Can neuromarketing really explain buying behavior?
Business Week recently had an article on neuromarketing, and how scientists are using this new method to see how your brain responds to various messages and advertising. But does that really tell the story? Can you understand buying behavior without understanding culture and social context?
Surely, neuroscientists will pinpoint that part of the brain that light up in response to certain stimuli. But aren’t those areas going to be different depending on your cultural background and your social environment. Maybe these methods can help with targeting messages for impulse buying - but I have a hard time believing that we can explain buying behavior in various parts of the world based on the brain patterns of individual buyers…
What do you think?
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February 6th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Francois,
Perhaps the secret will be NOT using the insights to extrapolate (as traditional research would), but rather to tailor locally. All politics are local, and perhaps someday soon all marketing will be local??
February 7th, 2008 at 5:15 am
Agree - buying behavior is strongly influenced by social, cultural and even economic factors and these factors will vary in different parts of the world. Maybe these methods can be used to test buyer response locally for each market, but not as a generalization for worldwide usage.