Dynamic Research Journals (DRJ)
Journal of Economics and Finance (DRJ-JEF)
Volume 2 ~ Issue 2 (February, 2017) pp: 17-29
www.dynamicresearchjournals.org
Neuromarketing: No brain, No Gain!
1
Thabani Nyoni and 2Wellington G. Bonga
1 nyonithabani35@gmail.com, 2sirwellas@gmail.com
Received 12 February, 2017; Accepted 15 February, 2017; Published 28 February, 2017 © The author(s) 2017. Published
with open access at www.dynamicresearchjournals.org
Abstract:- Businesses to attain their goal to survive, always strive to better through continuously keeping up
with trends and continuously improving processes. Understanding the consumer is becoming more difficult now
due to the increase in customer numbers, products, competitors and shorter reaction time. Since the consumer is
at the centre of the market, it is actually impossible to launch a successful product without properly
understanding the consumer. Traditional marketing techniques do not analyze 99.99% of the human’s brain,
being the subconscious part; which is where decision making occurs. This is the reason why, according to
Lindstrom (2008), 80% of new product launches fail within a few months. However, it is better, as noted by
Onay (2016); for marketing researchers to have a clear understanding of the abstractions held in the
customer’s mind. Most successful companies today are using neuromarketing primarily because of the
competitive advantage this methodology offers. This study uncovers the neurological aspects of market research
which have been largely neglected in traditional marketing research. The study concludes with a discussion on
the professional challenges and ethical issues in neuromarketing and recommendations on the way forward.
Keywords :- Advertising, Conscious brain, Consumers, Customers, Decision making, Marketing,
Neuromarketing, Neuroimaging, Product development, Subconscious brain.
JEL Codes: D01, D03, D82, D83, D87, M31, M37.
*Corresponding Author: Thabani Nyoni – nyonithabani35@gmail.com
I.
INTRODUCTION
“Executives love the idea of using brain scans. As brain imaging and neuroscience
develop, neuromarketing companies will be able to pull out more sophisticated data
about what makes people want to buy or avoid certain items. The big question is whether
neuromarketing can push a ‘buy-button’ in your brain.”- Nick Lee, Honorary Professor of
Marketing and Organisational Research, Aston University.
“The business man must understand the workings of the minds of his customers, and
must know how to influence them effectively; he must know how to apply psychology to
advertising.”- Walter Dill Scott, Psychologist at Northwestern University, one of the famous first
researchers of advertising psychology, lived between 1869-1955.
Neurology and marketing have recently come together in a wide range of studies and have provoked an
interest, as well as a desire for knowledge, leading to the birth of “neuromarketing” (Marcel et al, 2009). The
term neuromarketing was first used in 2002 by a German professor Ale Smidts (Orzan et al, 2012). However,
according to Roeduck (2011) and Krajinovic et al (2012), the discipline’s founder is Professor Gerry Zaltman
from Harvard University who conducted a first fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) study as a
marketing tool way back in 1999. Neuromarketing was actually the first term used to reference the intergration
of neuroscientific methods and economic decision-making models in 2002 (Ramsoy, 2014). Neuromarketing
emerged as an expanded field of research on neuroeconomics (Pop et al, 2014). Neuromarketing is on the border
between neurosciences and economy and attempts to explain the decision making process by developing a
neural model (Egidi, 2008). Contrary to the classical economic theory which states that people generally make
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rational decisions to maximize their own benefit (Camerer & Fehr, 2006), present studies show that 95% of our
decisions are taken at the subconscious level (Zaltman, 2003; Dooley, 2011; Ramsoy, 2014); while 30% of
money in campaigns produces nothing and 20% decline in market share (Dooley, 2011). This simply illustrates
how vital it is for marketers to identify the unconscious processes that affect the consumers’ decision making
(Bridger, 2015).
Neuromarketing techniques are considered as becoming increasingly important tools in determining
what kinds of marketing campaigns and products appeal to a potential consumer in order to increase advertising
and influence purchasing behavior (Samuel & Prasanth, 2012). Whereas traditional marketing has concentrated
on the value and competitive advantage of a product or service, contemporary marketing (neuromarketing) takes
a holistic approach by also considering the purchasing process and the retail store atmosphere to evoke a
positive shopping experience (Levy & Weitz, 2009). Neuroscience research and findings about the human mind
and its subconscious mechanisms, as far as buying and advertising is concerned, brought about a shift of
paradigms towards the neuroscientific perspective of marketing (Boricean, 2009; Shaw & Jones, 2009; Morin,
2011), as traditional marketing methods such as customer surveys, interviews and questionnaires alone were not
reliable sources of research data (Williams, 2010; Zara & Tuta, 2013).
