The Wall Street Journal, Marketplace section: The Emotional Quotient of Soup
Shopping. There it is! Evidence published in this bastion of the free market of the
RightBrain Revolution coming right to your kitchen pantry.
The article explains how the marketing of this American staple, soup, is changing
due to biometric analysis of consumer’s response to the label on the soup can.
That’s right! The change is not in response to the consumer’s preference for the
taste, the look, the texture or the content of the product but their reaction to the
label on the soup can. They’re using a new technique called neuromarketing to
determine what consumer’s are responding to on the soup can label.
Specifically, it seems that steam coming off from the bowl of soup has been
added to the picture on the new label for Campbell’s soups. Steam rising off
the soup makes it “seem” warm and the “feel” of warmth is more emotionally
engaging to the consumer. Campbell’s has also taken out the ubiquitous spoon
full of soup that historically hovered over the soup bowl. Research showed that
the spoon provoked little emotional response from consumers.
So what’s this got to do with the RightBrain Revolution? Well, remember that
our emotional responses are largely a function of right brain activity. The left-
brain is analytical and rational. The right brain is emotional and relational. And
the Campbell’s marketing gurus of their 1 billion dollar per year product, soup,
have taken a decided turn to the right brain. They’ve made their soup labels
more right brain friendly. They are hoping it will increase their sales by 20 million
dollars per year. Whoa, twenty million dollars, now that’s quite a benefit of the
RightBrain Revolution!