Reviewed By: Sharad Agarwal, Indian Institute of Management Ranchi INDIA

Review Subject: Neuromarketing in Action: How to Talk and Sell to the Brain
Patrick M. Georges , Anne-Sophie Bayle-Tourtoulou , Michel Badoc

Publisher Name: Kogan Page Place of Publication: London Publication Year: 2013 ISBN: 978-0749469276 Price: US $39.95 Article type: Review Pages:240 pp.

Neuromarketing in Action: How to Talk and Sell to the Brain

Neuromarketing is referred to the application of neuro-scientific principles in marketing and management. It has gained considerable attention from academia and practitioners in the last decade. Neuro-Marketing in Action, gives the actionable insights, derived from rigorous neuroscientific experiments, which can be adopted by marketers to enhance their effectiveness through the scientific managerial knowledge generated by scholars from the area of neuroscience, behavioural science, cognitive science, management and other allied fields. The book aptly explains its concepts through the examples of practices pursued by top European companies. Though the book is broadly written to make marketing function and actions more effective, the insights are equally applicable for all other functions such as human resources, operations, communications, etc. The books consist of 18 chapters divided into 4 parts. Part 1, Neuromarketing or the art of selling to the brain consists of 3 chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the concept of marketing both from customer and companys point of view. It defines marketing as The art of creating value both for the customer and the company (p.10).Chapter 2 appraises the readers with different parts of the brain and their respective roles in information processing and decision making. It also introduces the readers with the concept of Ergonomics and explains how it influences the brain of the consumer, Intellectual work ergonomics is the science studying humans intellectual work to increase productivity, satisfaction and safety (p.26). Chapter 3 ponders further on the concept of neuromarketing and defines it as, It (neuromarketing) is an intelligent, focussed, marketing oriented interpretation of major scientific text on how the brain works (p.42) Part 2, Selling the marketing and organization strategy to the brains of managers and employees consists of two chapters. Chapter 4 focuses on internal marketing in the organization. It introduces the readers with the concept of marketing cockpit and management cockpit and explains how this concept has quickly become the interface between managers and their businesses. Chapter 5 provides advice to marketers on managing their physical and emotional fitness. It provides the neural explanation for marketers to keep themselves fit for improving their performance of marketing intelligence. It dwells on overcoming the issues of change and stress created in the organizations which have even led to suicides in the organizations such as Renault and France Telecom. Part 3, Improving the efficiency of the marketing action: the neuromarketing method, consists of eight chapters. Chapter 6 throws light on the role played by each of the five senses while the consumer makes decision to purchase the product. Our five senses are like red and humid skin that must be rubbed at the right rhythm to get the customers attention, followed by their pleasure and memory (p.91).Chapter 7 elucidates the role of sex and food in meeting the fundamental needs of consumer while they evaluate the proposition of one product over other. Sex and Food are the two most important needs, as they guarantee survival: food for short term individual survival and sex for long-term survival of the species (p.102). Chapter 8 discusses the role of six basic emotions, fear,

joy, sadness, surprise, disgust and anger in consumers and describes these as the door to the consumers memory. Chapter 9 recognizes the role of consumers memory in their decision to purchase a product and mentions that Neuromarketing attempts to increase the consumers memory (for a product or brand) through repetitions, stories, pleasure, simultaneous and sequenced entries. The authors give the example of brands such as Aston Martin, BMW and Dom Perignon which were able to create successful stories in the minds of the consumers by embarking on the adventures of James Bond. Chapter 10 deals with the importance of satisfying customers subconscious to make a successful sales deal. You must become accepted by the customers subconscious, because if it blocks your product there will be no sales (p.125). Chapter 11 reiterates the importance of satisfying customers reason to finally close the sales deal. As the customer is equipped with genuine intelligence with capability to calculate and compare the value of product satisfying customers conscience is of utmost importance. From the neuroscience perspective the marketer should create an environment which removes blood from the frontal lobes of the customer brains by using selective voices, images and dcor which would lead the consumers decision making in marketers interest. Chapter 12 depicts several examples from top companies on how they want to apply the principle of neuromarketing in enhance their sales. It also talks of the case of Sales Point neuromarketing methods which is developed in collaboration with ACCOR, Promod, Credit Suisse and other entities. Chapter 13 rehashes the role of sensory marketing in both online and physical sales outlet. Neuro-scientifically, the lobes of the brain, located in the cerebral hemispheres, are the receptacles of the canters responsible for the senses. The authors give the examples of brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Sephora and Nespresso which focus on selected ingredients to catch the attention of five senses for creating a genuine sensory experience for the customers visiting their stores. Part 4, Perspective for todayand tomorrow consist of 5 chapters. Chapter 14 educates the readers with the importance of Blue Ocean Strategy and Innovation in promoting the future growth of a company. It explains the concepts of invention and innovation and advocated the innovation bases business model and positioning. An invention is largely based on the product policy. It becomes an innovation when it satisfies the customers desire (p.189). The authors also explain the role of customer innovation, product innovation, price innovation, distribution innovation and communication innovation in building successful companies. Chapter 15 introduces the readers with the concepts of Desire Marketing and Permission Marketing. It then talks about Viral Marketing or Buzz marketing. Through the differentiation strategy and interactive strategy, Figure 15.1 (p.204) depicts the complete process of viral marketing from creating desire for a brand among the consumers to influencing their policies. Chapter 16 revolves around building successful relationships with the consumers. It gives examples of eBay and Amazon who offer a number of testimonies and evaluations by the consumers who have already bought the product, which helps in decision making of the new undecided consumer. Chapter 17 uses Antanio Domasios (Domasio, 2005) concept of Somatic Markers of the brain to neuro-scientifically explain the concept of Brand positioning, Brand identity and Brand Sensoriality. Chapter 18 focuses on promoting legitimacy and sustainability to conquer the customers trust as the customers brain wishes to have a clear conscience for whatever and whenever they buy. Customers are not interested to become partners of the firms who do not treat their stakeholders respectfully. The authors quote the example of Orange, which apparently received several cancellation requests from customers unhappy with the suicides happened in its parent company, France telecom.

The book presents a judicious mix of concepts from neuromarketing, marketing and corporate strategy to educate the readers on not only building successful marketing initiatives but also on creating sustainable long term growth strategies by satisfying long term needs of the consumers. The book is written in a very reader friendly style, each unit starts with a brief introduction on what the readers would see in further chapter. It also presents key points at the end of each unit which summarizes the previous units for better understanding of the readers. Though the book is targeted for marketing fraternity , I would recommend it for students and professionals of all managerial functions as it provides actionable insights into various managerial functions such as managerial communication, team building, interpersonal communication and, of course, marketing and branding. Reference: Domasio, A (2005) Descartes Error, Penguin, New York