Neuromarketing: Programming the Brain

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More and more companies are turning to neuromarketinga controversial practice that
involves studying the human brain and how a consumers neural pathways might respond to
certain stimuli. Its based on the idea that 90 percent of the choices we make happen at a
subconscious level. The goal is to bypass our higher reasoning and even our emotional
judgment to sell more products. An obvious case study in neuromarketing comes from
McDonalds. They developed a perfume which was subtly diffused in restaurants to increase
brand association and boost sales. Proctor & Gamble also tried a similar trick. Sales of Ariel
washing powder increased by 70 percent after an artificial perfume was placed under the lid.
But is exploiting the way were wired legitimate marketing, or is it closer to Orwellian
psychological manipulation? Where do we draw the line? A part of the series Underhand
Tactics: Investigating Corporate Culture. (56 minutes)

Item Number: 52420

Date Added: 12/18/2013

Type: Documentary Film

2012

Filed Under:
Applied Psychology; Biological Psychology; Marketing; Ethics & Business Law;
Introduction to Psychology
Producer:
Java Films
This Video is Part of the Following Series:
Underhand Tactics: Investigating Corporate Culture

My name is Marie, and I am a liberated woman. I lead my life as I wish, which is why I've
chosen this brand, their skin cream. I can't do without it. The sensation when I apply it, it's a
real pleasure.

When I get home from the gym, I often stop at this burger restaurant. I love it's smell and the
toasted bread. And it's so nice inside.
I reserve my train tickets through this travel agency. There are so many images that make me
want to get a return trip to the sunshine. It's like my bank. I recently changed over to this
credit company. I took out a loan for what I need to buy for the kids. My name is Marie, and
I'm a liberated woman. All these products because I'm worth it.
Well, Marie. Do you really think you're a free and liberated woman? Do you know the smell
of fast food is deliberately designed to produce an emotional reaction? The travel pictures are
deliberately chosen to arouse your desires. The bank's slogan is specially created to play on
your fears. And your body cream has been developed to spark a desire from within your
brain. You didn't realize that, of course. Why should you?
It's calculated using the latest technology from neuroscience, like an MRI or an
electroencephalogram. These new sales methods have a specific technique to control your
brain.
It's called neuromarketing. Thus, my dear consumers, you're not meant to know about it.
Neuromarketing is a taboo subject among the companies of the 21st century. Come on,
activate your neurons. We'll introduce you to the best kept secrets of the major brands you
know well.
One marketing company has exceptionally agreed to show us how one mass market retailer
studies your behavior and incites you to buy. We meet up in central Paris, a typical looking
building. And, whoops, this is our floor. On the door is a somewhat unusual sign. And inside,
not a Parisian apartment, but a supermarket.
We call this an experimental store. And it's in this kind of shop that we'll ask people to
pretend to do their shopping. It allows us to study their behavior.
Eric Sangler works for BBA, a market study agency whose clients include some well known
brands that test new packaging and placements on a store's shelves. From his observation
post, Eric Sangler tracks the consumer's slightest reaction in the store's isles. They're
volunteers from the public in the street below.
Each wears a strange looking pair of glasses worth 20,000 euros. Using a system of red dots,
the glasses record each movement of the eye to the nearest millisecond. It's known as an eye
tracker.
Now here you can see she's looking in a specific area for a product that interests her. There,
she's found it. And it's what we call a direct purchase, something she hasn't looked at too
closely.
We've also put on the glasses. Oddly, we seem to see everything so much more clearly. They
demonstrate exactly which elements spark our impulse to buy something without us knowing.
By analyzing the look and its direction, can you analyze what's going on inside the brain
somehow?

