Quantemo Neuromarketing Lab Acquired

One To One Interactive announced the conclusion of its acquisition of Quantemo Neuromarketing Lab on Monday. According to their news release,

The Quantemo lab, its brand and technology platform will be incorporated as the foundation for a new neuromarketing research offering that is currently under development at One to One’s professional services division OTOi…

To date, the field of neuromarketing research has been predominately defined by researchers who use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of test subjects as they look at various products and advertisements. The information gleaned from neuromarketing research is intended to provide deeper insight into the human brain for purposes such as more effective advertising and brand loyalty campaigns. A significant barrier to the evolution of this research method has been both the high costs involved in a typical fMRI study as well as the method itself which limits research studies to only take place at the university or medical research facilities that house the large and expensive fMRI hardware. One to One, through its acquisition of Quantemo, seeks to help expand the field of neuromarketing research by incorporating newer and less costly methods that measure skin conductivity, respiratory rates, heart rates, and EEGs as both an augmentation to and proxy for fMRI studies.

I think this is an interesting announcement for several reasons. First, seeing some acquisition activity in the neuromarketing field is an indication that some marketers are recognizing the importance of the concept as part of an overall marketing research program. Second, One to One is seeking to broaden the concept of neuromarketing beyond fMRI studies – something we’ve advocated from the start, and which we codified with a proposed definition in our post, What is Neuromarketing?