Neuronal Correlates of Product Feature Attractiveness

Abstract

Decision-making is the process of selecting a logical choice from among the available options and happens as a complex process in the human brain. It is based on information processing and cost-analysis; it involves psychological factors, specifically, emotions. In addition to cost factors personal preferences have significant influence on decision making. For marketing purposes, it is interesting to know how these emotions are related to product acquisition decision and how to improve these products according to the user's preferences. For our proof-of-concept study, we use magneto- and electro-encephalography (MEG, EEG) to evaluate the very early reactions in the brain related to the emotions. Recordings from these methods are comprehensive sources of information to investigate neural processes of the human brain with good spatial- and excellent temporal resolution. Those characteristics make these methods suitable to examine the neurologic process that gives origin to human behavior and specifically, decision making. Literature describes some neuronal correlates for individual preferences, like asymmetrical distribution of frequency specific activity in frontal and prefrontal areas, which are associated with emotional processing. Such correlates could be used to objectively evaluate the pleasantness of product appearance and branding (i.e., logo), thus avoiding subjective bias. This study evaluates the effects of different product features on brain activity and whether these methods could potentially be used for marketing and product design. We analyzed the influence of color and fit of sports shirts, as well as a brand logo on the brain activity, specifically in frontal asymmetric activation. Measurements were performed using MEG and EEG with 10 healthy subjects. Images of t-shirts with different characteristics were presented on a screen. We recorded the subjective evaluation by asking for a positive, negative or neutral rating. The results showed significantly different responses between positively and negatively rated shirts. While the influence of the presence of a logo was present in behavioral data, but not in the neurocognitive data, the influence of shirt fit and color could be reconstructed in both data sets. This method may enable evaluation of subjective product preference.

Keywords: attractiveness; brain activity; electroencephalography; emotion; magnetoencephalography; neurology.

Figure 1

Soccer shirts as visual stimuli varying in color, fit, and presence of a branding.

Figure 2

Experimental design. At first subjects saw a fixation cross for 1 s, followed by the shirt picture for 2 s. Then the subjects had to decide if they like or dislike the product or if they don't care (“Did you like the shirt? 3 = yes, 4 = no, 5 = don't care”). To proceed they had to press button 2. In the last two steps the subjects were allowed to blink.

Figure 3

Source montage concept: (A) grand averages of “like” (left), “dislike” (middle), and “don't care” for all MEG channels; (B) MEG flux map exemplarily for the maximum of the “like” condition, calculated from the grand average “like” data from (A); (C) this data is projected on the 29 BESA standard source space positions; (D) data projected on the positions in (C) to evaluate the activation in these 29 different brain areas.

Figure 4

Power spectral density of MEG (left) and EEG (right) grand averages for the conditions like and dislike.

Figure 5

Clusters of significant differences in EEG sensor level analysis of like vs. dislike conditions. Boxes mark sensors with significant differences.

Figure 6

Clusters of significant differences in MEG sensor level analysis of like vs. dislike conditions. Boxes mark sensors with significant differences.