Neuromarketing Methodologies: More Brain Scans or Brain Scams?

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.

Full text

Dynamic
Research Journals (DRJ)
Journal of Economics and Finance (DRJ-JEF)
Volume 2 ~ Issue 3 (March, 2017) pp: 30-38
www.dynamicresearchjournals.org
www.dynamicresearchjournals.org 30 | P a g e
Neuromarketing Methodologies: More Brain Scans or
Brain Scams?
1
Thabani Nyoni and
2
Wellington G. Bonga
1
nyonithabani35@gmail.com,
2
sirwellas@gmail.com
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 consumer’s 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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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.
II. METHODS USED IN NEUROMARKETING RESEARCH
To observe changes in brain activity in the presence of packaging, advertising and other communications,
neuromarketing utilizes the state-of-the-art technology to observe which areas of the brain ‘light up’ when test
subjects are processing a stimulus (Davis, 2012). Nowadays, with the help of technology, there are various
neuroimaging ways that are currently being used in consumer brain research. However, below is an explanation
of twelve (12) commonly used methods in neuromarketing research. The neuromarketing methodologies have
been categorised into three main groups and these are: Recording metabolic activity in the brain (fMRI and
PET), Recording electric activity in the brain (EEG, TMS, MEG and SST) and Without recording brain activity
(measuring physiological responses, IAT, EDA/GSR, facial EMG, facial coding and Eye tracking).
2.1 RECORDING METABOLIC ACTIVITY IN THE BRAIN
2.1.1 Functional MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING (fMRI)
This is the most common neuromarketing technique. It is a functional neuroimaging process that relies
on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technology to measure brain activity associated with changes in blood
flow. When certain areas of the brain are ised, blood flow to that area area increases. The reason this technique
works so well is due to the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. This linkage is
possible as active nerve cells carry a great deal of oxygen than inactive brain cells. The brain's response to the
need for more oxygen in specific areas of the brain is measurable by blood flow to these areas (Davis, 2012).
Information extracted in this way, can assist marketers in ascertaining those areas in the brain which are
working at any given time.
What does it measure? When is it used?

Brand loyalty
 Brand recall
 Craving
 Brand preference
 Trust
 Memory encoding
 Valence of emotions
 Sensory perception
 Blood flow
 Attention
 Personal meaning (importance)
 Can tell what the subject was thinking
(moment by moment)

Sensory testing celebrity endorsement
 Testing new campaigns
 Testing and developing advertisements
 Testing new products
 Identifying needs
 Repositioning a brand
 Predicting choices
 Testing prices
 Identifying the key moments of an
advertisement or video material
 Testing packaging design
What are its advantages? What are its limitations?

Reliable and valid measure for cognitive and
affective responses (Wang et al, 2008)
 Able to localize neural processing during
consumer choices and consumption
experience (Plassmann et al, 2011)
 Permits interpretation of psychological
processes in the brain (Reimann et al, 2011)
 Able to detect changes in chemical
composition or changes in the flow of fluids
in the brain (Wang et al, 2008), because,
normally, it follows the metabolic activity in
the brain (Perrachione & Perrachione, 2008)
 High spatial resolution, allows viewing deep
brain structures in detail (Zurawicki, 2010),
as it localizes brain activity changes within a
spatial resolution of 1-10 mm of deep
structures in the brain (Plassmann et al,

Tasks have a restricted levels of complexity
(trials) (Reimann et al, 2011)
 Subjects must remain still during the
procedure and avoid as much as possible head
movement (Zurawicki, 2010)
 Non-scalable (O’Connel et al, 2011)
 High complexity in data analysis (Plassmann
et al, 2011; Kenning et al, 2007; Savoy,
2005).
 Ethical barriers raised such as invasion of
privacy (Wang et al, 2008)
 Uses reverse inference from brain activation
to brain function (Reimann et al, 2011)
 Low temporal resolution, as it captures
dynamic changes with a temporal resolution
of 1-10 s (Plassmann et al, 2011; Kenning et
al, 2007).

