Neuroscience.

In the good old days of James Bond, neuroscience was called mind control. It customarily involved someone captured by the bad guys, usually Russians, brainwashed by some machine or lots of torture, who then went out and tried to kill the Queen or Prime Minister, before James was able to tackle them in the nick of time. Today that brainwashing takes the shape of neuro-scientific research done by boffins in white coats who love nothing better than attaching electrodes to our brains. Marketing companies and brand agencies are then looking to this inquisition to find out what makes us tick and pick, one product over another. The holy grail of consumer choice has long been the jurisdiction of the marketing department as they throw one campaign after another, at a public looking to make educated choices.

Neuroscience studies the psychology of choice via areas of the prefrontal cortex and other bits of the brain too difficult to spell. It frequently finds that a particular part of the brain affected by marketing is directly attached to a point in the hip pocket, or more direct at a credit card burning hot in our wallets. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one type of brain measure used to test what we buy, when we choose and how we come to decisions. If marketers can affect the right parts of the brain, dealing with decisions and accord, they have a chance of differentiating their product or brand from the mire of determination required to get that loaf of bread off the shelf. If James had an MRI machine handy he would have worked out the killer's motive early in the movie giving him more time for martinis and bond girls.

Predicting out comes has become a science and marketing firms are jumping on the neuroscience band wagon to give their clients irrefutable evidence that the tag line, the colour or even the scent of their particular product is important for the brain to be influenced enough to chose brand A over brand B. That need for prediction led to neuro-marketing, coined by Ale Smidts in 2002 and now commonly used as global brands look to affect neural activity associated with prognosis based on expected rewards to lock consumers into loyalty. Studies have found particular brands can engender reward feelings in loyal customers whose brain activity is triggered by emotion and memory retrieval leading to repeat purchasing. The brain remembers positive and negative outcomes from previous choices to make predictions of reward and this is the area the marketing department is now playing in.

Brand loyalty and product choices are now the realms of scientists using MRIs and theoretical learning algorithms, who then on sell their findings to marketers to ensure the desired outcome for products that you and I thought we chose ourselves. Harnessing neuroscience gives marketing experts the ability to cache lasting and affirmative impressions on the consumer. Seems you and I have no more control than the abject prisoner of the Russians when it comes to making choices about tomato sauce or breakfast cereals.