Nowadays, new techniques such as neuromarketing make strides to evaluate consumer behavior based on different brands, advertisements or purchasing environments. These neuromarketing techniques can help evaluate the hidden reasons that are responsible for specific consumer behaviors and explain what is happening inside the brain or the “black box,” as it is called. Neuromarketing techniques present physiological information, since participants cannot influence these types of measurements. The purpose of this article is to highlight the weaknesses of traditional marketing techniques as a basis for presenting the benefits of neuromarketing strategies and how they can help gain more reliable insights into consumer behavior. Neuroimaging techniques will be compared with traditional techniques regarding the influence of advertising, product attractiveness, consumer satisfaction. The limitations of neuromarketing techniques will also be presented. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Furthermore, traditional techniques rely on data collection such as research groups, self-assessments, surveys to evaluate consumer behavior. They can provide the desired data, however there are doubts about their reliability in this regard. Specifically, Walton argued that traditional techniques such as those from research groups should be left behind due to the procedure's high costs and low accuracy. In this way, participants, when interviewed, tend to hide, consciously or unconsciously, their desires and respond by telling lies or believing that it is important to answer based on what others want to hear in order to please them. Furthermore, Schafer argued that the consumer is not aware of the real emotional reason why he buys a specific drink each time. In another example, a US advertising company called "Arnold Worldwide" evaluated the emotional influence of advertising images, using FMRI images. Their client wanted to know how viewers would react to images like "college students having a drink around the campfire during a break" or "adults in a classy bar." It turned out that the images considered most preferred in traditional testes differed from those that cause strong activation in the brain. However, neuromarketing techniques are able to investigate beyond the emotional state of the consumer and understand the unconscious factors of a product choice. Furthermore, researchers are able to re-evaluate marketing theories through neuroimaging techniques and expand knowledge related to neuromarketing. The cost of using neuroimaging techniques is extremely high, but the results are reliable as they clearly present brain function. Therefore, information is available for further hypotheses about consumer behavior. Regarding the cost of neuroimaging techniques, studies argue that if they reveal hidden information about consumer behavior, there will be product improvement. There will therefore be a balance between the increase in sales and the cost of their use. On the other hand it is said that, apart from the extremely high cost of neuroimaging techniques, the analyzes take a long time and that further confirmations are necessary due to the complexity of the information. Neuromarketing could play a complementary role to traditional techniques with its power to present differences in the processdecision-making. In particular, it could help traditional marketing in three ways: First, neuroscientific techniques could help find each consumer's individual differences in interests. This could happen with the combination of neuroimaging techniques and investigations. Secondly, the discovery of neural mechanisms can be useful, as they can help discover new strategies for companies. Third, neuroimaging can help identify and group customers based on their cognitive way of reacting to a solution. Effective interaction regarding advertising is of primary importance in marketing. Participants were observed with FMRI as they rated commercials for appeal. Attractive commercials were found to activate reward and decision-making areas of the brain. Additionally, the studies presented good-looking facial features important for an eye-catching commercial. Specifically, beautiful women could trigger the reward system of male consumers. When it comes to longer brand recalls, another study was conducted. It was shown that an advertisement was remembered much more when it was related to a touching image than an advertisement with logical arguments. Specifically there were two groups. One was given medicine to decrease responses, while the other remained without medicine. As a result, the group that took the medicine remembered the rational commercial better. In contrast, people who didn't take the medicine were better at remembering the emotional commercial. Additionally, proponents of brain scanning argue that participants could connect to imaging devices while viewing images or audiovisual clips to make valid hypotheses about effective advertising. . This could be achieved by presenting marketing stimuli to participants and assessing which part of the brain is activated. However, the area that should be activated may fail to do so. Researchers will know that specific advertising will not bring the desired results. For example, a British company called Unilever examined its advertising using EGG. The company's product was presented with the relevant marketing message, but the expected responses were not obtained from the brain. The results of the EGG experiment were invaluable to the leadership of the group. Consequently, focus on more effective advertising based on consumer behavior. Finally, neuroimaging techniques could be used to achieve advertising success. And consequently identify the most important factors for awareness and evaluation of the product to avoid shock and sexual images. Shocking and sexual images are heavily promoted by traditional advertising techniques as companies see it as the best way to make a point. Therefore, neuroimaging techniques could help reduce companies' reliance on sexual images and shock strategies. Product regulations are of primary importance in promotion because they include the marketing strategy of a product. Regarding product regulations, it is important that the product is made according to the buyer's needs. FMRI studies have shown that the brain is activated in different parts depending on different products, for example participants were exposed to different types of cars such as sports cars, limousines and small cars. Specifically, reward-related parts of the brain were activated when high-prestige products such as sports cars appeared. In particular, parts of the reward brain such as the ventral striatum mightdefine the attractiveness of a product. Therefore, work as a factor in the consumer's choice of product. In general, neuroimaging techniques have a better chance of obtaining reliable reactions from consumers regarding product attractiveness. In this way, traditional techniques rely on the customer's choice to find out which of the products is most attractive to him, but consumers are influenced by external social factors regarding their choice. Therefore, social influences form unconscious drives that cannot be discovered with traditional techniques. In relation to unconscious drives, in one study women were asked if they found the wrestler "The Rock" attractive and their answers were negative. However, brain activity records showed the exact opposite. Secondly, traditional methods such as self-reports are not valid since participants are not able to express their opinion or feelings about an event that happened in the past. Neuroimaging techniques can also benefit from useful information regarding customer behavior and how they think regarding payment as it is an important reason for a company's profit. For example, it has been stated that a person who wants to make a purchase has two ways of thinking. The first is that when a product is expensive it means it is high quality, and the other way to think is that the product is really too expensive so it is more than a waste of money. In relation to the feeling of losing money, the FMRI results showed that the reward part in the brain was activated with earnings and the insula was activated with extreme amounts. Neuroimaging techniques can also help evaluate consumer satisfaction in a more reliable way than traditional techniques. It was believed that traditional marketing techniques were succeeding in this regard. However, studies showed that the number of customers was not stable, as even if they were satisfied they would choose not to engage with the brand. It turns out that a part of the brain called the striatum gets used to new stimuli and only reacts when something unexpected happens, and that happens in the consumer's brain. However, FMRI studies have shown that people who have a preferred brand include the emotional factor more in their purchase choice than disloyal people. Therefore, the preferred brand works as a reward in the brain when purchasing an item. Ultimately, neuroimaging could benefit the consumer on a personal level. For example, the buyer thought that neuromarketing would be aware of his needs and would receive offers from the products he really needed. Another benefit to the consumer could be to address addiction when it comes to spending on products. Using neuroimaging techniques it is possible to identify the areas causing the problem. Furthermore, people who spend on products could defend themselves from this practice by being aware of what they feel, and why they feel it, while shopping. Based on the overview of the paper, the aim was to present the reasons that neuroimaging techniques are able to provide reliable information in contrast to traditional techniques regarding marketing. It is argued that neuromarketing is more reliable as it directly evaluates the brain and uncovers the consumer's unconscious thoughts. Furthermore, it can benefit regarding the effectiveness of advertising. For example, beautiful faces and emotional stimuli can make an advertisement attractive. FMRI studies presented greater activation in the rewarding parts., 4, 123-147.
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