Introduction to Neuromarketing and Consumer Neuroscience

Citation

Sharad Agarwal (2015), "Introduction to Neuromarketing and Consumer Neuroscience", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 32 No. 4, pp. 302-303. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCM-08-2014-1118

Neuromarketing, in the simplest form, can be defined as the application of neuroscience to solve the problems of marketing. This is an interdisciplinary area of study which has its foundations in psychology, neuroscience, psychiatry, cognitive and brain sciences, economics, business and other allied fields of study.

There is a growing buzz about this area and it has gained significant interest from academics and practitioners. This has also led to a sudden overflow of books on the topic by many authors, most of whom are consultants and practitioners. These books are generally based on their experience and lack the required rigor. This book is one of the first attempts to fill this gap. He is a full-time faculty at Copenhagen Business School in the Marketing Department, where he also has his own neuroscience lab.

The author describes this book as an attempt to provide a foundation as to how we should think of and discuss concepts such as attention, memory, choice, consciousness, etc. Dr Ramsøy, notes:

Most terms in this book have an easy understanding and a hard understanding. The easy part is that for a term, we know what it is about, but it soon becomes harder when we try to define the term more specifically (p. 130).

This book is a bundle of up-to-date knowledge explored by consumer neuroscience researchers across the globe, though my personal belief is that our current understanding of consumers’ behaviour is just like the tip of the iceberg, and much more insight is still hidden. Nevertheless, this book gives a strong direction to think for anyone interested in understanding and exploring this area further.

The book is divided into ten chapters, including an Epilogue. Chapter One introduces the readers to the fundamental questions which are dealt with in the book such as:

How do we make decisions every day? What makes us remember prior experiences? Why are we influenced by contexts such as brands, or merely believing that others are observing us? Why do we have different preferences? Do we really have a free will? (p. 13).

In the section on conceptual clarifications, the author describes the meanings of the terms, neuromarketing, consumer neuroscience, neuroscience, applied neuroscience and neurology along with describing the applications of neuroscience in marketing and consumer behaviour. This helps in understanding the nuances of these terms which otherwise might confuse the readers as these terms are many times used interchangeably in neuromarketing reports and articles.

Chapter Two “The Brain” educates readers on the structure of the human brain. Though a very complex topic, the author has made it very easy to understand, even by readers new to this area. Relevant diagrams are provided, which makes it easy for readers to comprehend the text efficiently. The author introduces the readers to the terms dorsal, ventral, posterior, anterior, medial and lateral. These terms are frequently used in any text dealing with neuroscientific findings; hence, Dr Ramsøy makes it a point to explain them so that readers do not get stuck when they come across these terms.

Chapter Three “The Neuromarketing Toolbox” explores many different methods that can be applied to enhance our understanding of consumer psychology and behaviour. Here readers also learn about the pros and cons of each method and about situations in which each method should be used based on the research question or the practical problem marketer intends to solve. As the cost of each of the methods used in neuromarketing research varies enormously (fMRI may cost up to USD1000/hour while EEG would just be a fraction of that), the author equips readers with knowledge to choose the most cost-effective methods to demystify their research problems. He questions:

Is it absolutely crucial to run an expensive fMRI to study visual attention, or is it more useful to use eye-tracking and possibly extend with computational neuroscience? The costs will differ enormously but the insights might be the same. Or when does it make sense to combine measures, such as using eye-tracking simultaneously with EEG? (p. 47).

The chapter then discusses about eye tracking, galvanic skin response (GSR), electroencephalography (EEG), steady state topography (SST), magnetoencephalography (MEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Though these tools have been discussed in detail earlier by several other authors, this book gives real-time examples along with the images from the author’s own research work which makes it immensely helpful to understand the concepts.

Chapter Four “Senses and Perception” elucidates the role played by each of our senses such as vision, smell and sound in formulating our consumption decisions. The neurobiology of each of the senses is explained, which gives readers an understanding of the neural processes happening in our brain when we process the stimulus gained through our senses. Brand managers effectively make use of this to differentiate their products from those of competitors. To quote the author:

The snappy and fresh sound of Intel; the building expectation associated with the sound of THX in cinemas, or the direct brand associations we get from of phrases such as ‘Just do it!’ or ‘I’m loving’ I’, which automatically makes you think of Nike and McDonald’s, respectively (p. 102).

The most interesting part of the chapter is the discussion on how the brain processes the convergence of the sensory information reaching it through different senses.

Chapter Five, “Attention and Consciousness” as the name suggests, discusses the role of an individual’s attention and his/her consciousness in the decision-making process. It is now a well-known fact that our conscious experience of the outer world is a mere fraction of what our senses are exposed to. To give the readers an insight into the importance of understanding the role of consciousness or unconsciousness in decision making, the author notes that out of 11 million bits of information which human beings get exposed each second, we are capable of processing only around 50 bits of that information.

