Research Proposal (The Ethical Challenge of Neuromarketing)

Research Proposal (The Ethical Challenge of Neuromarketing)
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Academic Institution
Abstract
The development and advancement of neuroscience have led to the development of neuroscientific techniques which are applicable in the marketing science and eventually in the marketing research. In marketing, neuroscience is used in examining consumers’ reaction to particular marketing related stimuli. This research examines how different companies and organizations use of neuromarketing from an ethical view, the implications of the ethical related issues on the customers and also examines how companies may employ neuromarketing without crossing the ethical boundaries.
Keywords Neuromarketing research, neuroscience, ethical concerns, privacy
Introduction
Neuromarketing is a new field of marketing which applies medical technologies such as the Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to study and examine the brain’s responses to marketing stimuli. Researchers use the FMRI in measuring changes in activity from parts of the brain and to learn why buyers and customers may make decisions certain decisions and which part of the brain guides them when making their decisions. Market analysts use neuromarketing to better measure their consumers’ preference through use of verbal responses given to a set of predefined questions. This knowledge plays a major role in enabling the marketers to create and produce products and services that are more desirable to the customers and also aid in generating marketing campaigns that are more focused on the brain’s response.
Neuroscience, psychology, and economics are linking up and creating a consolidated disciplined called neuroeconomics. In this field, psychologists and economists are generating and implementing ideal tools which are aimed at understanding and comprehending ways of modeling behavior. The main purpose of this discipline is to unveil the processes which express the associations between perceptions and activities exploring and scrutinizing the neurobiological mechanisms through which resolutions are made (Glimcher & Rustichini, 2004). Neuromarketing falls within this field of neuroeconomics. The increases neurotechnologists and the increase of neuroimaging techniques have boosted the field of marketing and research. Past the traditional marketing research techniques, which are mainly based on verbal reports and self-analysis, neuromarketing focuses on understanding the processes which take place inside the human brain.
Some of the common measures which are used when examining consumer’s reactions to stimuli include psychophysiological verbal and behavioral measures (Wang & Minor, 2008). However, neuromarketing sometimes varies with these measures since it necessitates the implementations of specific neuroscientific approaches which help in examining and scrutinizing behavior in relation to the methods applied in marketing. It is also important to note that neuroscience enables marketing researchers to analyze and perceive unmanageable brain function responses which occur in certain physiological responses when a person is exposed to certain stimuli.
Some of the neuroscientific techniques which are applied in understanding the beh...