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Daily Pulse

Neuromarketing?

Joel Patterson Nov 24, 2011

Do we really need to hand over more effective ammo to marketers looking to sell us things we either don’t need, already have, or simply can’t afford? Well, tomorrow we will. It’s called “neuromarketing.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that a division of the marketing agency Interpublic Group has recruited 50 shoppers in Los Angeles, Boston and Atlanta to take place in a study aimed at understanding the link between our emotions and our wallets. The human guinea pigs will be strapped with biometric bracelets about the size of a wristwatch, which will measure micro changes in perspiration levels as they shop. Sweat means excitement, or so the theory goes.

But not all experts are on board here. When you consider that an estimated 152 million Americans will go out bargain hunting tonight and tomorrow, at only 50, the study’s sample size is extremely small.

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