The author then educates the readers on several concepts and phenomena related on attention and consciousness. One such intriguing phenomenon is “attentional blink”, referring to the fact that after something has grabbed our attention, we tend to have a “blind period” in which nothing is really noticed. For example, if we see something on the screen that grabs our attention, and then stop, there is a period up to 500 milliseconds – half a second – in which whatever is presented will go unnoticed!

In the opinion section of this chapter, the readers would find it interesting to read Dr Ramsøy’s reply to a Huffington Post by Deepak Chopra; though the post was a critique, the author received a dinner invitation from Mr Chopra!

Chapter Six “Emotions and Feelings” deals with how the emotions and feelings of an individual influence his/her consumption-related decisions. Though it might sound extremely simple, emotions are probably one of the most important things to understand and explain. To assert, I would quote author Elizabeth Gilbert: “Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.” Successful brands try to build an emotional connect with their consumers, leading to enhanced consumer loyalty and in turn increased profitability. Having understood the importance of understanding consumer’s emotions in marketing the products and services, it is required to equip ourselves with the tools for measuring emotions and feeling. In this chapter, Dr Ramsøy wonderfully describes the measures of emotions such as pupil dilation, posture, galvanic skin response, respiration, pulse, EEG, fMRI, facial expressions and blush response along with their relative costs and their benefits and shortcomings.

Chapter Seven “Learning and Memory” begins with a short case of a patient who had lost her ability to store long-term (and intermediate) memories. This makes the readers aware of the fact that different parts in the brain are responsible for performing different kinds of functions. Further, in this chapter, the readers are introduced to different kinds of memories such as long-term memory, working memory and short-term memory. These concepts then help the readers to understand the concepts of brand association, brand recall, etc. The author explains the applications of these concepts in marketing with the help of examples from the research studies performed in his lab. In one such studies quoted in this chapter, the researchers found that:

[…] our (consumers’) product preferences are amenable to change by mere information that has really nothing to do with the product. If we believe that the product is French and expensive, we are automatically led to enjoy the product more and be willing to pay more money for the product – even though the quality of the product has never changed (p. 202).

Chapter Eight, “Wanting, Liking and Deciding” address the basic question, What drives consumer choice?. This chapter briefs readers with lot of interesting eye tracking, EEG and fMRI studies done by researchers across the globe. In a study done by the author (along with his team of researchers), inside the store environment, participants were given money prior to entering the store and were instructed to purchase items they wanted, or save the money. Then the author used mobile eye-tracking and EEG to extract the neural responses while people were looking at particular products or signs, or were in a particular region of the store. After analysing the first 500 milliseconds of product viewing, the author found that it did not even need half a second to make the predictions if the consumer will buy the product or not. More interestingly, the author found that even when consumers had only looked at a product for 100 milliseconds, it could be determined whether they would buy the product with over 70 per cent accuracy. The readers would find several other similar studies which will give them a new dimension to understand consumer shopping behaviour.

Chapter Nine, “Consumer Aberrations” is yet another topic which differentiates this book from others in this area. The author mentions two reasons to study aberrant consumers:

First, a better understanding of when consumption behaviours go wrong may help us better detect, diagnose, understand and treat such problems. Second, the study of abnormal behaviours can allow us a better understanding of “healthy” consumer choices (p. 235).

It educates readers about compulsive buying disorder (CBD), which is a condition characterised by an obsession with shopping and a chronic, repetitive purchasing behaviour that has adverse consequences both for the sufferer and their social surroundings. It is estimated that around 5 to 7 per cent of the population suffers from this disorder. Readers would find it interesting to study the consumer behaviour research done on the CBD population.

Chapter Ten “Epilogue” briefly gives the readers an idea of the future of this area of research (Neuromarketing and Consumer Neuroscience). It also talks about the ethical concerns of neuromarketing. Though the author agrees with some of the ethical concerns raised by other scholars, he urges readers to look toward the positive side, mentioning “Better than focusing on these pointless and anachronistic assumptions is to use neuromarketing for the sake of improving the life of people” (p. 252).

Though readers can very well start with this book, I would suggest the serious readers to also go through Neuromarketing for Dummies by Stephen Genco, Andrew Pohlmann and Peter Steidl. This would help them to understand the basic theoretical foundations of psychology and cognitive science such as Daniel Kahenman’s System 1 & System 2 theory.

The book also provides references to the studies at the end; interested readers can explore these texts for detailed descriptions of the experiments referred in the chapters of this book. The author also provides web links to many concepts, introduced in the book; these can be explored just by clicking on the links (in e-book) and act as an easy and authentic source of information. The book certainly has a positive impact on both commercial and academic applications of neuroscience in consumer behaviour and marketing. The book can be used as textbook for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate management students. It is also a suggested read for professionals in the function of marketing, especially those required to understand their consumer behaviour such as brand managers, new product development executives, consumer researchers, etc.