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2011)
 Available statistical software packages which
allows both preprocessing and statistical
analyses, such as BrainVoyager QX (Levy et
al, 2011; Morris et al, 2009) and Statistical
Parametric Mapping (SPM5) (Falk et al,
2009; Plassmann et al, 2008; Stoll et al,
2008; Plassmann et al, 2007), as is the later is
able to realign and correct images for motion,
perform time correction, or normalize data
into standard space or smooth data with a
Gaussian model.
 Running the fMRI scanner can cost
researchers an average of $1000 per hour and
often 20-30 test subjects are being scanned.
These subjects are typically in the machine
for 30 minutes to an hour (Nobel, 2013)
2.1.2 POSITRON EMISSION TOPOGRAPHY (PET)
This another method of neuromarketing, in which a battery of detectors surrounds the subject's head
and traces radiation pulse, without precisely identifying the location of the signal (Zurawicki, 2010).
What does it measure? When is it used?

Sensory perception
 Valence of emotions

Testing advertisements
 Testing new products
 Testing packaging design
What are its advantages? What are its limitations?
 Follows the metabolic activity in the brain
(Perrachione & Perrachione, 2008)
 Able to detect changes in chemical composition
or changes in the flow of fluids in the brain
(Wang et al, 2008)
 Reliable and valid measure for cognitive and
affective responses (Wang et al, 2008)
 High spatial resolution (similar to fMRI)
(Zurawicki, 2010; Kenning et al, 2007)
 Poor temporal resolution (Kenning et al, 2007)
 Invasive method, application of radioactive
contrast (Kenning et al, 2007)
 Ethical barriers raised such as invasion of privacy
(Wang et al, 2008)
 Technical issues involve obtaining the radioactive
material and its short life (Zurawicki, 2010)
 The average cost of a basic PET scan is $3000 -
$6000 (www.petscaninfo.com/zportals/pat/my-
pet_scan_paying )
2.2 RECORDING ELECTRIC ACTIVITY IN THE BRAIN
2.2.1 ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY (EEG)
This is the measurement and recording of electrical activity (brain waves) that happens directly below
the scalp, which occurs as a result of neural activity. EEG is used to tell how much of the brain is engaged at a
given point in time (Davis, 2012). In the presence of a particular stimulus, such as a piece of advertising,
neurons fire and produce a tiny electrical current, which can be amplified. The observed brain waves can be
linked to different states of stimulation such as wakefulness (beta waves), relaxation (alpha waves), calmness
(theta waves), light and deep sleep (delta waves). Thus, the electrical potential measured and compared to a
baseline level can provide a lot of information about a subject's mental state (Zurawicki, 2010).
What does it measure? When is it used?
 Cognition
 Emotional valence
 Memory encoding
 Recognition
 Attention
 Excitement
 Engagement or boredom
 Approach or withdrawal
 Testing taglines
 Testing new campaigns
 Testing and developing advertisements
 Testing-in store experience
 Testing movie trailers
 Testing websites design and usability
 Identifying the key moments of an
advertisement or video material
What are its advantages? What are its limitations?

Valid measure for cognitive information
processing (Wang et al, 2008)
 Strong correlation between EEG asymmetry
and personality traits (Plassmann et al, 2011)
 Relatively simpler in use when compared
with functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) (O’Connel, 2010)

Results are not only influenced by artifacts
but also by experimental settings as noted by
Wang et al (2008)
 Moderate to high complexity (Plassmann et
al, 2011)
 As electric conductivity may differ from
person to person, it is difficult to retrieve the

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 Relatively low equipment and analysis costs
(Kenning et al, 2007)
 High temporal resolution, so researchers can
detect changes in the brain activity precisely,
connected to rapidly changing stimuli (Ohme
et al, 2011)
 Relatively straight forward data analysis
(Kenning et al, 2007)
 Statistical software packages available
(Plassmann et al, 2011)
 Able to measure variations in the frequency
of electrical activity in the brain (Wang et al,
2008), following the population neural
activity in the brain (Perrachione &
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)
exact location for each recorded signal
(Zurawicki, 2010; Kenning et al, 2007)
 Low spatial resolution, it records only
activity data from superficial layers of the
cortex (Zurawicki, 2010)
 Can identify only if the emotion is positive or
negative (O’Connel et al, 2011)
 Non-scalable (O’Connel et al, 2011)
 EEG testing requires a minimum of 36
participants to receive usable data.
Conducting full study using EEG, companies
can expect to spend an average of $25000, if
they use 36 participants. The cost will go up
with the number of participants (Smith, 2015)
2.2.2 TRANSCRANIAL MAGNETIC STIMULATION (TMS)
This is a neuromarketing technique that uses magnetic induction in order to modulate the activity of
certain brain areas that are located 1-2 centimeters inside, without reaching the neocortex. TMS follows the
population neural activity in the brain (Perrachione & Perrachione, 2008). TMS is able to highlight causal
inferences by analysing the subject in front of a marketing stimuli while certain brain areas are disabled,
stimulated, or normal (Zurawicki, 2010).
What does it measure? When is it used?

