face” that is appealing. Make sense to you? Makes sense to me.

Now, these are interesting studies, but you know, the brain is a very complicated organ. And we may be able to see a reaction in the brain, but we still don’t know exactly what people are thinking or how a particular brain reaction relates, or connects, to buying behavior.

So, that said, what about future possibilities? Humm? Well, we may not be there yet, but in the future, researchers hope to be able to accurately and precisely read pictures of brain activity to understand human—consumer—feelings and attitudes, and predict behavior . . . consumer behavior. Neuromarketing could be a very effective marketing research tool for the future. OK. It could help companies understand the target market’s preference and needs. So that’s the potential benefit. It can help companies predict consumers’ needs and desires.

Now, of course, trying to find out more about the target market, well, that’s nothing new. But neuromarketing could one day be a much more powerful, more effective method than using focus groups and survey research. And that’s what the concerns focus on.

Some people are concerned about the possible abuse of this tool. It could be used to do more than meet consumers’ needs. Now, it may be okay to use brain scans to . . . to, to design television ads for a cola, but what about a political ad, say, for a presidential candidate? Can we trust that the information learned from this marketing research will not be used to unconsciously influence our behavior in ways we don’t even notice or really understand? Good question. Something to think about.

OK. Now that we’ve had an introduction to the ideas and issues connected to neuromarketing, I’d like to break you into small groups to discuss the study questions for this chapter of your textbooks. OK?