Neuromarketing

With the help of neuromarketing, it should be deciphered how purchasing decisions are made in the human brain, how they can be influenced and how marketing processes can be optimized as a result.

Definition / explanation

Neuromarketing combines neuroscientific knowledge and traditional marketing. The overriding goal is to optimize marketing to increase sales. To do this, it is necessary to know which factors are used to make purchasing decisions.

While market research provides information from survey techniques and statistical methods, neuromarketing focuses on the decision-making process, the human brain. For this purpose, its activities, for example when viewing a certain advertisement or packaging, are measured and monitored.

Consequently, methods from neuroscience are used, for example the measurement of brain waves using electroencephalography (EEG) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRT). The focus is on central questions:

• which emotion does my product generate, positive or negative?
• at which product details is the brain activity greatest?

In addition, neuromarketing experts want to gain knowledge of how the activated areas of the brain can be stimulated and thus guide the making of the purchase decision. It is important to find out optimal product properties:

• what packaging, what functionality, what price?
• how do I arouse which associations with the product?

Assumptions and theories

It is scientifically proven that most of our decision-making processes take place in the unconscious, we are controlled by emotions and memories. If you want to do targeted neuromarketing, you have to understand the human emotion system. It consists of three sub-areas:

• Stimulation (driven by curiosity, fun)
• balance (responsible for order and security)
• Dominance (the part for power and autonomy)

Everyone has differently strong emotional subsystems. Mainly two of them are opposites in the decision-making process (the reason for long weighing of important decisions).

Criticism and weaknesses

Neurobiologists make it clear that even neuroscience cannot adequately answer many questions about the formation of decisions and emotions. A look into the complex consumer brain therefore does not necessarily reveal which product he is willing to buy tomorrow.

Neuromarketing attracts criticism from the ethical and data protection point of view: Economically oriented brain scans are a further step towards the transparent consumer.

Summary