Cognition
 Changes in behavior
 Attention

Testing packaging design
 Testing new products
 Testing advertisements
 Testing other marketing stimuli
What are its advantages? What are its limitations?

Its effects are assessed indirectly through
behavioral responses such as accuracy or
reaction time (Perrachione & Perrachione
2008)
 Studies causality of specific brain regions for
certain mental processes (Plassmann et al,
2011)
 Also allows studying changes in behavior or
physiological responses after manipulation of
brain activity (Plassmann et al, 2011)

Ethical barriers also raised
 The average cost of a TMS scan ranges
between $6000 - $12000 (www.apa.org )
2.2.3 MAGNETOENCEPHALOGRAPHY (MEG)
MEG is an electrical technique used in neuromarketing research, it is almost similar to EEG. However,
contrary to EEG, magnetometers (detectors) in a helmet are placed on the subject's head to measure magnetic
potentials in order to record brain activity at the scalp level (Zurawicki, 2010). Neural processes associated with
a particular brand-choice stimulus can be separated into different stages through the observation of MEG
responses (Braeutigan et al, 2001). Brain activity as a function of electrochemical signals between neurons
creates a magnetic field that can be amplified and mapped by MEG (Morin, 2011).
What does it measure? When is it used?

Attention
 Perception
 Memory

Testing packaging design
 Testing new products
 Testing advertisements
 Sensory testing
 Identifying needs

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What are its advantages? What are its limitations?
 Reliable and valid measure for cognitive and
affective responses (Wang et al, 2008)
 Able to detect changes in chemical
composition or changes in the flow of fluids
in the brain (Wang et al, 2008)
 Good temporal resolution (Ariely et al, 2010;
Kenning et al, 2007)
 Relatively complex data analysis (Kenning et
al, 2007)
 Non-scalable (O’Connel et al, 2011)
 Experiments need a room free of earth’s
magnetic field (Zurawicki, 2010)
 Limited spatial resolution, although better
than EEG (Ariely et al, 2010; Kenning et al,
2007)
 Ethical barriers raised such as invasion of
privacy (Wang et al, 2008)
2.2.4 STEADY STATE TOPOGRAPHY (SST)
This is a particular usage of EEG technology that uses a sinusoidal, flickering stimulus delivered at the
visual periphery. Once the stimulus response is recorded, data is computed to measure short latencies. The
primary use of SST has been to examine normal brain function in association to visual vigilance, working
memory, long term memory and emotional processes (Tagliazucchi, 2014).
What does it measure? When is it used?
 Engagement
 Video materials effectiveness
 Emotional valence
 Long term memory encoding
 Attention
 Processed visual and olfactory input
 Testing prints and images
 Testing movie trailers
 Testing brand communication
 Testing advertisements
What are its advantages? What are its limitations?
 Ability to tolerate high levels of noise or
inference due to such things as head
movements, muscle tension, blinks and eye
movements (Silberstein, 1995; Gray et al,
2003)
 Also able to work with data based on a single
trial per individual (Silberstein et al, 1990)
 High temporal resolution, SST is able to
continuously track rapid changes in brain
activity over an extended period of time
(Silberstein, 1995)
 Has got low spatial resolution
 A standard SST study requires a minimum of
36 subjects for accurate results. Companies
can expect to spend an average of $25000 for
this size of study. The cost will increase with
the number of participants (Smith, 2011)
2.3 WITHOUT RECORDING BRAIN ACTIVITY
2.3.1 MEASURING PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES
This is a neuromarketing technique in which the researcher monitors the subject's biological reactions
to stimuli such as heart rate, blood pressure, facial muscle contractions and skin conductivity among other
physiological responses.
What does it measure? When is it used?

