Topic: Neuromarketing Authors: Natalia Zaucha and Laura Irwin
Definition Neuromarketing is the application of marketing and neuroscience, to access the understanding of the purchasing and decision behaviour of a consumer. This field research applied enables to gain a greater understanding of the emotional and cognitive responses behind one’s purchase. The neuromarketing practice provides testing to assess consumers’ unconscious decision in response to products, advertising, packaging, expectations, behaviour prediction and consumer preference.
Usage (Purpose) From the analysis of physiological changes from the consumer, this information allows marketers to employ an in-depth research to improve their marketing strategies and products. As Blokdijk1 believes: “Nuromarketing is here to stay. It shows you how to stay relevant, add value, win and retain customers” As it is also seen as a more beneficial practice in market research than traditional practices. It is because brain responses may not be consciously performed by the tested consumer. Georges, Boyle-Tourtoulou and Badoc2 claim that appealing directly to the brain, neuromarketing avoids the biases of the questionnaire, the interlocutor and the difficulty in describing emotions or what our senses express. Resultantly, demonstrating that neuromarketing can be more revealing and beneficial than traditional methods such as surveys or focus groups. Testing the perception of brands and products can be measured by analysing the types of brain activity and relevant responses. The application of neuromarketing consist of various methods, such as: facial coding which is used to measure the emotion that is being displayed on their faces. Eye tracking is implemented to analyse where the consumer is looking at in an image and voice analysis can be used to study the tone of voice. These findings can inform companies about the emotional bond that consumers have with a product, and what part of the brain is rousing them to do so. These findings aid marketers to know how their products and brands can be enhanced to make the emotional connection stronger. However, ethics have been questioned implementing neuromarketing as a research method. Considering the goal according to Meck-Sloan3 “neuromarketing is to understand consumers’ unconscious processes” debates if marketers have the right to manipulate the consumer’s subconscious. Therefore, there is a serious consideration whether marketers are influencing or manipulating their consumers.
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Blokdijk G. Neuromarketing. Australia: Emereo Publishing; 2015 Georges P, Boyle-Tourtoulou A and Badoc M. Neuromarketing In Action. America: Kogan Page Publishers; 2013 3 Meck-Sloan C. Neuroeconomics and Neuromarketing. [Internet] 2015 [Cited 2015 Oct 10] 6 (2): 133-136. Available from ESBCOhost: http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.rgu.ac.uk/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=70563d02-24a4-445f-9d0102e6aeb79945%40sessionmgr4003&vid=4&hid=4112 2