[6] This may represent an interaction between the perceived attractiveness of the ad by the consumer and the emotions expressed by the people pictured in the advertisement.
[7] There are various studies that have been conducted to research the question of how consumers process and store the information presented in advertisements.
It has been suggested that the transfer of visual advertising inputs from short term memory to long term memory may take place in the left hemisphere, and highly memorable ads can be created by producing the fastest responses in the left hemisphere.
[11] Research has shown that there are certain periods of commercials that are far more significant for the consumer in terms of establishing advertising effects.
[14] Ambler and Burne in 1999 created the Memory-Affect-Cognition (MAC) theory to explain the processes involved in decision making.
[15] The above findings suggest a correlation exists between ad memorization and the degree of affective content within the advertisement, but it is still unclear how this translates to brand memory.
[7] Brand loyalty has been shown to be the result of changes in neural activity in the striatum, which is part of the human action reward system.
For example, a helpful salesman or a discount in price may serve as a reward to encourage future customer loyalty.
Also, an association was found between insula activation (a brain area connected to urging, addiction, loss aversion, and interpersonal love), and established close relationships.
[26] One MRI study found that there was significantly increased activation in the brain reward centers including the orbitofrontal cortex, the ventral striatum and the anterior cingulate when consumers were looking at sports cars as compared to sedans (presumably because the status symbol associated with sports cars is rewarding in some way).
[27] Many corporations have conducted similar MRI studies to investigate the effect of their brand on consumers including Delta Air Lines, General Motors, Home Depot, Hallmark, and Motorola but the results have not been made public.
These brain structures are known to play a role in memory and recollection, which indicates they are helping the subjects to connect their present drinking experience to previous brand associations.
[29] Research in consumer buying has focused on the identification of processes that contribute to an individual making a purchase.
[32] Several MEG studies have been conducted to measure the neuronal correlates associated with decision making in order to investigate the underlying processes governing purchasing.
The right parietal cortex is activated when consumers choose a familiar brand, which indicates the choice is at least partially intentional and behavior is influenced by prior experiences.
[33][26] MEG findings also suggest that even repetitive daily shopping that is apparently simple actually relies on very complex neural mechanisms.
[7] It has been shown that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is heavily involved in decisions regarding brand-related preferences and individuals with damage to this region of the brain do not demonstrate normal brand-preference behavior.
Consumer studies help neuroscience to learn more about how healthy and unhealthy brain functions differ, which may assist in discovering the neural source of consumption-related dysfunctions and treat a variety of addictions.
Additionally, studies are currently underway to investigate the neural mechanism of “anchoring”, which has been thought to contribute to obesity because people are more influenced by the behaviors of their peers than an internal standard.