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NPR recently ran a 30 minute segment with brand expert Martin Lindstrom. Martin conducted a 3 year, 7 million dollar study on marketing and its affect on the brain using an FMRI or “functional” magnetic resonance imaging machine. The results from the scans of more than 2,000 volunteers were very interesting—and astounding, in some cases.

Martin explains that when we are thinking of buying a big ticket item such as a computer or television, we are loyal to a brand until they sell us three bad products. For example, the majority of people will buy cars from GM until they get the third bad one. At that point, most of the people scanned would try a different brand (in this case, Toyota) until they are disappointed in the same fashion. Using the same methods, it was discovered that the warning labels on cigarette packs actually cause people to smoke 13% more than packs that do not have the label. How ridiculous is that? Being an ex-smoker myself I can understand the warning being a “don’t tell me what to do” kind of thing, but nonetheless, don’t smoke! Now that I am off my high horse, I would like to share the simplest test he conducted, and its results.

He did the simple Pepsi versus Coke taste test. When the brands were hiding from the respondents, Pepsi won by a landslide. When the respondents knew what they were testing, Coke won by a landslide. I think this goes to show that people’s emotions do effect what, where, and when they buy. Americans are going to see roughly two million commercials in our lifetimes. They are not anywhere near as effective as the used to be; we are numb, so to speak. Advertising these days is more of a subliminal game than what we see on the boob tube, so much so that Martin claims the tobacco industry will pay to have red tiles put into the restrooms of sports stadiums to try to get people to smoke more. If that doesn’t piss you off, i don’t know what will. Martin refers to all of this as “Neuromarketing,” and it is very real.

So, how does Apple play into all of this? Simple. The scans of people that were brand loyal matched exactly the scans of people that were devotee Christians. How amazing is that? Martin talks about one of the respondents of the study named Matt who flew from California to Europe simply to get a t-shirt. That is crazy cool, I wish I had the resources to do that, but alas, I do not. Martin attributes some of Apple loyalty success to a couple of different things. First of all he states that Apple has one of the most identifiable logos in the world. Anytime most people see the little apple with a chunk missing, they think of Apple, Inc. Martin goes on to say that product placement is vital to a business also. Apple products can be seen in several of FOX’s television shows, along with several movies. Of course, Apple’s biggest loyalty generator is the best and most innovative products on earth.

Via [NPR: Talk of the Nation]