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Received 05 March, 2017; Accepted 15 March, 2017; Published 31 March, 2017 The author(s)
2017. Published with open access at www.dynamicresearchjournals.org
Abstract: Although it is still controversial, neuromarketing remains the most promising area of marketing.
Basically, the goal of neuromarketing is to study how human brain is affected by marketing stimuli. In
neuromarketing, brain activity can be monitored and measured using state-of-the-art neuroimaging techniques
such as the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and the electroencephalography (EEG). The idea of
relying on neuromarketing is largely celebrated today because of the widely acknowledged fact that consumer
purchase decisions are made in the subconscious mind. The study reviews and discusses the advantages and
limitations of neuromarketing techniques in trying to understand the consumer brain. The results of this study
indicate that neuromarketing has the potential to provide valuable information on consumer decision making.
Keywords Brain Scam, Brain Scan, Consumers, Customers, Electroencephalography (EEG), functional
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), Magnetoencephalography (MEG), Neuromarketing methods
JEL Codes: A12, B31, C91, C92, D03, D11, D12, D87, L25, L26, M31, M37.
I. INTRODUCTION
How many times have you realized that you contradict yourself? Of course many! How many times have
you observed people saying this and that and yet they do something that is completely different? Of course
many! The thing is: human decision making is complex, in the sense that it is not easy to understand. If human
decision making was easy to understand, no businesses would fail! Our preference for certain things be they
products or services, is usually realized unconsciously. 95% of our thinking and emotion takes place beyond the
level of our awareness. Therefore, for us to understand our behavior, as consumers-those unconscious mental
processes that influence our deliberations; we need to understand the anatomy of the consumer brain. Thanks to
neuromarketing, at least we can now decode some information from the brain and use it for understanding
consumer decision making. Nyoni & Bonga (2017b) 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 consumers brain in order to make marketing and advertising more effective.
Today companies who want obtain reliable and meaningful feedback on, say their new product, they must
have the courage to get inside the consumer's mind. In business, the ability to know what your customer is likely
to think concerning your product or service, is something that is greatly celebrated because it gives you a rare
competitive advantage in the market. Most of the newly launched products fail dismally primarily because of the
difference between the product characteristics and customer expectations. In most cases, you hear customers
complaining about the newly launched product; saying things like: the product is not user friendly, the product
is not really serving its purpose etc. Now, let us look at this question (based on Georges et al, 2013's classical
example), for purposes of illustration: which is much easier, to sell a bone to a dog or an elephant? The fact that
you already know what the dog wants, you can go ahead with your business of selling bones. But, can you
imagine yourself selling the same bone to an elephant? Surely, your business would be destined to fail. The trick
is: you need to accurately know what your customers really want. However, it is generally understood that what
your customers really expect from your product is something that they themselves don't really know, received
conventional wisdom indicates that it is something hidden in a "black box" in their minds. This implies that, the
gap between you, as a businessman, and your business break-through is, your prowess to unlock the "black box"
and see for yourself what's inside. Well, with neuromarketing, business people can now read their customers'
minds and be able to answer most of the extremely complicated questions beyond human thoughts.
The information obtained through traditional marketing research methods may not be reliable and accurate
precisely because it is usually associated with customer's unwillingness to reveal truth among other drawbacks.
However, neuromarketing overcomes such limitations of traditional marketing by directly interrogating the
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Neuromarketing Methodologies: More Brain Scans or Brain Scams?
brain itself without requiring conscious participation; and this could apparently be a solution for the wastage of
millions if not billions of dollars spent in vain effort, repeatedly using traditional marketing methodologies in
isolation; whose inefficiency in studying consumer behaviour has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt.
This paper reveals some important aspects of the use of neuromarketing in studying consumer behavior by
presenting the methodology of neuromarketing, the advantages and limitations of each method as well as the
importance of neuromarketing for companies.
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Neuromarketing Methodologies: More Brain Scans or Brain Scams?
Relatively low equipment and analysis costs exact location for each recorded signal
(Kenning et al, 2007) (Zurawicki, 2010; Kenning et al, 2007)
High temporal resolution, so researchers can Low spatial resolution, it records only
detect changes in the brain activity precisely, activity data from superficial layers of the
connected to rapidly changing stimuli (Ohme cortex (Zurawicki, 2010)
et al, 2011) Can identify only if the emotion is positive or
Relatively straight forward data analysis negative (OConnel et al, 2011)
(Kenning et al, 2007) Non-scalable (OConnel et al, 2011)
Statistical software packages available EEG testing requires a minimum of 36
(Plassmann et al, 2011) participants to receive usable data.
Able to measure variations in the frequency Conducting full study using EEG, companies
of electrical activity in the brain (Wang et al, can expect to spend an average of $25000, if
2008), following the population neural they use 36 participants. The cost will go up
activity in the brain (Perrachione & with the number of participants (Smith, 2015)
Perrachione, 2008).
Allows comparisons between left and right
hemispheres (Plassmann et al, 2011),
measuring approach-related tendencies (left
hemisphere dominance- positive emotional
responses) or withdrawal-related tendencies
(right hemisphere dominance negative
emotional responses) (Ohme et al, 2011)
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Neuromarketing Methodologies: More Brain Scans or Brain Scams?
small surface electrodes that record activity from certain muscles playing a major role in the expression of
elementary emotions.
What does it measure? When is it used?
Social communication Testing video materials
Emotional expressions Testing consumer reactions to advertising
Emotional valence Testing brand recall
However, Airely & Berns (2010) note that the use of neuromarketing by profit making organisations (rather
than academic and non-profit making organisations) can be a reason for discussion on ethical issues such as:
Lack of regulations
Possibility of reading consumers' minds
Privacy of information about preferences
Possibility of using collected data to discriminate against individuals or larger groups of consumers
Which influences and manipulations in preferences are more or less ethical?
Generalization of research data that was obtained from a small group to a bigger population
Abnormal findings
Customer's perception on using neuromarketing research by profit making organisations
Possibility of lack of interest of consumer welfare
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