Today, neuromarketing has surfaced as a relatively new and insufficiently explored branch of
marketing that focuses on the consumer’s subliminal reactions to marketing material, brands, products and
product groups. According to Perrachione & Perrachione (2008), scientific research in neuroscience and
marketing indicates that neuromarketing will cause a revolution, enabling us to see the differences below the
surface. The purpose of this study is to focus on this new discipline and to indicate the direction marketing is
heading. The paper uncovers the neurological aspects of marketing research which have been largely neglected
in the traditional marketing research. This is a timely research in view of the forth coming 6th edition of the
Neuromarketing World Forum to be held in London on the 29th -31th of March 2017, whose visionary talks will
be anchored on State of Neuromarketing, Combining Research Methodologies and Better Consumer
Understanding. By critically analyzing the link between neuromarketing and competitiveness and subsequently
drawing appropriate policy prescriptions, this research will not only match the current “marketing revolution”
but also go a long way in closing the gap between neuromarketing research and practice. It is now obvious that
neuromarketing is the key to business success. It is literally the bridge between the business man and his
business break-through.
Neuromarketing Defined
Many authors have defined Neuromarketing and some definitions are presented below;
Neuromarketing is the process of researching the brain patterns of consumers to reveal their responses to
particular advertisements and products before developing new advertising campaigns and branding
techniques (Collins Dictionary).
2. Neuromarketing is the study of the cerebral mechanism to understand the consumer’s behavior in order to
improve the marketing strategies (Smidts, 2002).
3. Neuromarketing aims to understand how consumers think and why the consumer chooses the products by
applying “neuroscientific methods to analyze and understand human behavior in relation to markets and
marketing exchanges” (Lee et al, 2007).
4. Neuromarketing is the application of findings from neuroscientific consumer research within the scope of
managerial practice (Kenning & Hubert, 2008).
5. Neuromarketing is mostly defined as a new field of marketing research studying consumers’ cognitive and
affective responses to different marketing stimuli (Zaltman & Zaltman, 2008; Boricean, 2009; Zurawicki,
2010; Dooley, 2010).
6. Neuromarketing is the process that enables the knowledge and understanding of the mechanisms used by
the human brain to process information (Georges & Badoc, 2010).
7. Neuromarketing is a relatively new and controversial interdisciplinary research field, a component of
marketing, by means of which one can properly interpret psychological and neurological knowledge
necessary to understand customer behavior (Constensen, 2011).
8. Neuromarketing is defined as the obtaining of information useful for marketers by subjecting individuals
to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and other similar methods of studying automatic
responses in the brain to certain stimuli, generally involving products and brands that are part of consumer
culture (Berger, 2011).
9. Neuromarketing refers to those cutting edge methods for directly probing minds without requiring
cognitive or conscious participation, (Morin, 2011).
10. Neuromarketing is a new marketing field that uses medical technologies like Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
(NMR) to study the brain response to marketing stimuli, (Dragolea & Cotirlea, 2011).
1.
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11. Neuromarketing is a subset of the study of neuroeconomics, which combines neuroscience, genetics,
economics, and psychology to understand how specific neuron activation may lead to larger scale market
behavior, (Levallois et al, 2012).
12. Neuromarketing is a means to describe the activity of the brain under the impact of marketing stimuli,
which, by means of specific tools, correlates with the psychological reaction following subjects’ exposure
to certain ads (Kotler et al, 2009; Kotler & Keller, 2012).
13. Neuromarketing can simplistically be defined as any marketing or market research activity, which uses
methods, techniques or insights from the field of brain science (Genco et al, 2013).
14. Neuromarketing is widely defined as the science that uses MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), EEG
(electroencephalography), TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation), fMRI (functional magnetic resonance
imaging) and other brain wave tools to view the human brain’s responses to marketing stimuli to figure out
what customers’ thoughts are toward a product, service, advertisement, or even packaging to perfectly
construct marketing campaigns that are based on the human brain’s response, (Hammou et al, 2013).
Despite the various definitions of Neuromarketing available in literature, in this article, we define
Neuromarketing as the use of neurological research methods to better understand the thought patterns of
consumers with the potential of identifying the ‘buy-buttons’ in the consumer’s brain in order to make
marketing and advertising more effective. In other words, neuromarketing is a way of studying both consumer
preferences and buying patterns by observing automatic neurological responses in relation to brands and
advertisements.
Deeper Facts on Neuromarketing: Further Explanations on Neuromarketing Definitions
Neuromarketing constitutes in fact a strand of behavioral economics, indicating the path to the relevant
analysis on the influences of human irrationality in decision making (Lindstrom, 2010). In a traditional
economic sense, economic experts have always observed consumers as driven by their self-interest and the
choices they are presented with (Thompson, 2013). Even though this is actually true, decisions consumers make
are not based only on that. There are various aspects of their decision making that are neglected by traditional
economic theory that have to be taken into account. Zurawicki (2010) agitates that these aspects lie in the
foundations of sciences other than economy, from anthropology and basic biology to more complicated
psychology, human behavior and neurology.
