Shannon Bosshard.
Consumer neuroscientist Shannon Bosshard has launched start-up GreyMattr, a brand health tracking platform using a concept called Mental Authority which gets deep under the skin of consumers.
Bosshard, and a team of industry veterans including Phil Ely, are looking to solve the issues associated with self-reported data. Are people just saying what they think they should of what they actually thought?
“Most behaviour is driven by subconscious processes that we aren't consciously aware of, so when we ask people why they do things, they are great at giving answers without actually having any idea 'why',” Bosshard told AdNews. “Neuroscience allows us to go beneath the surface.
“There is nothing else like this in the market, either domestically or internationally.
The GreyMattr team of engineers, strategists, data scientists and researchers has spent the last 12 months developing the GreyMattr Index (GMI) which measures Mental Authority.
Mental Authority represents the power of a brand as stored in both the conscious and subconscious mind, specifically the neural processes related to attention, motivation, emotion and memory.
The index quantifies the strength, complexity and interconnectedness of the neural reactions directly associated with a brand.
‘Whenever we are consciously exposed to a stimulus, in a fraction of a second the brain generates physical activity in response,” Bosshard said.
“The team has developed a methodology specifically focused on using EEG (electroencephalogram) to measure the power and complexity of the reaction to highly specific brand stimuli and to then quantify it through the GMI and understand a brand’s true Mental Authority.”
Neuroscience has been used commercially for the past two decades, but it's been used mainly as a tool to measure creative performance.
“We are the first to apply it in a commercial setting to understand changes to brand health," he said.
Bosshard said traditional brand health tracking solutions rely on survey methodologies that cannot overcome the brain to mouth bias.
“No matter how honest people intend to be, the majority of brand perceptions and purchase intentions are the result of subconscious processes, which means we’re not consciously aware of them.
“This means that there is always a degree of inaccuracy introduced to their responses. This is why asking people questions regarding brand preferences and purchase intentions produces inconsistent results.”
To quote David Ogilvy: “The problem with marketing research is that people don’t think what they feel, they don’t say what they think and they don’t do what they say.”
GreyMattr is seeking interest for a limited number of partners to join in its closed alpha program.
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