If you’ve heard of neuromarketing then you’ll know that the evidence for its effectiveness is patchy and unconvincing, and some may say it is ethically dubious – and yet some firms have spent untold amounts on market research that tries to find out what makes people want to buy products by linking stimuli with responses on EEG or MRI scans. I have just listened to ‘Out of the Ordinary’ on Radio 4 – a fascinating exploration of ‘the buy button’: the classic story of the Coke vs Pepsi neuromarketing challenge is particularly illuminating. Catch it now on BBC Sounds – it’s available for over a year at https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000tvmc.
