Traditional marketing is not only threatened by digital marketing, but also from the rapidly emerging field of neuromarketing. Neuromarketing is a field that was created by merging marketing, neuroscience and IT techniques. The purpose of this new discipline is to understand consumer behavior in the best possible way so as to offer new insights to businesses in order to create more appealing products and services. What is neuromarketing though?
When marketeers understood that 90% of our everyday decisions are made non-consciously they realized that the traditional methods of focus groups and surveys that were utilized in the past were simply not good enough anymore. Based on this notion, this new era of marketing emerged. Neuromarketing is using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) as well measurements of the respiratory rate, galvanic skin response and facial coding in order to decipher the consumer’s response to marketing stimuli. To put it in simpler terms our most primitive and physiological responses are analyzed in order to estimate our preferences in the most accurate way. In essence, these techniques measure our brain activity and every other physiological reaction while being stimulated by marketing material and they create maps of the regions that are stimulated in our brains in response to the specific stimuli. Then by analyzing this data with the latest available technologies, along with insights coming from neuroscience, the neuromarketeer can evaluate the market success of the product based on all of its attributes and characteristics.
The benefit of these technologies for the consumers is the higher quality of products and services. Businesses though can create more efficient marketing campaigns, optimize their pricing strategies, create new product lines and much more. On the other hand, these new methods have triggered a vibrant discussion in the scientific and business community regarding the ethical aspect of theirs. The major argument of this side is that these technologies exploit part of our brains that we are not in direct control of. Therefore, this line of reasoning concludes, it is unethical to pursue further research on this direction because it violates our privacy rights.
IT has countless applications and different forms nowadays. The latest techniques of data analysis can lead businesses to create new markets and therefore value from unexplored areas by providing accurate, fast and relevant market insights. Is there a limit to what we are willing to do in order to achieve greater profit margins though? In the information age the information we can gather about consumer’s behavior is becoming gradually unlimited. It becomes obvious then that the final decision of whether to pursue this direction or not lies on ethics. Since we are all stakeholders in this process we should all form our own unbiased opinions on such matters. Should we devote more time, money and effort towards perfecting these technologies or not?
What do you think?
References
Agarwal, S. & Dutta, T. Decision (2015) 42: 457. doi:10.1007/s40622-015-0113-1
The Contributions of Neuromarketing in Marketing Research. (2016). Journal of Management Research, vol 5(4)
Morin, C. Soc (2011) 48: 131. doi:10.1007/s12115-010-9408-1
In my opinion conducting neuro-research is not a violation of the privacy as long as participants are aware of, and have agreed to, the fact they are participating in a study that involves their neural activity. As far as I know, the methods used for this research at all times involve invasive techniques, from being in a MRI scanner, to being wired up with all sorts of magnetic resonance stickers. There is no possible way to do this without the collaboration of the participant. One could argue that unconscious or subconscious thoughts are beyond a participant’s judgement since he or she is not aware of them. However, all current research methods measure neural activity; this does not translate to actual thoughts or memories. It is not that neural research equals ‘reading someone’s mind’, like the ethical opposition seems to be thinking.
Hey Suzanne,
While research with an (f)MRI scanner requires a participant who has to agree to the study, I think the author of this post mostly went into the direction of what this research will tell us about the human brain and how we can use this for more effective marketing. While it isn’t an exploitation while being under a scanner, the results can be used to exploit other people, which is how we get to the ethics of this research.
Ofcourse we have to consider that marketing is and always has been exploiting our primal instincts. The problem is, the more accurate information we get about how people unconsciously react to things, the more manipulative campaigns can get.
It is a interesting discussion. One side of the argument is, that we get to know how our brains work, which can probably lead to ways how to use it more effectively. Who doesn’t want that? The other side is, the more we know about it, the more we can manipulate its weaknesses. I’m pretty sure we will hear a lot about this subject in the future.
I myself followed an elective in neuromarketing while studying at Erasmus School of Economics (http://www.few.eur.nl/few/edu/gids16/vak/fem11026.htm). It was one of the most interesting lectures I ever had. You’re saying that it is unethical to pursue further research on this direction because it violates our privacy rights. But research isn’t something you can stop. We can use that research to manipulate people, but at the same time you can educate people as well on how their brain really works and perceives things.
Research in neuromarketing is very useful because you cannot directly ask people how effective a marketing campaign is, as they don’t know themselves whether they are truly influenced or not. In other words, surveys don’t work for marketing.
If you’re truly interested in neuromarketing the book by Thomas Zoëga Ramsøy, Introduction to Neuromarketing and consumer neuroscience (2015), Neurons Inc. Consultancy is a great starting point for beginners. (Was also the required literature for FEM11026.
Hi Ioannis,
thank you for this interesting read!
In my opinion the field of Neuromarketing is still in a very early stage of development. As you stated “our most primitive and physiological responses are analyzed” so as to understand our preferences. As far as I know we do know something about the brain, let’s say which part of the brain are “switched on” when you see candy. But that is about it. As stated in Cacioppos and Petty’s work about responses to advertising (1985) “variations in social situations and stimuli have also been shown to have a powerful effect across individuals”. What does that mean for Neuromarketing? You cannot bring a subject in an MRI into a supermarket and then ask about their preferences regarding candy and expecting unbiased sub conscious responses. EEG seems rather complicated too. My examples are stated a bit provocatively though. Nevertheless, the bottom line is, that it is currently nearly impossible not to have an experimental setting for this field of research. Therefore, the results from neuro-marketing research focusing on non-conscious processes in the brain are set up to be biased. They always take place in an experimental setting. From my point of view, that is a huge methodological problem which needs to be tackled before stating assumptions about non-conscious preferences of consumers.
Thanks for this interesting post.
Personally I don’t think this research about the human brain and how we can use it for accurate marketing is violating, or more violating than other things companies do to make marketing more accurate. These days companies all over the world are busy collecting as much data from potential customers as they can. As we all know companies do this online via Google Ads, Google Clicks, Facebook etcetera. But not only do they collect information about us via the internet. For example, every time we go grocery shopping at Albert Heijn and the cashier asks politely if you have a ‘bonus card’ to get discount on certain products. To get extra perks you can couple your personal data to this card. By doing this Albert Heijn exactly knows what you buy and when you buy it.
The point that I’m trying to make is that companies are collecting so much data about us. And we know they are, we just let them do it. These neuro researches are just a small part of the bigger picture in my opinion. But nevertheless, this is a very interesting subject in which we will hear a lot about in the near future, just as Joeri said.