Presentation to examine the inner-workings of human desire

HOUSTON, September 24, 2012 – Marketing may not be brain surgery, but it appears to be getting closer. Schipul – The Web Marketing Company (www.schipul.com), a leading Web marketing and software development company, today announced that Data Analyst Dharol Tankersley, PhD, will present, “Neuromarketing – What it is, What it can predict, and Where it falls short,” at the 2012 Interactive Strategies Conference. The theme of this year’s conference, presented by the Houston Interactive Marketing Association, is “Psych! Marketing to the Mind,” which explores why people make decisions and behave the way they do. 

Neuromarketers believe they can tap into the subconscious reactions people have to branding and advertising by analyzing brain activity and, by doing so, go a step beyond traditional research techniques. Tankersley spent 10 years as a cognitive neuroscientist designing and conducting studies of people’s brain activity during decision making and social interaction. As a graduate student at Duke University Medical Center, Tankersley was the lead study investigator in research that discovered that activation of a particular brain region predicts whether people tend to be selfish or altruistic. 

“I am excited that neuroscience is moving from the laboratory to Main Street – or at least to Madison Avenue,” said Tankersley. “We will discuss what neuromarketers are really measuring and showcase both the promise and limitations of neuroscience in addressing marketing problems. The more we use available tools to understand human desire, the more precisely and accurately we will be in predicting and potentially modifying humans wants.”

Companies such as A & E Television, CBS, Disney, Frito-Lay and Google, as well as some political campaigns, have used neuromarketing to test consumer impressions.

Although increased activity in the brain doesn’t necessarily mean increased preference for a product, the idea that marketers could seek to manipulate subconscious brain activity to sell products and services is not without its critics. Some consumer advocates have called the discipline, “brandwashing” – a combination of branding and brainwashing – because it tinkers with aspects of consumer behavior of which those consumers are not aware.

Keynote presenters for the 2012 Interactive Strategies Conference include Nikki Pfarr, a researcher and strategist at the Seattle-based product design company Artefact and Beverly Flaxington, author of “Understanding Other People: The Five Secrets to Human Behavior.”

The 2012 Interactive Strategies Conference will be held October 3, 2012 at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business. Tankersley’s presentation is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. To register online, visit http://www.is-conference.com/register/.

About Schipul - The Web Marketing Company

Schipul – The Web Marketing Company develops and builds websites on the Tendenci CMS system for NPOs, a revenue generating online tool with over a half million people logging in during the past year and millions of users overall. Schipul is headquartered in Houston with an office in Silicon Valley, and provides web marketing services to an international client base that encompasses a variety of service industries in local, national and international markets. Schipul’s clients include the Texas Medical Center, Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles and Tony Chachere's^® Creole Foods, among many others. Additional information about Schipul is available at www.schipul.com and www.tendenci.com.