Cognitive decision making apparently refers to a rational consumer. However, studies done a long time
ago already challenged the notion that decision making is purely rational (Zajonc & Markus, 1982; Serban et al,
2012). Recent research on the consumers’ conscious and subconscious minds, as noted by Lindstrom (2010);
revealed that our purchase decisions are not as rational as we consider to be. Modern psychology helped to
figure out that people very often say one thing and think or do a completely different thing (Couson &
Vayssettes, 2013). In fact, humans are naturally emotional, and therefore; according to Hill (2010), business
people who make their strategies based on complex assumptions often miss that we are driven by simple and
emotional impulses.
The thought of humans as rational decision makers and cognitive machines is outdated (Shiv &
Fedorikhin, 1999). According to Zajonc (1980) emotions precedes and influences rational thought. This
apparently implies that the affective response happens first and the rationalisation of the cognitive system
happens after. The affective system (subconscious system), as noted by Peter & Olson (2008), is reactive;
cannot be controlled and effects consumers physically. Similarly, Sinek (2009) agitates that our limbic brain is
powerful enough to drive behavior that sometimes contradicts our rational and analytical understanding of a
situation. However, neuromarketing is in particular interested in the limbic system (temporal and frontal lobe),
because it helps to regulate the expression of emotion and emotional memory and biochemical triggers (Miller
et al, 2008; Solomon et al, 2010).
In neuroscience, evidence also shows that the emotional part of the brain influences the rational part
more than the other way round (Hazeldine, 2014). According to certain researchers, the brain is a black box that
hides consumers’ emotions and preferences (Fugate, 2007; Marci, 2008; Green & Holbert, 2012; Javor et al,
2013), and neuromarketing works as a window that unveils and gives access to these emotions (Fisher et al,
2010; Green & Holbert, 2012; Ohme & Matukin, 2012).
Traditional economic theory of consumer choice, as argued by Varian (2006), is insufficient to explain
the phenomena of human behavior and actually advocates for a deeper model of consumer behavior to describe,
more precisely, the decision making. Therefore, in this regard, neuromarketing is only there, as a connection that
will provide entrepreneurs with the necessary tools for optimizing the value that they want to offer to the
consumers.
Neuromarketing is a new field that combines neuroscience and consumer behavior (Marichamy &
Sathiyavathi, 2014) to explain how the consumer really takes his buying decision, its mission is the consumer
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brain research (Lindstrom, 2010). Williams (2010) and Morin (2011), note that neuromarketing research is
based on neuroscience findings and techniques, which unveil the cognitive and affective mechanisms governing
the purchasing decisions. In the same line of argument, Nasr (2014), agitates that the objective of
neuromarketing is to unveil the subconscious mechanisms governing the customer’s decisions; that is why it
delves into the interdisciplinary interface of different sciences, such as neuro-anatomy (morphology and
connectivity), neurology (the cerebral system and its treatment), neuropsychology (the connection between the
nervous system and the harmonic one), and the cognitive neurosciences (the connection between the nervous
and the cognitive system). By studying the brain activity, neuromarketing combines the techniques of
neuroscience and clinical psychology, in order to find out how we react to products, brands and commercials,
(Sola, 2013). The marketing experts are hoping that, based on these findings, they will try and understand the
subtle layers that distinguish a successful campaign from an unsuccessful one (Mucha, 2005).
The general assumption is that human brain activity can provide marketers with information not
obtainable via conventional or traditional marketing research methods (for example, interviews, questionnaires,
focus groups) (Ariely & Berns, 2010). This is mainly driven by the fact that people cannot (or do not want to)
fully explain their preferences when explicitly asked; as human behavior can be (and is) driven by processes
operating below the level of conscious awareness (Calvert & Brammer, 2012). In such cases, the effectiveness
of the different marketing strategies may be evaluated by monitoring brain activity resulting from consumers
observing different advertisements and products (Astolfi et al., 2009; Ohme et al., 2009).
In fact, the main difference between neuromarketing research and traditional research methods lies in
the fact that with the former the subjects are not asked to express their opinion regarding a particular topic (Pop
et al, 2009). This means that oral statements are not taken into account as results are only obtained by recording
the subject’s brain activity. By getting into the human subconscious mind, Pop et al (2009) note that,
neuromarketing research allows the identification of the subject’s direct reactions to the stimuli they are exposed
to – products, packages, services signaled by logos, visual, olfactory, tactile, gastatory or auditory elements
characterizing the goods that meet the consumers’ needs. Through the method of measuring the response to a
stimuli during the exposure to the stimuli, neuromarketing methods will give not only great (Miljkovic &
Alcakovic, 2010; Colaffero & Crescitelli, 2014) but also superior insights into consumer behavior (Vlaceanu,
2014) and can make advertising and marketing campaigns more effective on a global level (Marichamy &
Sathiyavathi, 2014).
