Biometrics for Marketing

Let's not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives and we obey them without realizing it. Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

Van Gogh was before his time, but he was right.

People are not rational creatures. We are emotional ones. Emotions guide our actions and color our thoughts. Modern neuroscience tells us that we are not even capable of making basic decisions without guidance from our emotions. Clearly, if we are to continue to provide guidance and insights to our clients, we need to help them understand the emotional side of marketing.

In fact Ipsos has for years offered a number of different approaches for measuring how consumers feel about product concepts, packaging, advertising, customer experiences and even companies. But we realize that is not enough. We need to take the measurement of emotions to a new level. Much emotional activity occurs below the level of consciousness so consumers aren't capable of self-reporting the full extent of their emotions. This is where neuroscience and the ability to measure these unconscious behaviors become valuable. And it is why Ipsos has forged a partnership with Innerscope, the leading firm in the use of biometrics in market research.

Innerscope was founded in 2006 by Dr. Carl Marci and Brian Levine. Since then they have been constantly improving their technology and their approaches. In fact, they are the only neuroscience based research firm that whose approach has been validated by the Advertising Research Foundation185. Innerscope uses a number of biometric signals including heart rate, respiration, skin conductivity and motion to measure a consumer's emotional response to a stimulus such as an ad. These biologic signals are automatic responses triggered by the brain's emotional centers. And this is what makes biometrics uniquely appropriate for understanding emotions. It is a direct connection to these emotional centers. Other approaches use indirect and less exacting measures. Eye tracking data can also be added to the biometric results.

The biometric belts used by Innerscope are comfortable, practical and medical grade; ideal for use in market research around the world. The signals are transmitted wirelessly allowing us to use belts in a number of different ways.

The deliverables from biometrics are intuitive and easy to understand. For dynamic stimuli such as ads, the results are shown as a trace overlaid on the ad with the height of the trace indicating the intensity of response. On still images such as packages or print ads, color coding is used to indicate the intensity of both emotional and cognitive response.

This biometric trace shows consumers emotional response to the Evian Babies viral video:

We are looking to integrate biometrics into the tools for which it is relevant and adds value, and we are currently piloting several approaches. We do not see biometrics as "only for special situations". Understanding how people respond emotionally is a key to successful marketing. Our goal is to make biometrics widely available.

185 For more information on this go to http://www.thearf.org/assets/pr-2009-10-03