Emotions
 Emotional engagement during processes

Identifying in
-
store reactions
 Testing websites design
 Testing advertisements
 Identifying consumer behavior in its natural
environments
 Testing movie trailers
What are its advantages? What are its limitations?
 Portable
 Can provide information on the subject’s
emotional reaction to the stimuli (Zurawicki,
2010)
 Data acquisition toolbox available
(Plassmann et al, 2011)
 Inferences of emotional engagement or
 Physiological responses lag behind brain
activity by several seconds, being hard to
determine emotional states (O’Connel et al,
2011)
 Cost?

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arousal during choice processes (Plassmann
et al, 2011)
 Can identify a large variety of emotions,
unlike other techniques such as EEG
(O’Connel et al, 2011)
2.3.2 IMPLICIT ASSOCIATION TEST (IAT)
This a neuromarketing research method which is used in measuring individual behavior and
experience. Implicit measures might be less biased by deliberate attempts to conceal the attitude and that they
might even reflect attitudes of which the respondent is not aware (Houwer & Bruycker, 2007).
What does it measure? When is it used?
 Reaction time
 Underlying attitudes or evaluation
 Brand positioning
 Category segmentation
 Salient packaging features
 Celebrity endorsement – choosing the right
option
What are its advantages? What are its limitations?
 Allows identifying hierarchies of products
 Draws a more holistic picture of individual
behavior and experience
 Results apparently depend on the availability
of the subject to collaborate, as he or she
needs to focus on the task.
2.3.3 ECTODERMAL ACTIVITY (EDA)/GALVANIC SKIN RESPONSE (GSR)
Electrodermal activity (EDA) is the variation of the electrical properties of the skin in response to
sweat secretion. It is characterised by the superposition of single distinct skin conductance responses (SCRs).
The idea behind EDA is that skin resistance varies with the state of sweat glands in the skin and, because
sweating is controlled y the central nervous system, researchers are able to get an indication of psychological
and physiological arousal (Benedeck & Kaembach, 2010).
What does it measure? When is it used?
 Changes in skin conductance
 Activity of sweat glands
 Arousal
 Phasic activity
 Event-related sympathetic activity
 Predicting market performance
What are its advantages? What are its limitations?
 It is quite simple for researchers to obtain
information (Hilderbrand, 2016)
 Less invasive than other methods
 More reliable results (Hilderbrand, 2016)
 Allows researchers to predict attention and
memory (Hilderbrand, 2016)
 While it can be used as a component to
understand emotional responses through the
arousal of the consumer, EDA does not solely
give full dimension into emotional
understanding (Benedek & Kaembach, 2010).
 Has no way of ensuring emotional
engagement (Benedek & Kaembach, 2010)
 External factors such as temperature and
humidity can affect EDA measurements
which can lead to inconsistent results
(Benedek & Kaembach, 2010)
 There is a 1-3 second delay in results, and
this time varies with the participant, which
can lead to more inconsistencies in the results
(Benedek & Kaembach, 2010)
 The cost of research varies, however, an
average Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) tester
can be purchased for around $500 (Shimmer
Sensing, 2016)
2.3.4 FACIAL ELECTROMYGRAPHY (FACIAL EMG)
Facial EMG measures and evaluates the physiological properties of facial muscles (Ohme et al, 2011),
testing voluntary and involuntary facial muscle movements that reflect conscious and unconscious expressions
of emotions (Dinberg et al, 2000; Cacioppo et al, 1986), because each emotion has a particular configuration of
facial actions. Facial EMG is usually recorded on both sides of the face (the so-called bipolar manner), using

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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
 Emotional expressions
 Emotional valence

Testing video materials
 Testing consumer reactions to advertising
 Testing brand recall
What are its advantages? What are its limitations?

Ability to test both conscious (voluntary) and
unconscientiously (involuntary) facial muscle
movements
 Available software to remove artifacts
 Ability to identify the mood state (positive or
negative)
 Ability to measure facial muscle activity even
to weekly emotional stimuli
 Ability to detect the valence of the motion
depicted – positive or negative (Bolls et al,
2001).

