Today’s technology is allowing us to predict the consumer’s thoughts by letting marketing researchers know what and if they consumer likes or dislikes and more importantly, if they will make a purchase or not. In the article “Is my brain making me buy things I don’t need?” Julia Layton, describes how MRI machines are used to measure the “pleasure center” to see if the consumer likes the product, and the insula (which is the opposite of the pleasure center) of the brain. The insula is what marketing researches would be interested in testing because it would let them know if the consumer is going to purchase the product. If marketers knew exactly what the consumer wants, then there’s no need to market undesired, un profitable products.
There is an ethical side to neuromarketing, no matter how bad marketers want it to be, neuromarketing cannot influence or manipulate your thoughts. If neuromarketing is as effective as researchers claim, then what will happen to the privacy of our thoughts? Will this be something that companies start to depend on for other than marketing purposes? I think that neuromarketing can be a great advancement in marketing but only if used correctly and doesn't abuse our privacy and human rights.
I agree that neuromarketing can be a large progression as you stated, but it has to be used correctly. If a marketer knows what your thinking about a product and what products you like or dislike, they still have to make the next step. Marketers have to get you to purchase the product. They can have all the information in the world, but it is what they do with the information that is key.
ReplyDeleteI think that neuromarketing is an extremely interesting concept. On first thought, it's hard to see the harm. I mean really, what's wrong with matching consumers up with EXACTLY the products and services they need? If you dig a little deeper though, as you mentioned, privacy could become an issue; marketers could even perhaps take advantage of this technology to get to know us better than we know ourselves.
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