Interest in the human brain for marketing purposes was already present in the 70’s, as a Pepsi paradox test shows, but the term “neuromarketing” was first introduced in 2002 when companies like Coca Cola started to investigate neural activity and to analyze brain scans. Since that moment, connecting neuroscience with marketing has helped thousands of advertisers to understand their target audience choices and to get the best out of their marketing campaigns. Obviously, as most of the relatively new fields do, neuromarketing also brings up many questions and doubts about its reliability, ethical and background process.
In the following article we collected the most frequently asked questions about neuromarketing, based on Google search results and our previous experiences. Are you ready?
If you have any other questions not listed in this article, do not hesitate to ask us!
The innovative: What is neuromarketing?
Starting with the basics, neuromarketing is the study of people’s emotional and cognitive response to media or marketing stimuli. Basically it is an integrated science for understanding and influencing choices and people, with the goal to increase marketing effectiveness. The name is coming from the combination of neuroscience and marketing research. The measurement can happen with an eye tracking camera, EEG, heart rate sensor, fMRI, skin conductance meter (GSR), webcams, and of course, many more.
To learn more about this topic, check our previous article.
2. The pure-hearted: Is neuromarketing ethical?
:) Yes!
Try to type “is neuromarketing...” into Google search, and the first question popping up will be about its ethical background. Many believe that neuromarketing, because of measuring people’s brain (thus their emotional reaction) must be unethical. People are afraid that with this knowledge about their unconscious behaviour marketers has the opportunity to push the “buy button” in a shady way. However, as generally (apart from sales goals, obviously) the main goal of marketing is to match a product with its target group’s need, thus to influence the subconscious, neuromarketing is only a tool to read this information. The only important thing - as in most of the cases when we talk about marketing and customer influence - is to use the given information in a smart and ethical way. Just like we learn about our consumers' behavior with the help of Google or social media, neuromarketing is an extra support to make your product even more compatible with your consumer’s preferences. Also, just as in research, neuromarketing does not use individual data, but aggregates and cumulates them so the conclusions are based on the data of a predefined sample. This way, single tester's data won't be ever known by clients (brands).
It is this simple: if you use the results for great purposes, such as helping people or creating health supportive messages, you are doing great.
“Every argument against neuromarketing is an argument against marketing in general.”
3. The fearful: Is neuromarketing a pseudoscience?
Nice one, but... no.
Although many criticisms suggest that neuromarketing is pseudoscience, there are many studies proving that it is not. While 95% of our decision making happens in the subconscious, the other 5% conscious ones are also influenced by something coming from our memory, thus, analyzing brain signals is really worth it. Furthermore, Kahneman's system 1 and 2 (fast and slow thinking) theory also proves that most of our decisions happen without conscious thinking. Research proves that a decision can be predicted seconds before it happens simply from analyzing the subconscious mind. Neuromarketing has already been used in many fields of marketing and sales, from product packaging to TV commercials - and sales results prove its effectiveness many times. Still in doubt? Check these case studies to read more in this topic!
4. The uncertain: Why is neuromarketing different from other research methods?
Just a couple of reasons:
You receive data from the subconscious mind (system 1), and not from the consciously filtered (system 2) opinions that can be biased by brand preference, experiences, news, PR or social compliance. While most of the research methodologies measure the conscious reactions, neuromarketing is analyzing the subconscious mind. You can measure your ad with the help of focus groups or quantitative surveys. However, what people say consciously is not always the same as what they feel deep inside. Thus, if you want to learn the stimulus-response behaviour of your target audience, measuring their brain signals with neuromarketing tools is your best option. To learn more about focus groups check this article and if you want to know how you can measure emotions in research, check out this one.
You do not necessarily have to have questions. It can be enough to show the stimuli only. However, many study designs - like Synetiq’s - still include questions to create context and to analyze the conscious mind also.
You receive continuous data (sec-by-sec - instead of a score) about the duration of the stimuli and can track how reactions changed. (However scores might be generated later on.)
5. The budget-owner: Is neuromarketing research very expensive?
Don’t be afraid, it is not.
Being a new, technology based measurement tool makes a neuromarketing research look like something too fancy, but it is not necessarily expensive. As in every research there might be “omnibus” study designs that may serve more clients at a time. You already spent a big share of your marketing budget on creating and sharing that TV spot - so you want to bring the best out of it. Neuromarketing helps you to reach the highest result possible, even if it costs a bit more than other research methodologies, but learning the honest, subconscious reactions of your target audience is totally worth its price.
If you are curious about our prices and solutions, or just have other questions in mind, do not hesitate to contact us!
written by Petra Várhelyi