Thus, according to Pop et al (2014), neuromarketing helps entrepreneurs come up with basic ideas
when making decisions about approaching the market and the clients and establishing communication with
business partners. Marketers hope that neuroimaging will be an efficient replacement for market research as a
system that is more effective in determining what the consumer wants (Ariely & Berns, 2010). This hope is
based on the knowledge that the consumer’s brain may contain information about their true preferences for a
product or service, where “the brain and mind are one”, (Ariely & Berns, 2010; Breiter et al, 2015). According
to Glaenzer (2016), this hope is also based on the assumption that scientists can locate this information within
the brain.
The change in the human brain signal is observed to examine consumers’ cognitive or affective
processes in response to prefabricated marketing stimuli (Aurup, 2011; Bourdaud et al., 2008; Custdio, 2010;
Ohme et al, 2010; Kawasaki & Yamaguchi, 2012; Khushabaa et al., 2012; Mostafa, 2012). The main goals in
such neuromarketing research are first to detect the small changes in commercial stimuli that may prove to have
substantial impacts on marketing efficacy (Ohme et al, 2009). Secondly, it also aims to explain how changes in
the depiction or presentation of marketing information affect the ways in which the brain reacts (changes in the
brain signals). It is assumed that the later provides information about the process of preference formation or
choice (Kenning & Plassmann, 2008).
Neurological studies have proven that certain emotive responses can be a catalyst for desirable actions
for marketers (Roberts, 2004; du Plessis, 2011) and recent research, according to Singer (2010), has found that
the brain expends only 2% of its energy on conscious activity, with the rest dedicated to unconscious processing.
These unconscious processes occur with little to no awareness or volitional control, thus preventing individuals
from any introspective awareness of their happenings (Bargh et al, 1996). These unconscious processes, as
agitated by Blum (2016), significantly affect an individual’s decision making process without their knowledge.
Additionally, Vashishta & Balaji (2012), noted that developing a more effective method for triggering
human emotions in decision making is now possible given the emergence of neuromarketing. Therefore, it is
insufficient to rely only on self-reported measures (traditional marketing) to determine what a participant is
thinking. According to Oliver (2016), asking consumers to think cognitively of their emotions is not a reliable
source of data. Bias and heuristics are evident in most thinking (Kahneman, 2011; Bridger, 2015) and therefore
traditional marketing research is plenary with bias, for example, the confirmation bias and the hindsight bias as
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noted by Halvorson & Rock (2015). On such grounds, the influence of the subconscious brain (or the affective
system) on consumer behavior is not reliably accounted for; hence the emergence of neuromarketing.
Furthermore, neuromarketing makes use of brain science to measure the impact of both marketing and
advertising on customers. While neuromarketing studies how people’s brains respond to advertising and other
brand-related messages by scientifically monitoring brain wave activity, eye-tracking and skin response; it is
important to note that it focuses on the aspect of selling to a consumer and how to create a better product or
advertisement to attract customers. In other words, neuromarketing focuses on the study of customers’
cognitive, sensorimotor, and affective responses to marketing stimuli. Therefore, neuromarketing; as noted by
Morin (2011) promotes the value of looking at consumer behavior from a brain perspective. This kind of
approach to marketing science enables marketers to probe the customer’s brains in order to gain valuable
insights on the subconscious processes explaining why an advertisement or a brand finally fails or succeeds.
Considering the new economic global crisis, companies and governments try to fix up now a plausible
explanation for the deleterious events. They are looking for a way to protect goods and the ability to generate
wealth. However, this search has seemed a vain effort, which is tried by companies and governments when
explaining these phenomena, (Neto et al, 2012). Economists, professional investors, CEOs academicians,
researchers, governors and politicians have not shown satisfactory ability to explain what in fact happens in the
economy these days-whether it is really feasible or not. They are all finding it difficult to explain why their
products and brands fail in the market. However, neuromarketing is the only way to go. Therefore, according to
Rodrigues (2011), neuromarketing has emerged as a science which intends to explain processes and can test
campaigns, applications, more exact shapes sensations, using neurosciences as an ally of marketing.
II.
WHY NEUROMARKETING IS IMPORTANT AS A RESEARCH TOOL
The issue of the effects of neuromarketing for companies and society is important since it is assumed
that there is potential to discover implicit and automatic processes which determine the decision making
process, and that it will reveal secret information about consumer behavior which was not obtainable by the
traditional marketing methods (Hubert & Kenning, 2008; Senior & Lee, 2008; Tusche et al, 2010; Ariely &
Berns, 2010). Today the companies have to switch from managing a market to managing specific consumers
groups and specific customers (Biswamohan & Bidhubhusan, 2012). According to Venkatraman et al (2012),
through neuromarketing; more effective customer segmentation can be carried out, which in turn leads to
improved marketing of products by considering individual product and brand preferences as well as consumer
behavior in general.
