[3] traditional research could be history.

Companies such as McDonald's and Procter & Gamble are constantly trying to get in the consumers minds, literally. The next advancement in market research comes by way of neuromarketing, the newest technology behind the "it" trend in advertising.

In a basic sense, neuromarketing closely monitors cognitive areas of the brain as research subjects view different advertisements while undergoing an fMRI test. On the forefront of this new technology is Dr. Marco Icaboni, founder of Illuminare Labs. The cognitive areas of the brain that are highlighted as a higher concentration of blood flows into them are as follows:

1. Striatum - area of the brain that codes rewards 
2. Posterior Inferior Frontal Gyrus - area of the brain that shows empathy or identification
3. Medial Prefrontal Cortex - area of the brain that affects decision making and social cognition

From Adweek's "Your Brain on Marketing"

As activity is produced in these brain regions it shows researchers how the test subject connects with the message. For example, if the posterior inferior frontal gyrus is activated while viewing an advertisement, he or she identifies and/or empathizes with the actor or product in question.

Why shift from traditional market research to advanced technological studies? Because, "sometimes we don't really even know what we really like" says Icaboni. Oftentimes members of focus groups fall victim to social pressure, not accurately depicting actual thoughts but instead what they think they should feel. Icaboni administered a test to females that showed advertisements that played on a woman's sex appeal. While participants told the examiners the commercial was "exploitative" and felt a negative reaction to it, the brain monitoring told otherwise. The subjects actually empathized with the woman on-screen and many of them identified with her. [To read more test conclusions and a full report on this technology, check out Adweek's article "This Is Your Brain On Marketing".]

This begs the question of whether or not traditional market research is on the way out or not. If neuromarketing allows researchers to physically view emotions, why ever go back to taking people's word for it? Well, a lot of variables come into question here including accuracy of the test and cost for companies to administer it. Sure, every brand wants to get as close to the consumers thought process as possible yet not all brands have the budgets that the big boys like Procter & Gamble do.

Neuromarketing shouldn't be a replacement of traditional market research, just another weapon to add to the arsenal. A pretty darn good weapon.