Sales Success Shows Neuromarketing Moves Magazines: New Scientist Reports 12% Increase in Newsstand Sales for Issue Featuring NeuroFocus-Tested Cover Design

LONDON , Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- For marketers everywhere, especially consumer goods companies for whom packaging is a critical determinant of success, the question asked has now been definitively answered: neuromarketing can increase sales—substantially.

When New Scientist approached NeuroFocus to test three different cover designs for an August issue of the magazine, the challenge crystallized what marketers around the globe want to know. Does neuromarketing produce real-world marketplace success?

"We worked with NeuroFocus to select an appealing cover design for New Scientist using their neuromarketing technology," said Graham Lawton, deputy editor. "This issue of the magazine achieved strong UK newsstand sales, making it the second highest selling issue of the year, which is very unusual for the normally quiet month of August. This represents a 12 per cent increase over the same issue in the previous year and is much higher than we would expect for a similar cover story at that time of year, so we would certainly say the experiment was a big success."

Applying its EEG-based full brain measurements of test subjects' subconscious responses to the three covers, NeuroFocus identified one as clearly superior in terms of its overall neurological effectiveness. That specific design scored exceptionally well in emotional engagement, which is one of NeuroFocus' primary NeuroMetrics, the others being attention and memory retention. From those primary NeuroMetrics, NeuroFocus derives measures of purchase intent, novelty, and awareness.

This neuromarketing research marks the first time that the publishing industry has applied EEG technology to determine the appeal of cover designs to the buying public. The results have very significant implications for companies across many categories, but especially those for whom the effectiveness of packaging design is a vital marketplace component.

"A cross-section of the world's leading companies are already using our neurological testing and realizing the benefits firsthand themselves," said Dr. A. K. Pradeep, Chief Executive Officer of NeuroFocus. "What these results for New Scientist add is clear, unmistakable, and very public validation for the core science that underlies all that we do at NeuroFocus. We are proud to have helped New Scientist achieve this success, we appreciate their confidence in our capabilities, and we invite the rest of the publishing industry and other companies as well to adopt this 21st century marketing science for their own advantage."

Dr. Pradeep added that the same neuromarketing technology and methodology used for the New Scientist study is applied to enable clients to ascertain consumers' subconscious responses to package design. "A magazine cover serves the same purpose as a package design does for consumer goods," he said. "It attracts attention and stimulates emotional engagement, which is essential to drive purchase intent. This kind of sales success, in such a competitive environment as a crowded newsstand, carries real meaning for manufacturers, marketers, and retailers. Full-brain neurological testing provides a deep dive into consumers' subconscious minds, where product trial and purchase decisions are made, and where brand loyalty is formed. This study shows clearly and unequivocally what our neuromarketing capabilities can deliver at the cash register."

Dr. Pradeep is the author of the new best-seller, "The Buying Brain: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind."

About NeuroFocus

The world's largest neuromarketing firm, NeuroFocus (http://neurofocus.com) brings advanced neuroscience knowledge and expertise to the worlds of branding, product development and packaging, in-store marketing, advertising, and entertainment. NeuroFocus clients include leading companies across categories including automotive, consumer packaged goods, entertainment, food and beverage, financial services, Internet, telecom, pharmaceutical, retail, and other sectors.

Headquartered in the U.S. and operating globally through offices and NeuroLabs in the UK and Europe, the Asia/Pacific region, Latin America, and the Middle East, the company leverages Nobel Prize calibre and Doctorate-level credentials in neuroscience and marketing from UC Berkeley, MIT, Harvard, Oxford, Columbia University, and other leading institutions, combined with executive business management and consulting experience.

SOURCE NeuroFocus