According to Hilderbrand (2016), there are five factors that can ensure advertising and other branding
efforts are effective and these are: (1) Companies must be sure their message is being perceived in the way that
they have intended the consumer to understand it, (2) Consumers must be able to simply and easily process the
information they are being given, (3) Consumers must be able to recall not only the product, but the company
behind the product after they have viewed the advertisement, (4) Companies must appeal to the senses through a
method called “sensory branding” to fully engage the consumer, (5) Advertisements must have an emotional
appeal – be it positive or negative – to fully engage the consumer. Therefore, according to Hilderbrand (2016), if
these factors are observed, companies will have a much higher likelihood of success in their advertising and
branding efforts, and neuromarketing is the key to being able to ensure these criteria are being met, hence its
importance.
Hilderbrand (2016) notes that before anything else, a campaign message must be perceived in the way
that it was intended to by the consumer. In the case that this does not happen, the average consumer will
misunderstand the message you are working to sell and in some cases the campaign message could create the
exact opposite effect from what the campaign was originally intended for. Hilderbrand (2016), agitates that
message processing is complex, so in theory, the message must be as clear and to the point in order for the
perceived meaning to clearly come across to the consumer. Therefore, neuromarketing can assist researchers in
determining whether or not a campaign (or advertisement) has likelihood of being correctly perceived by the
average consumer.
Recall, in relation to advertising and branding, is how well a campaign or message is connected with a
given product after it is presented to consumers. With so many products on the market, it is imperative that all
marketing efforts, advertising campaigns, and branding are accurately recalled (Hilderbrand, 2016).
Neuromarketing can assist researchers in determining whether or not a campaign has likelihood of being
recalled by the average consumer. To increase recall of a specific brand or product, a break away from
traditional advertising must be incorporated into its campaign (Lindstrom, 2008)
While traditional marketing is simply the understanding of the consumer needs and wants,
neuromarketing covers the true desires of the consumers and the subsequent emotional effect the product or
service has on the consumer’s brain. If a company wants to develop loyalty and trust with their consumers, there
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has to be a proper understanding of what they desire and what they need, in order to fulfill such needs and
wants. The emergence of neuromarketing is very important because it uses the missing tools that provide a true
view of what consumers desire, not only making them more attracted to but also emotionally attached to the new
brand, packaging, advertisement, price and product.
III.
DRAWBACKS OF NEUROMARKETING AS A RESEARCH TOOL
The greatest risks, as noted by Hilderbrand (2016), neuromarketing faces is the high cost of the
research and the starting difficulties in finding participants. Due to very high costs of doing neuromarketing,
products are relatively expensive, well beyond the reach of the average consumer. Therefore, neuromarketing
can be significantly limited by company financial resources, especially in developing countries. Lindstrom
(2008) discusses how he understands that neuromarketing can make a lot of people feel uncomfortable. He
makes the association “When most of us hear ‘brain scan’, our imaginations slither into paranoia. It feels like
the ultimate intrusion, a giant and sinister Peeping Tom, a pair of X-ray glasses peering into our innermost
thoughts and feelings”. Hence, people generally do not want to associate themselves with brain scanning
technologies, probably for fear of the “Peeping Tom”.
IV.
NEUROMARKETING AND THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Most of the time, the failure of a company’s products or business is the difference between what the
consumer expects from the products and what the company provides the consumer. This implies that, before the
company starts business, they should know very well what the consumer expects. Evans et al (2006) noted that
for a company to be market oriented it needs to be able to identify their customers, how they think and what
they respond to. Once there is a deviation from what the consumer expects from the product or business, failure
becomes inevitable. Now, neuromarketing bridges this gap in the sense that it provides a complete and accurate
analysis and investigation of the standards that the consumer wants; thereby placing such products at a
competitive edge.
Neuromarketing, not only saves companies’ time but it also saves the money, and decreases the risk of
a possible product failure. Receiving the attention, emotional engagement and memory directly from the
subconscious brain obviously gives neuromarketing a clear competitive advantage in the market place, (Bernal,
2012). The ability to know consumer unconscious response to marketing stimuli without interviewing about the
individual's own recollection of his conscious experience will lead to insights and predictions about consumer
behavior which may have implications to business overall strategy (Burgos-Campero & Vargas-Hernandez,
2013). In this regard, neuromarketing directly measures observable brain behavior, thus eliminating subjectivity
and ambiguity which is common in traditional marketing methodologies such as focus groups and interviews.
