Online shopping presents a unique psychological hurdle for consumers. Unlike in a physical store, a potential buyer cannot touch a fabric, inspect a seam, or weigh an electronic device in their hand. This distance creates an information gap between what the seller knows about the item and what the buyer can perceive. To bridge this divide, retailers populate their product pages with digital cues. These might include star ratings, detailed customer reviews, or badges guaranteeing a safe return policy.
Among these strategies, many companies choose to highlight their history. Advertising slogans often feature phrases like “Established 1900” or “Serving you for 40 years.” This tactic relies on the concept of brand longevity. Marketing teams assume that reminding a customer of the brand’s age will instill confidence.
A recent study published in the journal Neuroscience Research investigates whether this assumption holds true at a neurological level. The research examines if a brand’s age changes the actual electrical activity in a consumer’s brain during the decision-making process.
Investigating the Signals of Quality
Jianhua Liu, a researcher from the Management College at Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University in Guangzhou, China, conducted this investigation. Liu designed the study to explore a concept known as signaling theory. This theory suggests that in situations where information is uneven, one party must send credible signals to prove their reliability to the other. In the context of commerce, a brand’s lifespan serves as a signal of its heritage and stability.
Previous academic work established that brand heritage links the past, present, and future in the consumer’s mind. Research has shown that people generally perceive older brands as less risky. However, most of these earlier insights relied on surveys or self-reported feelings. Liu sought to bypass these subjective reflections. The goal was to observe the automatic, subconscious reactions that occur milliseconds before a person consciously decides to buy a product.
Measuring Brain Activity Through Electricity
To capture these split-second reactions, the study utilized a method involving event-related potentials, known as ERPs. This technique records the brain’s electrical activity using an electroencephalogram (EEG). It allows researchers to pinpoint exactly when the brain processes specific types of information. The study recruited twenty-three undergraduate students to participate in the experiment. Each participant possessed normal vision and had no history of neurological disorders.
The researcher selected forty images of digital products from JD.com, a major online retailer in China. These items spanned ten common categories, including food and drinks. To ensure consistency, all selected products displayed high customer ratings between 4.1 and 5.0. This control meant that any difference in reaction would likely stem from the brand’s age rather than the product’s perceived quality.
Setting the Stage for the Decision
The experiment required participants to view a series of screens while wearing an EEG cap. First, a fixation cross appeared to focus their attention. Next, an image of a product appeared for two seconds. Following a brief pause, a target screen displayed both the product’s star rating and information about the brand’s longevity.
The study divided the trials into two distinct conditions. The “long longevity” condition featured brands with an average history of about 30 years. The “short longevity” condition featured brands with an average history of roughly 10 years. Participants had to press a button to indicate whether they would purchase the item. They had to make this choice within three seconds.
Behavioral Patterns and Reaction Times
The initial analysis focused on the visible behavior of the participants. The data revealed a distinct preference for the established brands. Participants chose to purchase items in the long longevity condition significantly more often than those in the short longevity condition.
The speed of these decisions also varied. Reaction time serves as a common indicator of cognitive load, or how hard the brain is working. The study found that participants made decisions faster when facing brands with long longevity. Conversely, when they encountered brands with short longevity, their reaction times slowed down. This delay suggests that the younger brands presented a more difficult decision-making scenario.
Neural Responses to Information Conflict
The EEG data provided a look into the neural mechanics behind these choices. The researcher specifically analyzed a brain wave component called the N400. This negative wave typically peaks around 400 milliseconds after a person sees a stimulus. Neuroscientists often associate the N400 with processing semantic meaning or identifying conflicts.
The results showed that the short longevity condition triggered a significantly larger N400 amplitude. This suggests that the brain perceived a mismatch. The participants saw a product with a high quality rating but a short history. This combination seemingly created a conflict in the brain’s processing. The information did not align with the viewer’s expectations. In contrast, the long longevity condition produced a smaller N400 response, indicating a smoother cognitive process.
Emotional Engagement and Categorization
The study also examined a second brain wave component known as the Late Positive Potential, or LPP. This positive wave usually peaks roughly 600 milliseconds after the stimulus appears. Previous research links the LPP to emotional arousal and the categorization of evaluations. When an object fits well into a mental category, the LPP amplitude tends to increase.
In this experiment, the long longevity condition elicited a larger LPP response. This increase indicates that the established brands generated a stronger positive emotional engagement. It also suggests that these brands aligned better with the participants’ internal mental category of a high-quality purchase. The brain recognized the older brand as a “correct” match for the high star rating.
Implications for Brand Strategy
The findings from this study offer concrete evidence regarding the value of brand history. The data indicates that “Since [Year]” is more than a decorative element on a label. It acts as a powerful heuristic that helps the consumer brain process information efficiently. By signaling longevity, a company effectively reduces the cognitive conflict a shopper experiences.
For newer companies, the results highlight a specific challenge. A high product rating alone may not be enough to ensure a smooth path to purchase. The brain may still process the combination of a high rating and a short history as conflicting information. This suggests that young brands might need to use additional signals to overcome that initial neural hesitation.
Questions for Future Investigation
This research opens several new paths for inquiry within the field of neuromarketing. The current study focused on a specific demographic of university students. Future investigations might explore if these neural patterns remain consistent across different age groups or cultural backgrounds. Older consumers might weigh longevity differently than younger ones.
Additionally, the relationship between brand age and other marketing signals warrants further study. Researchers could investigate how brand longevity interacts with price points or negative peer reviews. Understanding how the brain prioritizes these competing signals could provide a deeper understanding of the biological roots of consumer behavior.
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