neuromarketing analysis case study

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Neuromarketing: What You Need to Know

• Eben Harrell

The field of neuromarketing, sometimes known as consumer neuroscience, studies the brain to predict and potentially even manipulate consumer behavior and decision making. Over the past five years several groundbreaking studies have demonstrated its potential to create value for marketers. But those interested in using its tools must still determine whether that’s worth the investment and how to do it well.

“Neuromarketing” loosely refers to the measurement of physiological and neural signals to gain insight into customers’ motivations, preferences, and decisions. Its most common methods are brain scanning, which measures neural activity, and physiological tracking, which measures eye movement and other proxies for that activity.This article explores some of the research into those methods and discusses their benefits and drawbacks.

Potential users of neuromarketing should be cautious about partnering with specialist consulting firms—experts warn that the field is plagued by vendors who oversell what neuromarketing can deliver. One neuroscience and business professor suggests using a checklist: Are actual neuroscientists involved in the study? Are any of the consultancy’s methods, data, or tools published in peer-reviewed journals? Is its subject pool representative—a question that is particularly important for global brands? Do the consultants have marketing expertise along with scientific knowledge? Do they have a track record of success? And can they prove when challenged that they will offer insights beyond what can be gleaned through traditional methods?

A report on the state of the art

Idea in Brief

The challenge.

Despite recent studies validating the use of neuroscience methods in marketing, marketers struggle with the question of whether neuromarketing is worth the investment, what tools and techniques are most useful, and how to do it well.

The Solution

Marketers need to understand the range of techniques involved, from brain scanning methods to testing of physiological proxies; how they are being used in both academia and industry; and what possibilities they hold for the future.

The Benefits

By understanding the landscape, marketers can make better decisions about when to pursue a neuromarketing technique to gain insight into customers’ motivations and when and how to engage an outside firm as a partner.

Nobel Laureate Francis Crick called it the astonishing hypothesis: the idea that all human feelings, thoughts, and actions—even consciousness itself—are just the products of neural activity in the brain. For marketers the promise of this idea is that neurobiology can reduce the uncertainty and conjecture that traditionally hamper efforts to understand consumer behavior. The field of neuromarketing—sometimes known as consumer neuroscience—studies the brain to predict and potentially even manipulate consumer behavior and decision making. Until recently considered an extravagant “frontier science,” neuromarketing has been bolstered over the past five years by several groundbreaking studies that demonstrate its potential to create value for marketers.

• Eben Harrell is a senior editor at Harvard Business Review. EbenHarrell

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