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Big Brands Create Bigger Brain Waves

Strong product identities can create more excitement than weaker ones, even in areas generally perceived as dull (such as insurance), according to new research that uses magnetic resonance imaging to study the impact of brand-recognition on brains.

The fact that brains respond just as powerfully to strong insurance brands as to strong automotive brands was a big surprise, says Christine Born, the German radiologist who directed the research at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. "Cars are a status symbol. Insurance is an abstraction."

Born says the study, which received no industry funding, suggests that the psychological pull of strong brands may be even greater than previously thought. She cautions, however, that the study is small, pioneering and, as yet, unpublished.

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