NEUROMARKETING: THE WAY FORWARD?

BY Realty Plus

“Feelings, actions and thoughts are the products of Neural activity in the brain.” This is called the astonishing hypothesis, as quoted by Francis Crick, the Nobel Laureate. Marketers thus see Neuroscience (study of the nervous system and brain) as an idea for reducing the uncertainty and conjecture that hamper the understanding of consumer behaviour. Neuromarketing, also known as ‘consumer neuroscience’, is the brain study of predicting and even manipulating consumer behaviour and decision-making. It refers to measuring physiological and neural signals to gain insights into consumers' motivation, decisions and preferences. Neuromarketing helps and assists in the creation of advertisement, product development, website and other marketing areas. The most common methods of neuromarketing are brain scanning, eye tracking: gaze and pupillometry and other physiological/facial movements.

Brain scanning can be performed by fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and EEG (Electroencephalogram). The former uses magnetic fields to track blood flow changes across the brain and takes continuous measurements over time when a person lies inside the machine. The latter reads brain-cell activities through sensors that are placed on the scalp and tracks change in activities over fractions of a second. Eye tracking is used to measure attention (fixation points) and arousal (pupil dilation). Facial movements or expression coding measure emotional responses by reading minute muscle movements to understand emotional responses, respiration rate, heart rate and skin conductivity.

Various marketing activities like advertising and branding have measurable impacts on the brains of consumers. There have been various researches on the same. One research that was conducted on Apple and Samsung users identified that Apple users responded positively when exposed to good news for Apple and vice versa. On the other hand, Samsung users were neutral to any kind of news related to Samsung but responded positively when they heard something negative about Apple. Another research was done exhibiting that when a person was exposed to price before being exposed to the product, his brain reacted differently as the calculations were different and more focused on whether the product would be worth the price.

The field of neuromarketing is growing and gaining momentum as there have been groundbreaking studies demonstrating its potential to create and enhance value for marketers.  Although a growing consideration has been seen in the establishment of neuromarketing, there are questions on its worth, tools and ethical considerations. Marketers have been at a slow pace to adopt fMRI and EEG. This might be due to the pessimism regarding the ability of techniques to generate useful insights that are beyond and better than traditional research insights. A marketing professor at UC Berkeley stated in California Management Review that neuromarketing either states what one already knows or tells something that is of no use for the current product. For example, there is no need to scan that a discount on a product will have a positive impact on consumers’ brains than the consumer paying full price for a product.

Also, traditionally, marketers were concerned with measuring preferences and satisfaction. They further tried to develop products, advertise and brand accordingly. Neuromarketing can be used as a marketing research technique that helps in all of these. The major area that can benefit from this is better segmentation; as marketers will know how and which segment responds positively to their branding and advertising efforts. Other areas are nudging, hormone manipulations and temporary neural inhibitions on which the researchers and scientists are still working.

Even as marketers tussle with ethical ambiguity and the worth of the tools used in neuromarketing, a portable and affordable fMRI can prove to be a total game changer. The speed of advancement of neuromarketing has been commendable for the last 5-7 years but there is still a long way forward to it becoming the first choice of researchers in marketing.

However, it can still be deduced that Neuromarketing is here to stay. It will evolve as humans and even brands do. Certain ethical considerations can keep surfacing but standards are developing to ensure that such research is conducted with transparency and respect. 

Tags : Dr. Monica Bhatia Neuromarketing California Management Review