Heather Luscombe
A recent study has shown that when we see a familiar brand, we activate parts of the brain normally used to process emotions.
The study was conducted on almost 50 students at the University of California in Los Angeles, and published in the New Scientist (www.newscientist.com).
And the results offer a fascinating insight into our obsession with brands - perhaps offering some explanation into why so many consumers like to parade around like a walking billboard for their fave clothing manufacturer, or even have the logo shaved into their hair!
It seems that our brain responds entirely differently to the sight of a recognised brand name compared to a generic term.
When words like 'tree' were displayed, subjects spotted them fastest when displayed on the left hand side of a screen - the side not associated with emotional thought.
The opposite happened when recognised brands were displayed. Subjects recognised them words fastest when they were displayed on the right side of the screen, suggesting that the recognition was largely processed by the right hand side of the brain - the part most commonly associated with the processing of emotions.
Robert Jones, consultant for brand strategists Wolff Olins told New Scientist: "A brand's power is that it conjures up a whole range of associations and ideas, which are primarily emotional."
www.newscientist.com
www.wolff-olins.com
www.berkeley.edu
