Date of Graduation

5-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Marketing

Advisor/Mentor

Kopp, Steven

Abstract

What thoughts come to your mind when you think of the term neuromarketing? In a digital age where personal privacy seems to be diminishing and data exploitation appears to be rising, many people are skeptical about businesses' attempts to combine neurology, psychology, and business. This skepticism is unfortunately, legitimate. Our history reveals plenty of occasions where businesses have exploited their customers through unethical means and traded valuable relationships and resources for profits. However, despite the flaws business can introduce, business is arguably still the most powerful tool for creating value in a community. Through business, customers have had access to profound products, some being as significant as electrical power while some as trivial as being able to choose a different brand of bread. When business is conducted as a symbiotic relationship between both the customer and producer, Business can add value to communities and create significant change for generations. One of the most important investments many businesses have made in the 21st century is an investment towards consumer research. By analyzing their specific customers' behavior, businesses have been able to create, improve, and target products that add the most value to their particular target market, therefore increasing the satisfaction of the customers and decreasing costs. With the introduction of the internet and social media, it has become crucial for businesses to understand the people they are marketing their products or services.

Traditional marketing research techniques such as surveys, group discussions, and website analytics have played a significant role in businesses understanding their consumers. However, while these methods will continue, business leaders are beginning to explore new opportunities through neuromarketing, a set of research techniques that allow businesses to better understand their consumers' unconscious decision-making processes. Through ethical practices of neuromarketing research, companies can begin to understand their consumers' unconscious decisions, which can significantly impact how a business brands, advertises, and produces its products. On a small scale, this neuromarketing research can generate higher customer satisfaction during the purchase process, and on a large scale, it can help develop more efficient supply chain strategies. In its simplest form, neuromarketing has the potential to give the customers what they want, when they want it, and how they want it while also cutting costs and increasing revenue for the respective business. To fully understand the relevance of neuromarketing today, it is important to understand the history of marketing within business practices and how the simplest form of marketing in the early 1900s developed into the specific field of neuromarketing we know today.

Keywords

neuromarketing, consumer behavior, marketing research, consumer research, marketing history, marketing ethics

Included in

Marketing Commons

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