Well, the tools permit us to go beyond words and to better understand how the human brain
works and how individuals reach the decisions that they take, for example, how the shape of
the spoon in the mashed potatoes, the color or the design of the mash's image will capture
one's attention. So it will go some way to explaining the element that helps us reach a
decision on a subconscious level.
Playing with your subconscious to make you buy something is the aim of this new high tech
marketing, which makes us think of a word that like marketing begins with an M.
Manipulation. Let's check the dictionary.
Manipulation. The state of being manipulated. Shrewd or devious management especially for
one's own advantage without the subject's knowledge.
Without the subject's knowledge. Here, precisely, is the new tool of BBA, the first
neuromarketing device being developed in France, the electromyograph. Its inventor is
Olivier Dreuler, a researcher in neuroscience.
Nestle and Loreal have already signed up to test their ads using this machine. It's
subconscious. But every time you watch advertising, your brain receives and acts on millions
of different bits of information. They provoke emotions you're not even aware of. The
electrodes on the face and fingers allow these to be tracked.
There's one muscle-- it's called a zygomatic or smiling muscle. Even if the muscle itself
doesn't smile, of course, you can detect and electromiagraphic impulse At the corrugator,
which is activated during mostly negative emotions. This method is interesting because it
detects subtle, discreet, and often subconscious emotions.
So cute.
The importance of the subconscious as marketing is not hard to understand. Here's an ad for a
McDonald's new line of hamburger.
He's so cute. He's so chubby. Oh, you're too cute.
From Tabasco, a bun scattered with paprika, a new red chili pepper. The reactions of the
human guinea pig are registered by the different curves.
Now, that's more than just an impulse. It's almost at maximum level. We can comfortably say
there was a strong positive emotion.
After the test, [INAUDIBLE] asks the lady at what point did she feel more emotion.
To me, it was then.
Then? Well, actually it's when we saw the hamburgers.
Oh, really?
Well, before there was a little emotion. But the peak comes when we see the pack shot.

The pack shot is the image of the product. It was at this point that the lady became excited,
and there was an emotional peak.
I'm a little bit surprised as I thought it was more of the character herself. I didn't think it
would be the brand that influenced me.
The impact is not just coincidence but the results of our brain being worked on from an early
age. It's something you notice by conducting an experiment in a class in a Parisian school.
Good morning boys and girls. I'm going to show you some pictures under which there is
some words written. When you don't recognize them, you say I don't know. But when you do
recognize them, and the more you recognize, shout out its name, all right? Understood? Then
let's start.
The kids in this class are barely five-years-old.
Euros.
Very good. Great.
A. A.
And this?
Nothing surprising so far then. But-Apple. Telephone. Computer.
Yes. And now even louder-McDonald's.
And we go there why?
To eat.
McDonald's.
How can McDonold's have made such an impact on five-year-olds? A simple test in front of
one of their restaurants provides the answer.
Who decided to go to McDonald's?
The kids.
The kids.
Why does the child like it?

Because there's a toy inside. That's it. It's just for the toy. He doesn't even eat. He just plays
with the toy.
Since I have three kids, that's three toys.
Oh, for the toy definitely. He eats hardly anything.
Does your child get upset if you don't go to McDonald's?
Yes. There you are. Look. Right now. He's all cross.
And this is McDonald's weapon of mass attraction, this toy, which may not look like much.
But it's highly profitable. This is a confidential document from a US Association of
McDonald's franchisees. It shows that 95% of families that visit McDonald's do so as a result
of their kids.
In the game of cat and mouse, children have little hope of escaping the clutches of
McDonald's. The brand has made sure it will indelibly mark their spirits. The man who
introduced toys to McDonald's has agreed to be interviewed.
He lives in a remote part of Arizona. And to find him takes you down many windswept dusty
roads. To be honest, we did get lost at one point.
But we did finally find his ranch. Before retiring with his wife and horses, Roy Bergold was
in charge of world marketing for McDonald's. He worked for the fast food giant for more
than 30 years.
I started in 1969. So that was a long time ago and only had about 600 restaurants in the
United States and none internationally. And now I think they're in about-- I'm not totally sure.
But I think they're in about 140 countries now. And I started about 100 countries.
The man who knows all the secrets of the multinational brand agrees for the first time to talk
money on camera. He denies nothing about the methods McDonald's used to become one of
the wealthiest brands in the world. And he explains why Ray Kroc, the company founder,
decided to focus on children.
If you can get the child at four, five, six-years-old to come to McDonald's, he's probably
going to continue to come as a teenager and as an adult and then to bring his kids. So Ray
always said if you have one dollar to spend on marketing, spend it on kids marketing.
The toy was the first marketing strategy aimed at attracting children with a clown
ambassador, Ronald McDonald.
$0.50 gift certificatee to every one. The nice way to say Merry Christmas.
Advertising featured restaurants, schools. It reached its target to associate McDonald's with a
brand, stamping feel good factor in the minds of future customers.