By so doing companies that rely on neuromarketing have a competitive edge because they can produce more
appropriate products that the consumer is likely to want and therefore will apparently increase their profitability.
While it is true that enhanced product development through using neuroscience methods can give firms
added potential for profit, it is also true that consumers are likely to benefit by receiving products that are wellsuited to their needs (Stallen, et al, 2010). Companies themselves benefit more in terms of competitiveness in
the sense that, as noted by Venkatraman et al (2012); new segments of consumers are easily identified via
neuromarketing intelligence and those consumers can be targeted more directly and selectively.
Neuromarketing shows a path by which packaging, advertisement and pricing should be done,
increasing consumer loyalty and brand image. As a result, those companies that apply neuromarketing instead of
traditional marketing gain a competitive advantage in the market due to the use of more advanced technologies
and more accurate results from their analysis, (Bernal, 2012).
It is a public secret that markets are increasingly competitive, global and complex. Therefore,
neuromarketing can be viewed as an opportunity for many companies that really want to “make the difference”
in the market because the main objective of neuromarketing techniques is to properly comprehend the
neuroscience and add value to the companies in the way they manage new trends, developments and tendencies.
Thus, the competitive advantage gained by those using neuromarketing gives the consumer added value and
thus they will ultimately be more satisfied with the product or service. Therefore, neuromarketing serves the
purpose of improving how companies create products and advertise them in order to become more interesting,
appealing and valuable for consumers. Interestingly, Plassmann et al (2008) and Reimann et al (2010), agitate
that neuromarketing enables firms to produce more desirable products, create more enticing promotional
materials, and consequently enhances consumers’ experiences, primarily owing to the deeper understanding of
consumer needs that emerge from neuromarketing research.
If only 0.01% of our brain is conscious, and your company applies the only technique available that
gathers information of the other 99.99% of the brain that the competition is not focusing on, you are going to
have the competitive advantage in the market, (Bernal, 2012).As already emphasized by several authors such as
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Fugate (2007), Hubert & Kenning (2008), Murphy et al (2008), Senior & Lee (2008), Perrachione &
Perrachione (2008) and Javor et al (2013), neuromarketing has the ability of “reading” the consumers’ minds.
This means that neuromarketing offers an inevitable competitive advantage since it has “access” to the
subconscious brain, which uncovers exactly how the consumer will respond to the introduction of a new
product, new package, new campaign, new advertisement or new material. This also implies that, by using
neuromarketing; marketers can be able to identify and easily trigger mechanisms that induce consumer
purchasing, thereby automatically enhancing the competitiveness of their businesses or companies.
Neuromarketing helps to understand the sphere of emotions, sensations and desires through the
lighting up of certain areas (in the brain) as a response to an ad and are translated into effective and valuable
marketing guidelines (Sutherland, 2007; Morin, 2011). As a result, the competitive advantage is gained in the
sense that; marketers can identify the highly engaging positive response to a particular ad and press the buying
button in the customers’ minds (Renvoise & Morin, 2007). According to Haq (2007) and Moore (2005), the
activity of regions such as the nuccleaus accumbens, insula, and medial prefrontal cortex give researchers
insight into how consumers respond to specific stimuli. Similarly, Cranston (2004); notes that when the brain’s
medial prefrontal cortex lights up, it indicates increased neural activity, which tells advertisers that the particular
image displayed is (most likely) a winner. Product-associated images that are processed in this area are therefore
believed to be more likely to cause purchases by consumers because this area of the brain reportedly represents
an area associated with preference or sense of self. Therefore, neuromarketing enables marketers to identify
which product images cause a response in the medial prefrontal cortex, thereby, enabling them to not only boost
sales but also put the company at a competitive advantage.
Neuroscientific methods can provide a way to measure the consumers’ response to market stimuli
without translators present (Pillai, 2015) and create marketing campaigns that work (Oliver, 2016). This is very
possible because brain activity is universal. Since neuromarketing suggests that brain activity is universal, it
actually implies that neuromarketing is global; any research you do in one market or country can be applied in
another market or country. Brain activity is the same in every human being, although human cultures, education
levels and religions may be different. Therefore, accessing the universal language inside the human brain, talk to
it, understand it, and be able to translate it for uses of marketing inevitably gives neuromarketing a competitive
advantage in the market.
Neuromarketing is not the competitive advantage. No. It is just a path that allows business to achieve
it. It is the expagoration of how a product advertisement or message is perceived in the human brain; and this is
how companies achieve a competitive advantage over those that rely on traditional marketing because they will
simply offer exactly what the consumer wants. Neuromarketing actually guides companies to correctly
advertise, design and successfully make certain prototypes in the market. Thus, gaining “an upper hand” in the
market.
V.
