Researchers measure brain waves and skin current to predict emotions

“Neuromarketing is a sub-field within marketing that uses sensors for marketing purposes, to inform managers and make better marketing decisions,” Fresneda explains. He collaborated with several other academics to publish a paper entitled ‘Neuromarketing Techniques to Enhance Consumer Preference Prediction’ at the 57th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences recently. 

Currently, most marketing research relies on people self-reporting their responses to anything from the prices of sale items to high-impact TV advertisements. 

But Fresneda found that if you add electroencephalograms (EEG) probes, which detect brain waves, and galvanic skin response (GSR) sensors, which measure electrical conductance, then you can predict people’s feelings about marketing stimuli with greater accuracy than their own self-reporting. 

According to Fresneda, one of the most impressive sensor networks could be used at American Dream, an entertainment and retail centre near the city of East Rutherford in the US.  

Capable of linking various consumer data points 

Although not fully in use, it is potentially capable of collecting GSR data from smart devices, or from radio-frequency data transmitted by smart shopping bags, and linking that information to people’s social media profiles. 

At a demonstration for retail store managers, Fresneda reported that opinions were mixed. While most appreciated the technology’s potential to provide feedback to retailers on their own performance, there were strong concerns around privacy.  

As a consumer, Fresneda said he would be willing to wear such technology, since most shoppers already allow companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook to track them. 

“If I get value in return, yes, of course. But you have to show me,” he said. “Otherwise, I would be legitimately scared.” 

According to the paper resented at the Hawaii conference, the same algorithms can be used to quantify emotional reactions such as calmness or fear. These can then can potentially measure people’s reactions to various emotionally charged marketing experiences. 

“Future research could use the same algorithm to anticipate … choices of consumers for different kinds of products, as well as in new product development,” the paper states.  

“Moreover, the same neural analytics could be applied to tracking people’s emotional states in other contexts – including customer satisfaction, worker satisfaction, or even employee productivity tracking.” 

Fresneda and his colleagues are now working on a follow-up journal article, based on applying the technology to fields such as consumer-oriented finance. 

You can find out more about the paper here.