That way you're not a commercial. You're not there telling kids to do something. You're
simply giving a message that's important to that kid and to his parents and his teachers or
whatever.
Ronald is less in evidence these days. Here's the Happy Meal, a new character that's very
successful. McDonald's has an annual turnover of $47 billion.
We just plant the idea of fast food McDonald's in their mind. And, again, that translates into
I'm hungry. I think I'll go get something fast. That's McDonald's. And that's sales.
And that's the way it works. That's marketing muscle. And we do know that if you can be top
of mind with a person, in other words, if they think, I'm hungry, McDonald's, that's going to
be great. That's going to get you a lot of business. So we really believed in the power of
marketing and how we could have the top of mind awareness of a customer.
A little further to the west of Arizona is San Francisco. For the first time, a suit has been filed
against McDonald's for using this type of marketing strategy. It began with a housewife and
mother in Sacramento, California.
Monet Parham has a four-year-old and an eight-year-old daughter and a collection of
knickknacks gathered during their stops at the fast food chain. For months now she's been in
a legal wrangle with McDonald's. She wants the company to stop influencing kids by using
presents.
I think it's disgusting. You know, they're going any way they can to get to these small children
so that they can get a hook in them and keep them as customers for life.
But you cannot say no?
Absolutely.
I mean, the mother, it's the duty to say no.
Absolutely. And I say no all the time. I say no all the time. But I also don't want them hearing,
in terms of marketing, that, hey, this is cool. You should get this meal because you can get
this toy. And then you get all the fat and the sugar and the salt that comes with it.
It sort of normalizes the behavior for young children. It's OK because Barbie's label is on it.
You know, they're not able to think that through and process it in a way that helps them make
a healthy decision.
So I have to do that for them. And I have to say to a company like McDonald's I want you to
stop talking to my kids. Lauren, I just need a few minutes.
Monet Parham is not alone in this fight. An increasing number of Americans accuse
McDonald's of taking advantage of children's vulnerability. In addition, the city of San
Francisco has now banned toys from being provided in the happy meals. Legislators in New
York are thinking of doing the same.

At Stanford University a pediatrician has proved the impact of such marketing on children.
Tom Robinson used an enlightening method. He placed some french fries in McDonald's
packaging and some in a plain, unmarked box. He then asked 60 children to try them. And
this is what he found out.
Overwhelmingly kids pointed towards the food that they thought was from McDonald's. Even
though all the food was the same, if they thought a food came from McDonald's they actually
thought it tasted better. So not just whether they would choose it and not just whether they
wanted it, but actually whether it tasted better to them.
Skipity dum, skipity doo, I've got some spinach for all of you.
Yes, dear parents, educating your little darlings is made no easier when one brand shapes
their taste buds from the age of three to the extent of making them prefer its products to all
the rest.
Ice cream is hot stuff.
You said it, sport.
The major brands can do this because they know how to penetrate deep inside the fun part of
the brain, the prefrontal cortex. US researcher, Samuel McClure made the discovery. For
several years he's been scanning customers using an MRI, a Magnetic Resonance Imaging
scan. A large electromagnetic machine detects the flow blood to the activated parts of the
brain.
You're going to go in. You're going to lie down on this bed, and it's going to slide you in
about up to your waste. Now, there's some really important things because we're measuring
you brain activity. So you have to stay really still. That's a big deal.
In 2004, Samuel McClure conducted an experiment that gave rise to neuromarketing. Inside
the MRI the guinea pigs were given Pepsi and Coke. Without being told which was which, a
majority preferred the Pepsi. When they were told which brand before drinking, 3/4 preferred
Coke.
As soon as you have brand information, the pattern of brain activity changed entirely. We got
recruitment of the prefrontal cortex, which then we believe biases these sort of more basic
structures related to taste, so biases them to actually respond more vigorously to make you
think that you actually like this more.
By being embedded in our brains at a very young age, a brand like McDonald's can make us
become addicted to its product.
I'm hungry. I think I'll go get something fast. That's McDonald's.
The multinational doesn't stop there in its attempts to influence the public. During our
investigation we discovered McDonald's has been using customers brains to try out artificial
flavors. We managed to speak to one of those responsible for these secret studies. On
condition of anonymity he revealed what happened. This is not, mind, science fiction.

