DOI: https://doi.org/10.47405/mjssh.v8i1.2081
Neuromarketing: The Physiological Tools for Understanding Consumer Behaviour
Asra Al Fauzi1* , Lidya Ari Widyarini2
1Faculty of Medicine Universitas Airlangga, Jl. Mayjen Prof. Dr. Moestopo No.47, Surabaya 60132, Indonesia;
Postgraduate Program in Management, Widya Mandala Catholic University, Jl. Dinoyo No.42-44, Surabaya 60265, Indonesia.
Email: asra.al@fk.unair.ac.id
2Faculty of Business, Widya Mandala Catholic University, Jl. Dinoyo No.42-44, Surabaya 60265, Indonesia.
Email: lydiaari@ukwms.ac.id
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR (*):
Asra Al Fauzi
(asra.al@fk.unair.ac.id) KEYWORDS:
Brain imaging Neuromarketing Neuromarketing tools
Predicted consumer behaviour CITATION:
Asra Al Fauzi & Lidya Ari Widyarini. (2023).
Neuromarketing: The Physiological Tools for Understanding Consumer Behaviour.
Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (MJSSH), 8(1), e002081.
https://doi.org/10.47405/mjssh.v8i1.2081
ABSTRACT
Traditional techniques can measure cognitive and emotional verbal expressions below the consciousness level. The disadvantages of this technique is not able to provide information on emotional responses in an unconscious state. Artificial intelligence of neural network is a cost-effective and an alternative for neuromarketing tools. Neuromarketing is a new technique for designing marketing strategies, especially advertising campaigns. The tools in neuroscience to measure behavioural response based on psychology, such as behaviour prediction and cognitive patterns. Marketers have used a variety of different tools, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), eye tracking, electroencephalography (EEG), facial expressions, galvanic skin response (GSR) and others. Therefore, neuromarketing holds great potential for marketers to manufacturing sectors in the coming year.
Contribution/Originality: This study contributes to the existing literature on the physiological tools such as eye tracking, electroencephalography, galvanic skin response and facial expressions for understanding the consumer behavior.
1. Introduction
Technology development is able to change the market structure from offline to online (Alvino et al., 2020). The development of wearable sensor technology has become popular among researchers. Emotional recognition can be applied in the neuromarketing entertainment, games, computers, health, psychology and education (Lim et al., 2020).
Neuromarketing is a multidiscipline that combines neuroscience, psychology and marketing science. Neuromarketing includes brain imaging, scanning or brain activity measurement technology to measure a subject’s response to a particular product,
packaging, advertisement or marketing element (Singh & Kumar, 2015). Consumer neuroscience is a new approach in consumer research that is developing rapidly. The goal of consumer neuroscience is the study of the neuropsychological mechanisms that support and guide consumers in decision-making and behavior (Cherubino et al., 2019;
Lim et al., 2020).
Neuromarketing in several start-up companies has used neuromarketing as its main service. Some companies include Brighthouse, an American advertising company that introduced neuromarketing in 2002. NeuroFocus is an American neuromarketing company that was acquired by The Nielsen Company in 2008 to become Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience. Neurosense company that performs the fMRI method for commercial use has listed several well-known brands namely BBC, Coca Cola, Ford, Heinz, Intel and L’Bijih (Singh & Kumar, 2015).
Several methods to measure consumer decision making and behaviour include such as eye tracking, electroencephalography (EEG), functional magnetic resonance (fMRI), facial expressions and magnetoencephalography (MEG) (Alvino et al., 2020; Morin, 2011). The advantages of measuring brain activity and physiological responses can reduce the time and cost of experiments and able to connect cognitive and emotional aspects with neural processes (Alvino et al., 2020).
2. Material and Methods 2.1. Neuromarketing
Neuromarketing is the combination of neuro and marketing that implies the merging of two fields of study are neuroscience and marketing (Morin, 2011). This method has aimed to predict the effectiveness of advertising campaigns by measuring the response using brain imaging without resorting to consumer statements (Ahmed et al., 2022).
Advertising agencies such as Brighthouse, SalesBrain and Neurosense are beginning to predict the effectiveness using brain based on tolls such as eye tracking, EEG, GSR and facial expressions (Alkan et al., 2011; Morin, 2011; Singh & Kumar, 2015). Based on this method, can measure a consumer’s attention paid to shelves during shopping, what consumers like and what they are afraid (Ahmed et al., 2022; Vences et al., 2020).