IMPORTANCE OF PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF NEUROMARKETING
According to Sola (2013), practice has shown that neuromarketing techniques have a direct influence
on promotion. For example, if it is online advertising, neuromarketing techniques depend on things like content
of the advertisement and duration of promotion. Neuromarketing also has a direct influence on product
development as already emphasized by Reynolds (2006). For example, if it is product distribution,
neuromarketing techniques will depend on things like positioning of product and product availability. Each type
of promotion is influenced differently by the neuromarketing techniques, as shown below:
Promotion type
Influence of neuromarketing on a promotional campaign
Influence of neuromarketing
TV/Radio Commercial
Duration
Choice of radio station
Online advertising
Content of advertisement
Duration of promotion
Point of purchase advertising
Choice of product
Choice of location
Sponsoring
Famous events
Choice of celebrity
Source: Reynolds (2006).
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Influence of neuromarketing on the graphic design
Promotion type
Influence of neuromarketing
Billboard campaign
Choice of a celebrity
Poster size
Marketing message
Colour distribution
TV Commercial
Speaker or music
Colour distribution
Duration
Images
Balance of information-entertainment
Choice of product-focus
Source: Reynolds (2006).
Influence of neuromarketing on the product development
Product development
Influence of neuromarketing
Introduction of a new product on the market
Health or fashion trends
Taste, scent and colour of a product
Identification of new target groups
Product design or packaging
Packaging size
Scent
Series limitation
Location of logo
Packaging material
Colour distribution
Product distribution
Positioning of a product
Position on the shelf
Product availability
Conceptualization of special offers
Scent, music and general impression of object
Source: Reynolds (2006).
VI.
PROFESSIONAL CHALLENGES AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN NEUROMARKETING
6.1 Professional challenges
Neuromarketing has been increasingly criticized for accessing and extracting too sensitive information
from the consumer’s subconscious brain, something that even the consumer himself is not actually aware of.
Some authors hold the opinion that neuromarketing can provide advertising agencies, market researchers, and
their corporate clients with insights that allow to manipulate purchase decisions (Lewis, 2007) or pave a way of
unconsciously suggesting the purchase of an otherwise unwanted item (Ziegenfuss, 2005). In contrast, Quartz
(2006) argues that neuroscience is just a method of measuring preferences, rather than manipulating choice.
However, in line with Lewis (2007) and Ziegenfuss (2005); Ruskin (2004) suggests that the use of
neuromarketing techniques by companies producing tobacco, alcohol, junk food or fast food should be banned
due to a potential risk for public health.
Interestingly, Eser et al (2011), in line with Quartz (2006), note that exploratory research addressing
the perceptions of marketing academics, neurologists, and marketing professionals regarding neuromarketing
studies revealed that neuromarketing is not considered as a manipulative technique for selling a product or
service. Neuromarketing, as noted by Van Langendonck (2015), is not a new kind of advertising that plans to
replace traditional or native advertisements. It is simply a methodology that can be implemented with existing
marketing strategies to improve the effectiveness and to double, or maybe triple, the lead generation and ROI
(Van Langendonck, 2015).
In reality, the purpose behind neuromarketing, as agitated by Glaenzer (2016), is for the company to
create a better product or advertisement to entice the consumer, but not manipulate or influence the consumer’s
mind. Neuromarketing is created as a supplement to traditional marketing practices, not a new, manipulative
practice (Glaenzer, 2016). Neuromarketing seeks information and insights beyond that revealed by traditional
techniques – with the goals of enhancing marketing theory and practice (Yoon et al, 2012; Plassmann et al,
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2015) or improving the accuracy of predictions of consumer preferences and behavior when combined with
traditional techniques (Smidts et al, 2014; Boksem & Smidts, 2015; Venkatranman et al, 2015).
However, pure neurologists actually reject the critique of a commercialized use of neuroimaging
technology (Morin, 2011) arguing that the current state of technology is still imprecise and not accurate and
deterministic enough to predict human decision making (Hubert & Kenning, 2008; Fisher et al, 2009).
Furthermore, it is important to realize that neuromarketing is not “brain control” as noted by Wolpe (2009) that
“the enthusiasm for neuromarketing is based on a mistaken belief that triggering certain brain activity can be a
more real and powerful influence than people’s behavioral responses. The idea is that somehow neuromarketing
is going to be so much more powerful that, like zombies, we are all going to go out any buy soap. That is just
not realistic in terms of the way the brain works.”
6.2 Ethical issues
Neuromarketing is often accused of transgressing ethical boundaries and breaking the consumer’s
trust; ethical objections to neuromarketing fall under the category that neuromarketing generates “risks of harm
and violation of rights” (Stanton et al, 2016). Murphy et al (2008) identify the goal of neuromarketing as to
obtain objective information about consumers’ brain reactions in relation to diverse marketing stimuli. Randall
(2009) agitates that neuromarketing removes subjectivity and ambiguity by going right to measuring observable
brain behavior. This is actually well beyond the scope of traditional tools because information obtained through
this way is not influenced by consumer biases or unwillingness to reveal the truth.