We're able to get consumers of our brand, pop them in a brain scanning machine, measure
their emotional response when we presented them with the fragrance. Now, that project is still
under test. But positionally and theoretically the brand is very interested in this concept.
Has it been applied in some restaurants?
It has been applied successfully in some restaurants in Germany and France and one or two in
the UK.
So you can say, [FRENCH], that changing the fragrances was successful.
They did brand perception research, and they saw a 7% increase in the brand perception
index. Now what they're doing is looking at the distribution chain to work out how they can
implement it fully.
We have a document that details the study. It explains that if the flavor is obviously present,
rational thought will uncover the ploy that will then become ineffective. As part of the test
McDonald's apparently placed some of the odor as cleaning products to subtly be defused
without the clients realizing what was happening.
Today it's been proven that a smell that provokes a positive emotion will increase sales.
Procter & Gamble, one of the world's biggest mass market retailers, used an artificial
perfume under the lid of one of its washing liquid brands, Ariel. As a result, sales increased
by 70%.
Martin Lindstrom knows this kind of method well. The Dane is one of the most successful
neuromarketing consultants. Among his clients is McDonald's.
Smell is the only sense we have which is bypassing the rational part of our brains and goes
straight to the emotional part of the brain. And even though I would tell you that they're
manipulating that smell, I would still not be able to say, hey, I don't want to be affected by it
because that smell goes straight to the emotion part of my brain, so the rational filter cannot
say, hey, don't be affected by it.
With a broom and a brush-We know what you're thinking. From now on you will never look at a McDonald's employee
in the same way.
--put a shine on the floor.
By experimenting on its customer's brains and using a perfume that will make us buy more, is
the company really respecting its ethical charter?
--get away to McDonald's, McDonald's, McDonald's.
On its website the company claims, "we operate our business ethically. Sound ethics is good
business." We asked McDonald's directly, but the company refuses any comment. In three
successive emails it denies the charge, and states "McDonald's has never conducted any
neuromarketing studies."

And yet we tracked down the company that surveyed consumers in MRI machines on behalf
of McDonald's. It's called Neurosense and is based in London. On the internet it lists its
major clients. They include GSK, a pharmaceutical laboratory, Unilever, and McDonald's.
Neurosense's boss is Gemma Calvert.
--show you some various brands and products.
Her works centers on making sure a product, an advertisement, or smell will act positively on
the consumer's brain, what's known as the reward circuit. It's the holy grail for all companies.
The small region, which lies deep in the limbic system is part of the reward network.
This is the nucleus accumbens and it has lots of dopamine neurons. So dopamine is the kind
of feel good molecule which is in the brain. And it's expressed, for example, during sex. It's
expressed with cocaine and other pleasurable experiences such as eating chocolate.
So they're looking at products you can activate the same part of the brain that people who are
taking drugs or something like that?
That's right. These are all reward centers. They're pleasure areas of the brain, which is why
people buy them so much.
So this is the future that lies in store for us thanks to neuromarketing. It's what might happen
to your brain by simply walking to a shop. Tempting, isn't it?
On your website you have several brands. Do you have McDonald's?
Yes. We work for a range of companies across a very broad range of their products and for a
very large number of questions with those companies.
And you are able to say what you do for these companies?
Of course, we have MDA's with many companies just like any other market research
company.
What do you mean by-I've got to stop though. Sorry.
Restricted by confidentiality agreements, Gemma Calvert cannot talk about McDonald's. But
another researcher will prove far more enlightening. We meet at Oxford University's
Department of Experimental Psychology. And going into the laboratory we discover-It's alive. It's alive. It's alive.
No. Actually what we see is this, a professor who specializes in neuromarketing and who
took part in the studies for the fast food giant. Before the interview, Charles Spence says he
won't mention McDonald's name on camera. Listen carefully to what he has to say. He's a
little bothered. But what he does say is very interesting.

I've been involved in a project for one of the burger chains who are interested in launching
store fragrance. So they funded a number of projects trying to see can brain scanning, as one
of those techniques, help us to choose perfume A, B or C. And there what the researchers
were looking for was an increase in the blood flow in the parts of the brain responding to
flavor and reward when one fragrance was paired with a McDonald's imagery.
So you showed the logo of McDonald's, and then you make people smell the new fragrance?
So for the burger chain-- I'm not saying which one.
You just said it was McDonald's.
No, I didn't. You did.
No, no. You said-No, I said a burger chain.
All right, let's check.
With a McDonald's imagery. With a McDonald's imagery. What's the question again?
The researcher said the majority of people scanned were women, typically with two children.
Kids, don't forget, are one of McDonald's principal targets. Then when he doesn't realize he's
being filmed, Charles Spence will give us the very proof we've been looking for. And here
they are, McDonald's small, artificial perfume bottles.
That's one of the McDonald's fragrances.
And it does indeed smell nice.
So it's to diffuse on the product or-In store.
In store.
And that was one of the other ones.
Because it doesn't smell burger.
No. Exactly. It's sort of fruity, a bit floral. It's a healthy rebranding.
This kind of practice is completely hidden from the client, something Commercial Alert, a US
consumer association has strongly condemned. Jeffery Chester is its spokesperson. We show
him the interview.
To choose between two fragrance. When one fragrance was paired with a McDonald's
imagery. This was one of the other ones.