2.2. Tools and Technique of Neuromarketing 2.2.1. Eye tracking
Eye tracking is a method to measure eye position, eye movement and pupil dilation. The measurement method is by eye gaze and movement at a certain point in an image or video, the frequency of blinking and changes in pupil diameter. The speed of rolling eyeballs will increase if the user feels excitement, it will decrease if the user feels sad (Wang et al., 2018). Researchers can present a visual stimulus on a monitor screen and the software will measure eye movement across the visual stimulus (Champlin et al., 2014). The advantages of eye tracking are portable, non-invasive, easy to use and relatively inexpensive (Alvino et al., 2020; Lim et al., 2020).
2.2.2. Electroencephalography (EEG)
Brain activity can be recorded using EEG method. Cells are responsible for the cognitive biological basis of capturing a given response. Electrodes are placed on the scalp using a helmet or band where ECG can record up to 10.000 times per second (Morin, 2011).
2.2.3. Galvanic Skin Response (GSR)
Galvanic skin response is used to measure skin temperature and skin conductivity.
These methods can identify and measure psychological. Pulse rate is also measured via galvanic skin response. Pulse fluctuations reveal the level of excitement or stress the person experiences in response to certain triggers (Singh & Kumar, 2015).
2.2.4. Facial Expression
Facial expression is divided into two, namely facial electromyography (fMEG) and facial expression recognition software (fERS). fMEG method can measure voluntary and involuntary facial muscle movement that reflecting emotional reactions toward a marketing stimulus. For fERS can measure positive or negative reactions to investigate consumer’s excitement, engagement, emotions and valence (Alvino et al., 2020).
3. Discussion
Traditional techniques can measure cognitive and emotional verbal expressions below the consciousness level. Self-report is a traditional methods for predicting the success of advertising depend on the consumer’s willingness and ability to describe the level of attention, feeling, preference and future behaviors associated with the marketing campaign (H.Amiri et al., 2022). The disadvantages of this technique are not able to provide information on emotional responses in an unconscious state. Brain imaging techniques are able to provide information on conscious and unconscious states. This process has an important role in influencing behaviour (Arieli & Berns, 2010; Cherubino et al., 2019).
Brain imaging method for the analysis of brain responses to answer various questions from specific scientific fields. The tools in neuroscience to measure behavioural response based on psychology, such as behaviour prediction and cognitive patterns (Cherubino et al., 2019; H.Amiri et al., 2022). This technique is becoming popular with marketers because it provides more efficient trade-off between costs and benefits. It also can provide accurate and applicable marketing research methods before the products is produced (Arieli & Berns, 2010).
Neuromarketing has provided the concept of individual decision-making due to the factors of human decision-making (Alvino et al., 2020). There are many factors of the effectiveness in advertising using neuromarketing. Cognitive and conscious information has a vital role of the effectiveness that leads to recognizing risk and conflict in the decision-making. Age, gender, socio-economic level can play an important role of interpretation of a brand (H.Amiri et al., 2022).
Researchers use many medical tests and techniques to measure the human brain’s activity (Ahmed et al., 2022). Based on assumed many people indicated the use of brain imaging such as fMRI, but many companies seem not to use imaging, but use on a variety of technologies. The companies offered using fMRI, EEG, and neuroscience related technology, including magnetoencephalography (Cherubino et al., 2019).
Neuromarketing is a new tool for market research. Several companies such as BBC, Coca Cola, Ford, Heinz, L’Oreal and Yahoo have used neuromarketing as a market research tool. The company services such as NeuroFocus, Neurosense and Brighthouse have developed many techniques with the application of neuroscience. The techniques are EEG, eye tracking, GSR, and cognitive analysis. Therefore, neuromarketing holds great potential for marketers in the coming year.
4. Conclusion
In this paper, we have attempted to review neuromarketing tools for predicting the consumer’s behaviour. Neuromarketing has aimed to predict the effectiveness of advertising campaigns by measuring the response using brain imaging. There are many parameters to analyze the consumer behaviour, such as cognitive, conscious information, age, gender, socio-economic level and excitement can play an important role of consumer’s decision-making. Neuromarketing tools can measure using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), eye tracking, electroencephalography (EEG), facial expressions, galvanic skin response (GSR) and others. They provide a promising to help researcher for identifiying consumer behaviour.
Acknowledgement
Part of this article was extracted from doctoral thesis submitted to Widya Mandala Catolic University, Surabaya, Indonesia
Funding No funding.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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