Emotional experiences under natural
circumstances often consist of a mixture of
elementary emotions which, in addition, may
rapidly change so that EMG response
patterns may thus be a function of such
undermined or dynamic emotional states (van
Boxtel, 2010)
 Low-frequency artifacts such as motion
potentials, eye movements, eye blinks,
activity of neighboring muscles, respiration,
swallowing, fatigue, speech or mental effort
may infer the signals if the signal is not
filtered.
 Cost?
2.3.5 FACIAL CODING
This is a neuromarketing method in which the researcher uses a video camera to identify and measure
micro-expressions that code non-conscious reactions, based on the activity of the facial muscles. Despite the fact
that they are subjective in deciding when an action has occurred or when it meets the minimum requirements for
coding, facial expressions are random, they give real time data.
What does it measure? When is it used?
 Non-conscious reactions
 23 action units
 43 facial muscles
 6 core emotions (anger, dislike, fear surprise,
envy, sadness, - that can either be social or
genuine)
 Testing advertisements
 Testing movie trailers
What are its advantages? What are its limitations?
 Provides real time data
 Facial expressions are spontaneous
 There is subjectivity in deciding when an
action has occurred or when it meets the
minimum requirements for coding
2.3.6 EYE TRACKING
This another neuromarketing technique that allows researchers to record and study the movement of an
individual's eye as they view stimuli. It is normally used as the subject (s) watches TV commercials, reads and
views advertisements, observes product packaging and interacts with a web page (Davis, 2012).
What does it measure? When is it used?

Attention
 Search
 Excitement
 Visual fixation
 Pupil dilation
 Eye movement patterns
 Spatial resolution

Testing prints and images design
 Testing how the consumer filters information
 Testing advertisements and video materials
 Testing product placement
 Testing shelf layout
 Testing in-store reactions
 Testing packaging design – the visibility of
brand and product name
 Testing websites and user-interface
effectiveness – usability research
 Determining hierarchy of perceptions of
stimulus material (specifying which elements
are perceived first, last or not perceived at all)
What are its advantages? What are its limitations?

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 Ability to detect spatial attention
(Perrachione & Perrachione, 2008)
 Changes in pupil dilation and blink rate speed
provide accurate information on involvement
in processing images and on the degree of
excitement (Zurawicki, 2010)
 Portable in kits that can be carried to any
location (O’Connel et al, 2011)
 Not reliable (Wang et al, 2008)
 Results actually depend on participants’ eye
conditions (Wang et al, 2008)
 The cost of eye tracking solutions depends on
the degree of monitoring. For example, some
machines focus on different movements in
the eyes, and some focus on head movement.
Fees can range from $5000 for basic readings
up to $65000 for more in-depth research
(Arrington Research, 2016)
III. IMPORTANCE OF NEUROMARKETING
To improve competitiveness and profitability, businesses can use neuromarketing results in the following
areas:
 Branding products
 Testing products before being launched
 Increasing brand preference
 Improvement of TV commercials
 Improvement of customer retention
 Maximizing the effect of advertising
 Improving brand loyalty
 Improving product design or packaging
 Creation of more enticing and convincing promotional materials or products
 Development of more useful and pleasant products
 Development of user friendly products
 New market entry
 Effective customer segmentation
 Enhancing customer perception of campaigns
 Enhancing the ability of the customer to recall an advertisement, product or promotion
 Improving the emotional appeal of the product, to fully engage the customer
 Improving both general and promotional pricing strategies
 Enhancing knowledge on strategically placing products e.g on shelves in the shop
 Understanding the visual attention of different groups of customers e.g smokers and non-smokers
 Improving customer satisfaction
 Better understanding the overall consumer decision making processes
 Shaping the organization's overall marketing strategy
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
IV. RECOMMENDATIONS & CONCLUSION
The emergence of neuromarketing should not be taken as the birth of the “magic spot” era, a situation
where marketers will be simply targeting this so-called “magic spot” in the brain of the consumer.
Neuromarketing should be understood as another way of analyzing the consumer brain. Neuromarketing is
actually complementary to traditional marketing techniques. Therefore, neuromarketing cannot be taken as a
replacement of traditional marketing techniques. Neuromarketing is gaining more credibility and adoption as
each day passes on, therefore, neuromarketing companies are encouraged to stick to professionalism and also
take note of some ethical issues associated with neuromarketing. In this study, it is envisaged that marketers,
researchers and other relevant users will compare and contrast the above neuromarketing methodologies and be
in a position to choose the most suitable method in their own circumstances.

Neuromarketing Methodologies: More Brain Scans or Brain Scams?
www.dynamicresearchjournals.org 38 | P a g e
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