When McDonald's is testing its products to see whether or not it increases the blood flow to
the brain, what it really says is that consumers are not being given a fair chance, have any
choice. So consumers today are being heavily influenced by multiple neuromarketing
campaigns that raise questions about how long will we be able to engage in truly independent
action?
McDonald's still refuses to respond to our various interview requests. So we head to
interview them at a conference called Let's Dare France, a forum, apparently, for companies
who dare. The head of McDonald's France is there, of course, and is about to speak.
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
And the executive vice president for McDonald's Europe. Luckily it's open to the media. And,
yes, that's us down there.
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
Yes, it's true I started up McDonald's here in 1985. We had just 17 restaurants then. France
now represents $4.2 billion in turnover.
In a few years we have not just become the second largest market after the United States, but
we've also learned how to dare when sometimes it's better to say sorry than to ask permission.
It's quicker, especially for the large multinationals.
After the speech, it's our turn to ask a few questions.
Mr. Petit, [INAUDIBLE] from France TV. We've sent several interview requests to your
office. And since we never received a reply, I'm daring to interview you now. Have you dared
to use neuromarketing techniques in the McDonald's group?
No.
No neuromarketing?
No, no. I said no. We don't use that sort of technique.
Well, the thing is, we have definite information that shows you place mothers of children in
MRI scans in the UK mainly to test new odors that might then be used in McDonald's outlets.
So we know that, yes, you have used it.
I don't know what they might do in England. That's not my responsibility. But it would
surprise me a lot actually because I don't see the point of artificial smells.
Well, that's exactly what they are.
No, I don't think that was done in England.
I can assure you it was.
Well, you'll need to prove it.

But I can prove it. It was done through the intermediary of a company, Neurosense, and by a
University Professor called Charles Spence who is also involved in the research and who
confirmed it and provided documents showing that it was carried out.
Well, show me the documents, although I doubt it.
Doesn't it shock you to put mom's inside an MRI scan to see what's happening inside their
brains?
I would be deeply shocked because that's not the way our company works. And to answer
your question at the risk of contradicting you-Oh, not at all. Your answer would be great.
I categorically deny it.
I don't doubt it. But we're certain of our facts.
It's just one professor who gave you some information.
No, no. We're absolutely sure of it. And besides, Neurosense is the company that used the
MRI scans. And they've even put you on their website where you're quoted as being clients.
Excuse me, but this interview is over. And I'm asking you to stop. So make an appointment.
You would agree to be interviewed?
Of course.
All right.
You've been investigating this for six months. So I would like to give you detailed answers.
Let me be precise right now. These measures are not being taken in France.
Jean-Pierre Petit seems to not be aware then of the tests conducted by his company.
One of the McDonald's fragrances. When one fragrance is paired with a McDonald's imagery.
It has been applied successfully in Germany and France and one or two in the UK.
After our meeting, France Television and ourselves received a registered letter from the
company. It states our information is false and threatens legal action if we broadcast it. But a
few days later McDonald's suddenly agrees to an interview.
We're told to meet them in a small, central Paris hotel. Our interviewee is Pierre Vortek who
is the head of brand strategy in Europe. We believe that he is responsible for the McDonald's
surveys.
Has the company ever used neuromarketing?

Well, in 2006 we had a problem raised by a consumer who told us we had an odor problem in
a restaurant. For years we tried to find a scent that could solve this problem, which was the
food smell. So we decided to find a scent that could suit the McDonald's brand.
OK. So was neuromarketing used? Yes or no.
There was a new system that would allow us to see if the smell would match the McDonald's
brand. Now, what's important to know here is what happened after. What happened after is
nothing.
But, wait, it's important to know what happened anyway. So then you placed women in
MRI's?
We did put mothers inside with the smell and brand images to see if the two would match.
Inside MRI's, right?
Yes. Yes. We agree, in MRI's.
I want us to be clear that we are in agreement.
We agree. We did a study that simply compared a smell with an image of McDonald's to see
if they matched.
Can you confirm whether or not in 2006, through the Neurosense Company, whether or not
mothers were placed in MRI's to test some smells and images of McDonald's?
They were put there to test images.
In MRI's?
Some in MRI's.
Thank you, Mr. Vortek for admitting that. So you say it all led to nothing.
No. It was not successful at all. We tested three odors in restaurants. Consumers said they
couldn't notice anything so we stopped.
You see, a perfume like that is used in several places. It has to go through the air conditioning
system. We didn't want to do that for reasons of hygiene.
The information we have is that it was placed in cleaning products.
Exactly. We wanted to do that. Instead of having that slight chemical smell, we wanted to put
it in hygiene products. But it proved impossible because it meant the companies who
provided the cleaning products would have had to radically change their formulation. So we
left it.
Do you regret it today?