Owing to this investigation at subconscious level, neuromarketing raises some ethical issues such as
the need for protection of research subjects, the need for prevention of exploitation of vulnerable populations
and the need to make sure correct rather than exaggerated information is provided to the public. Therefore, legal
frameworks should always be in place in order to protect the privacy of research subjects or participants.
Murphy et al (2008) notes that there are loose restrictions in commercialized and private
neuromarketing research, thereby, making the privacy of research subjects dependent on the moral values of the
researcher. There is need to take note of vulnerable populations such as children, persons with neurological
diseases or psychological disorders, because some unethical researchers may derive information from these
vulnerable groups and possibly manipulate their choices.
Furthermore, publicly presented information of companies doing neuromarketing is usually not
transparent. They tend to exaggerate the capabilities and potential of neuromarketing, for example, by promising
to reveal the “truth” or what consumers “really” think (Fisher et al, 2009). Additionally, most neuromarketing
firms do not publish their findings in order to protect both their clients and their proprietary research, which has
resulted in a lack of detailed standard procedures and documentation regarding the research protocols and
practices that neuromarketers employ (Satel & Lielinfeld, 2013). Wilson et al (2008) consider legally
enforceable policy regulations to avoid potential ethical dilemmas caused by neuromarketing as pioneering in
order to incorporate advantages of neuroscience within the boundaries of ethical marketing.
VII.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The study recommends the following:
1) As neuromarketing becomes more prominent and gains more insight into consumer minds, it is
recommendable that neuromarketing companies strictly comply with strict written down laws, regulations
and standards.
2) Neuromarketing companies should address both professional and ethical dilemmas in line with both local
and internationally recognized neuromarketing industry standards.
3) Companies should familiarize their employees (especially managers, marketing specialists, and product
design & development consultants) with neuromarketing since neuromarketing strategies bring a great deal
of competitive advantage to the organization.
4) To avoid putting out campaigns that could potentially undermine their own brand image and reputation,
organisations should make use of neuromarketing as a research tool.
5) Researchers should integrate neuromarketing with traditional marketing research techniques because
neuromarketing alone may not always be the answer to all the research questions.
6) Neuromarketing should take a more active role in education, medicine, business as well as socio-economic
and political policy in order for both the business and academic community to maneuver this discipline
more sincerely for the benefit of both the consumer and the businessman.
7) For neuromarketing to grow as a fully-fledged discipline, it should be viewed in a way that is easily
understandable by not only the neurologists, marketing researchers, advertising psychologists, product
design & development consultants and advertising executives but also by the business owners who may
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seek to use neuromarketing in their next advertising campaign, brand development, product design or
rebranding and the consumer who will be a potential test subject in the research.
VIII.
CONCLUSION
It is apparently unnecessary and insufficient to assume that neuromarketing provides a “buy-button”
or the so-called “magic spot” to marketers. Neuromarketing is just a tool to study the links and interactions
between the market, products and the customers. In fact, several authors such as Ventatran et al (2012),
Dragolea & Cotirlea (2011) and Quartz (2006) note that neuromarketing is actually complementary to old
marketing techniques which have been used for a long time. It is another way of evaluating and measuring
factors that, until now, were inaccessible.
Most of our behavior, as noted by Chartrand (2005), is guided by our unconscious part of the brain.
This is the primary reason why it is justified to use neuromarketing to have a better comprehension of consumer
behavior. Lindstrom (2008) actually compares neuromarketing to a hammer, which in the wrong hands; can be
used to bludgeon someone over the head, but that is not its purpose, and it does not mean that hammers should
be banned, or seized, or embargoed. The same holds water in this regard in the sense that neuromarketing is
simply an instrument used to help us better understand what we, as consumers are already thinking about when
we are confronted with a product or a brand. Lindstrom (2008) also goes on to suggest that, while
neuromarketing is a tool for advertising and brand researchers, it is also a tool that will help consumers better
understand their own buying behaviors that will in turn make us more informed consumers and give us more
control in our purchasing decisions.
However, currently, there is still a strong misunderstanding and misconception of the neuromarketing
industry, and there is also a serious lack of research into seeing its full potential in areas such as advertising
methodology, marketing strategy, product development, product design and brand development. Dooley (2015)
strongly argues that this lack of understanding and limited view of the field is linked to a lack of research. Butler
(2008) encourages future research in the field of neuromarketing to close the gap between research and practice.
Therefore, more research will not only provide a better understanding but also uncover the true potential that
neuromarketing has to offer not only in the Zimbabwean context but also globally.
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