NeuroMarketing

Introduction:
What is neuromarketing?

Neuromarketing is an emerging field and it bridges „consumer behaviour” with

neuroscience. It brings toghether neuroscience, psychology and marketing. The term
„neuromarketing” cannot be attributed to a particular individual as it started appearing
somewhat organically around 2002. It means the application of neuroimaging tehnniques to
sell products and brings a lot of changes in business approach. Neuromarketing helps to find
out how to influence consumers to buy a product.
When we talk about neuromarketing, we must analise it in contrast with traditional
marketing since it grows as a distinct area of practice and research. Despite traditional model
such as focus groups, preference questionnaires, simulated choice methods and market
tests, neuromarketing uses numerous neuroscientific methods to record electrical and
metabolic brain’s activity of an individual. Other methods, intrstruments and tehniques
neuromarketing include, but are not limited to eye-tracking, measuring the
psychophysicological reactivity and electroencephalography. Neuromarketing thus stands for
a collaboration between neuroimaging and marketing researchers and shows how we interact,
relate and behave in the context of markets and organisations. It provides additional better
information than the traditional marketing methods. Because marketing research is based on
commercial interests and, of course, it heavily engages business, neuromarketing helps to
reveal subconscious responses of consumers to marketing stimuli. Usually, neuromarketing
concerns the evaluation of relationships between various stimuli in order to influence people
to buy certain products by creating the right environment, instilling the right message; the
success of all this steps is based on neurological humans correlations. All this human
correlation can be seen and noticed by exploring their reactions. The „science of brain”
measures several commercial effectiveness indicators: emotional engagement, memory
retention, purchase intention, novelty, awareness and attention. The innovation level of a
marketing stimulus can ensure the success of a commercials campaign. Neuromarketing is
usually used for its precision. It is hard for the subjects to control their behaviour and,
implicit, their reactions, but the behaviour is not hard to be affected and influenced. Although,
the difficulty appears when we notice that there are many differences in the ways how people
respond to this stimuli and factors.
The objective of neuromarketing is focused on brands and on consumer behaviour.
Another essential point when we talk about neuromarketing is the challenge to anticipate
predictable and unpredictable consumers choices. Predictions are linked by certain brain
regions which can influence their behaviour.
Nowadays, neuromarketing provides information which cannot be retrieved by means
of classical marketing. The main advantage which is brought in business domain by
neuromarketing is that its tehniques which harvest quantitative data may be used before
launching a new product thus increasing the chances of success for that particular launching.
Given this considerations, the purpose of this paper is to present how neuromarketing
works as an interdisciplinary research fields in the business world. The study case detailed in
the second part presents key findings about the links between human brain and how it reacts
to stimuli taken from the external environment.
As a result, we have tested the current conceptual framework versus data extracted
from current research. This analysis suggests that if the human behaviour is analised using
accurate research tools, it can provides a lot of useful information for business. When all this
information is well interpreted, well corelated with human indicators and with human
reactions, it leads to substantial changes and improvements of current and future marketing
strategies.

1. The consumers-psychology model of brands

Consumers know, experience, understand and respond in many different ways to
characteristics of brands. This all happens because „consumers have different levels
of psychological engagement because of needs, motives and goals” („The consumer
psychology of brands”). It must be said that „the brand is viewed from an
interpersonal and socio-cultural perspective and provides a sense of community.”
Regarding relation between consumers and brands, there are five stages: identifying,
experiencing, integrating, signaling and connecting.
Identifying refers at that stage when the buyer searches and collects information about
brand, its category and related brands. Here it exists another three steps in consumer’s
brain, like: brand categorization, associations with the brand and inter-brand
realations. The categorization of a brand can be established verbally, visually through
physical proximity, or through design. Brand associations means that in conusmer’s
memory made up links and nodes to correlate products with a certain brand. Brand
association are structured on generality („some associations may be held about the
overall brand, while others may focus on exemplars of the brand”) („The consumer
psychology of brands.”). Inter-brand relations reffers to the relations that the brand has
with other brands. „Brands become contextualized when brands are compared to other
brands.” Next stage, experiencing, includes sesnsory percesption of the brand, brand
affect and brand paticipation. Through characteristics of products as smell, sight,
sound, touch and taste a brand can influence the consumer.