Are you asking me what I think of Neurosense?

Yes. Yes, I am.
I have no regrets. If you ask whether at the time we thought it would be harmful, no. Not one
person thought it was wrong.
But does neuromarketing offend you today?
Yes. I wouldn't use it. At the time, people who did, they didn't think they were doing anything
wrong.
You included?
When we did the study, when we saw the result, yes. By trying to compare a smell with a
brand and whether it was bad?
By placing people in MRI's.
Listen, when I saw it, I was greatly surprised. I did find it surprising. Did I think there was a
huge ethical problem at the time? No.
If I understand you well, Mr. Vortek. What you're saying here and now is that McDonald's
will never use neuromarketing techniques again. Is that right?
Yes. Yes. And in any case, as long as I'm here, I can say yes.
More and more companies are specializing in neuromarketing these days.
I was born with the power to read your brain activity. I'm a G. Neuroscience is the study of
the brain.
Here's a promo for one of the best known.
This is how it works. You brain's a series of complex networks. It's based in California, and
it's called NeuroFocus.
My form perfect. That's my word. 100 billion brains cells chilling in your head-They turned down our request for an interview. But since we were in the neighborhood
anyway, we rang their doorbell and brought a hidden camera with us.
Hello. Nice to meet you.
I'm sorry. But we don't work this way.
What do you mean?
We can't accommodate you if you just show up on our doorstep.

Actually, you said that you don't want to communicate with French TV?
No, no, no. That's not the case. We're simply too busy.
Is it correct that you're working on the subconscious of people here?
Absolutely. That's what we do. We test people's subconscious responses to stimuli. That's the
nature of our business. We've worked for Hewlett Packard. We've worked for Google,
Microsoft. I'm only going to talk about the client list that is approved.
OK. But the-Listen to me. I am very busy right now. I've explained our position. And I don't have any
more time to spend with you. I'm sorry. OK. Thank you.
Welcome to the world of the neuromarket.
So this is the world of neuromarketing. They measure our subconscious but refuse to talk
about it.
I can see the attention that you pay. I can say what sort are your memories. Don't worry, they
can't see between you and me. We measure the full brain.
And yet this is serious stuff. NeuroFocus is even associated with Eric Kandel, Nobel Laureate
for medicine. The crisis is impacting the consumer's wallet. But companies don't want to see
their sales flaw.
Encouraged by their marketing departments, they call on businesses such as these. In
complete secrecy they scrutinize the brain patterns of their clients to play on their emotions,
their urges, and their subconscious. Their aim is to push them to buy even more. These
techniques aren't very ethical, which may explain why the companies that use them are
reluctant to give interviews.
But one neuromarketing consultant allows us in on one of their training sessions. This
Frenchman lives on the west coast in the States and has set up his own business called Sales
Brain. His customers today are businessmen from Oregon. Some own restaurants. Others sell
agricultural material or even washing machines.
Good Morning. What if you could discover a buy button inside the brain of your customers?
What if you could learn what it takes to actually push that buy button inside the brain? And
what if all it took to do this was two hours of your time this morning?
Patrick Renvoise doesn't use MRI scans. His company has developed a method that merges
neuromarketing and sales techniques.
But guess what. The thinking portion of the brain is really a decision influencer. But it is not
the decision maker. It's not the boss.

But the actual part of the brain that triggers the decision is called the reptilian brain. And the
reptilian brain is the top of the stem and the portion that unites both hemispheres. Make
sense? We decide at the level of a crocodile, of a reptile. Why?
This exercise is to help Patrick Renvoise teach his clients to touch the primary instincts, to
incite the act of buying.
And the reptilian brain is the realm of the pain and the fears. It's really the realm of the
subconsciousness. So your job, if you want to be successful, is not to start at the wish and the
wants and the needs of your customers, but really to drill inside the iceberg until you find
their pain and then to develop a business whose objective will be to eliminate that pain.
A four hour session is enough to convince the businessmen.
Boy, we came really close, right? [INAUDIBLE].
It does kind of freak me out. It freaks me out that that's why I do things, and those who get
really good at it can get me to do this by utilizing those techniques.
[INAUDIBLE]?
Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
But that's business.
I'm sure an argument could be made that it's manipulation. But it's what's driving our world.
There's always a danger of manipulating people. But on the other hand, when the method of
decision making is public knowledge, it's also the responsibility of the consumer to
understand what companies do to sell their products.
Now, I want you to keep your eyes on this little locket. Your eyes are growing heavy.
But can one be aware of it when you talk directly to our reptile brain?
You can hardly keep them open.
Patrick Renvoise's life is spent traveling all around the world to spread the word of
neuromarketing. For several years he's been coming back to France at the request of big
companies. Here he is in Nice a few hours before he's due to give a speech to a large French
company. But this time, we're not allowed to record what will happen.
Your client doesn't want to talk about it?
No, my client doesn't want to talk about it as, once again, neuromarketing in France is a bit of
a taboo subject. People in France often confuse manipulation and conviction.
Careful now. The logic of the next argument is not that easy to follow.

