Neuromarketing: Manipulation or What? What!

Yes indeed, because neuromarketing is many things except a manipulation technique!

And since silent communication is considered one of the most subtle manipulation techniques, experts in the field are required to shout it out loud!

We often hear these strategies criticized because they presuppose an excessive intrusion into what in common parlance is called "the consumer's mind" .

Let's start by giving a definition of neuromarketing: it can be defined as the union between marketing and neuroscience. Neuroscience is therefore applied to marketing strategies to improve them and this is necessary in a world that is changing very quickly.

Customers today are overwhelmed with stimuli and information , so they struggle to identify with a brand's values.

Neuromarketing helps create a bridge between the brand and its customers by studying the unconscious dynamics underlying this relationship.

But be careful!

The true soul of neuromarketing therefore lies in research: it is from here that it originates and this is how it shakes off the negative label that some attribute to it by associating it with manipulation.

Neuromarketing in fact combines various disciplines , from psychology to sociology to economics, integrating different fields of knowledge through a transversal approach.

Approach that requires in-depth study as well as a meticulous method through neuroscientific tools. Method that completes marketing consultancy by enriching the traditional approaches listed in the manuals

of Economics.

In fact, traditional market research is unable to provide information regarding the purchasing decision-making process , since this also derives from emotional variables as well as from our unconscious.

Even classic pricing methodologies can fail, that is, companies, by adopting only analytical methods, risk choosing a price that is not in line with the consumer's real willingness to pay.

As happened to Starbucks, demonstrated by research by neurobiologist Markus Müller who, through neuromarketing tools, analyzed the brain reactions of customers with respect to different price ranges.

In particular, he demonstrated that unexpected prices (too high or too low) subject the brain to a state of shock resulting from necessary but excessive processing.

Most likely, under these conditions, the purchase has a low probability of occurring.

Or, very interesting is the case of UNHCR Italy which, thanks to a well-known Italian neuromarketing agency, Ottosunove, proposed some changes to a commercial (which until then had been ineffective), distorting the results of an important charity campaign in favor of refugees.

Or, let's think about the research whose results encourage the use of eco-sustainable packaging.

The applications of neuroscience to marketing are therefore innumerable and all very interesting , ranging from the social sphere to the various product sectors.

Finally, it can be argued that manipulation exists if there is influence of consciences, but neuromarketing strategies concern sophisticated market research that can instead promote collective well-being.