You need to understand how to push your proposition a little by saying that if your glass is
now half full, your glass is more than half full. You shouldn't say that it's more than half full
while making your client understand that it's not half empty.
Lost, right? Well, we were too.
So your client needs to think the glass is half full or half empty?
Neuromarketing helps your clients to understand that if the glass is half empty, it's actually
half full.
Patrick Renvoise refuses to name his client today. But we think that a company that is telling
its sales forces about neuromarketing is not just any old business. So we look around Nice
and find out that 230 salesmen are staying in a large downtown hotel.
They're here to take part in a conference hosted by Patrick Renvoise. Their employer is
Arkea, a subsidiary of the Credit Mutuel Bank. These banker's jobs are to sell financial
products to companies as well as to public institutions, such as local communes or health
authorities.
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
Arkea's slogan is "the bank with a human face." So how does neuromarketing fit into this?
With a hidden camera, we approach the salesmen as they're leaving the conference.
Tell me what you learned this morning, and what benefit is it to you?
What I retain mainly is the reptile brain, that purchasing is linked to the subconscious.
Well, I've learned that we need to anticipate what the brain really wants. And I've learned how
to understand that the brain wants without them knowing.
Do you think the application might be contentious?
Well, yes, of course because it's almost like manipulation a bit. It's a good technique because
it can be applied to finance and other products as well.
What sort of products are you selling actually? Financial ones?
Insurance, credit. Well, anyway, I really enjoyed the conference. It was very good.
OK, thanks.
We're probably naive. But to us, the Credit Mutuel, France's fourth favorite bank, used to be
this.
I've got some bad news.
Oh, yeah?

Well, what would you do if Father Christmas doesn't exist?

What are you talking about? You're dreaming. You don't think they're selling financial
products just because they're good for you?
Well, Yeah.
Credit Mutuel, more than ever the bank to talk to.
The Credit Mutuel may be the bank to talk to, but not necessarily the bank to get interviews
from. It refuses interviews, adding via email, "this conference's only goal was to open
people's minds about a subject which might be of interest to salesmen. And, besides, we don't
see any ethical problem."
We call one of those responsible up by phone, and then everything seems clearer.
It might be counterproductive for us to appear as if we practice neuromarketing purely to
enter into our customer's brain, do you know what I mean? [LAUGHS]
Well, why is that then? Well, when we use neuromarketing, it's to be able to almost
subliminally touch someone who might be right there, right in front of you.
OK.
But I'm still intrigued because one can manipulate people by the way you behave, by the way
you speak in exactly the same way.
But the product doesn't change though. It's just the way you deal with your customers.
Well, that's all the neuromarketing traffic.
In France, a philosopher who follows the trends of consumer society has risen up against this
use of neuroscience for purely commercial ends.
From the moment neuroscience is involved, it allows one to intervene directly on the reptilian
layers of the brain. I receive, or I give. Those are the levels of the reptilian brain.
What makes neuromarketing work today is the use made of the immediate reaction. That's
because there's a reaction that can be very easily manipulated. When you know how to take
advantage of this, you can manipulate people as if they were puppets. You press the button,
and they provide the reaction. That's what's so worrying about it.
In theory, there are laws limiting this kind of practice. Marketing studies using MRI scans are
actually banned by law in France. Public health rules of the civil code only allow experiments
on human beings for strictly scientific or medical purposes.
What happens before the advertising when I'm shown this logo before I've seen the ad 10
times and after I've seen the ad more than 10 times. There are long term functional changes in
the brain. So who's the ultimate client? What I say is I work for market research groups.

After the speech, and still on camera, [INAUDIBLE] reels off a list of his clients. SFR,
MAAF Insurance, Cartier, and SNCF French Railways. Patrick doesn't wish to talk about this
last client, again, as a matter of the confidentiality clause.
But why would French Railways use neuromarketing? We tracked down someone who was
involved in the survey. He was an intermediary between the railways and [INAUDIBLE]
Belgian company. He described the experiments on condition of anonymity.
What the FMCF was testing on customer's brains was its online ticket sales site. French
Railways told us its main target or targets. And its invited its website users to surf the
internet.
You may be looking for train tickets from Paris to Brussels or from Paris to Leon online. And
you're invited to sign up to buy a ticket. What we do is to evaluate how easy or difficult it
may be.
So you use the MRI scan to sell tickets?
Exactly.
To a volunteer?
Oh, yes. And we try out different versions.
On the computer, top right, are the web pages that are being tested. In the center is the image
and color of the zones of the brain that have been more active during the experiment.
So you check whether the reward circuit has been activated by a web page?
Precisely. The reward circuit.
French Railways asked them to test one page with a background picture of a pine tree and
then one without the pine tree.
We tested reaction to various perfumes that resembled pine trees. And in the part of the brain
that recognizes smell, what's known as the olfactory cortex, we noticed some activity. So in
part, for the imagination, it worked. In other words, it did smell of pine a little.
So on top of the page there's something about Strasbourg for the Christmas holidays. So if the
smell makes your imagination think of Christmas and Christmas trees, all the better as it
makes the offer tangible. They said they wanted people to buy tickets more easily without
hassle and find the information they needed quicker.
Times have changed on the railways. The days of steam are long gone. And buying your fare
from a human being at the ticket counter may soon disappear too.
Everything seems to be happening far quicker these days. More than 60 million tickets were
sold by associates each year on its website. [INAUDIBLE], which is quite remarkably
interested in what your brain is up to, is also France's leading online travel agency. And that's
something French Railway seems quite determined to get into your skulls.

Everyone should know that SNCF also sells airline tickets. We have all the solutions, plane
tickets, car rentals, voyages. Sncf.com is more than just about trains. You'll soon get used to
it. Voyages-sncf.com will take you further than you might have thought.
We asked the head of the SNCF travel agency, [INAUDIBLE], if they haven't gone just a
little bit over the top.
What I'd like to know is what kind of study you conducted and how precisely you conducted
it to establish what people liked or didn't like?
Well, first we asked different types of customers because, well, travelsncf.com is a special
site. In a way, it's the site of all the French people. It's a site visited by about 80% of French
internet users.
Well, you'd like to be inside of the customer's head to know exactly how they feel when they
visit your site, wouldn't you?
Well, of course.
Do you use any neuromarketing techniques?
We did actually use some, yes.
Ah, so you did use some?
Yes.
Tell me what you did.
In fact, what we wanted to know was if the customer's brain spontaneously reacted positively
or not to the site.
So you did neuromarketing by placing some of your customers in MRI's to see the reaction in
their brains. Is that right?
I'm not explaining myself well. We know that this technology exists. But it's not a technology
that we use in travelsncf.com.
You've never used it?
No.
Are you sure?
No. I don't think so.
You didn't use it in France or Belgium?
Maybe in Belgium on our site.

Well, we have proof that you used it in Belgium and customers underwent MRI scans. There.
SNCF is written on these documents. So you can see that the SNCF has practiced
neuromarketing and has put its clients in an MRI for their site.
Well, hang on. There are several things here. The technology exists. The question you're
asking is if we used it extensively. And my answer is no. We may have used it experimentally
once. It's possible.
But you agree that there is evidence you used neuromarketing in Belgium, placing people in
MRI's to see their reactions to your site?
It's not impossible there may have been tests in an experiment one day. But in no way do we
want to generalize the use of these methods.
So why did you do it?
Well, listen, we did it because now everyone does it. But we decided not to use it regularly.
I don't think everyone does do it because it's illegal in France. Let me quote you article 1614
of the civil code. I quote, "brain technique can be used only for medical purposes or in
forensic cases." And this is neither one nor the other.
Which is why we don't do it anymore.
Is it a taboo subject in France, apart from being illegal?
I don't know. It's the first time anyone's ever asked me about it.
You mean the first time a journalist has asked you about it because the topic was started by
someone. So they must have told you about it.
No, of course. But, again, it's extremely marginal. I don't want our viewers to think that it's a
widespread practice. That is not the case.
But my question is, is it taboo?
I don't know what to tell you. I don't know. I don't know what to tell you.
OK. Thank you.
Consumers, do not be afraid. The neuromarketing experts are working on your behalf for a
better world, a world where hamburger chains put a smile on your children's faces, where
bankers know how to soothe your anxieties, and where beauty creams fill you with desire. No
matter what the product, tomorrow, you will be satisfied by simply just opening your wallets.
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