Neuromarketing: what it is, how it works and what marketers can use

Neuromarketing is market research that measures how people's brains and bodies respond to marketing, such as an ad, a price or a package, instead of relying only on what they say in a survey. It is also called consumer neuroscience, and it is used to predict which messages and designs are most likely to work.

Surveys and focus groups assume people can explain their own choices. Often they cannot. Neuromarketing adds a second layer of evidence: what happened in the brain, the eyes and the skin while people looked at your work.

What is neuromarketing?

Neuromarketing applies neuroscience and psychology to marketing questions. It looks at sensory, cognitive and emotional responses to stimuli. Typical questions are:

• Which version of an ad holds attention longest?
• Which price feels like a fair deal, and which feels like a loss?
• Where do people look first on a landing page or a package?
• Does the brand name change how people rate the product itself?

The term first appeared in print in 2002. Researchers such as Gerald Zaltman were already using brain imaging for marketing questions in the late 1990s.

How does neuromarketing work?

Researchers show participants a stimulus and record their responses with one or more of these tools:

• EEG (electroencephalography): measures electrical activity on the scalp. It is the most common tool because it is portable and cheaper than brain scanners.
• fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging): shows which brain regions become more active. It is precise but expensive and needs a lab.
• Eye tracking: records where people look, for how long and how their pupils change.
• Skin conductance and heart rate: measure arousal, a rough signal of how strongly someone reacts.
• Facial expression analysis: reads small changes in facial muscles linked to emotions.

The results are then compared with self-reported answers and, in the best studies, with real sales data.

What does the research actually show?

The Coke vs Pepsi study

The best-known study was published in the journal Neuron in 2004 by McClure and colleagues. Participants tasted Coca-Cola and Pepsi, two drinks the authors describe as nearly identical in chemical make-up, while in an fMRI scanner.

When the drinks were unlabelled, a brain response in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex tracked which drink people said they preferred. When people knew which brand they were drinking, the brand changed both their stated preference and their brain responses. In short, brand knowledge changed how a basic reward was experienced.

Predicting which TV ads sell

A 2015 study in the Journal of Marketing Research, led by researchers at Temple University, tested TV ads on more than 300 people with surveys, implicit measures, eye tracking, heart rate, skin conductance, breathing, EEG and fMRI. The team then compared the results with how the ads performed in the market.

Activity in the ventral striatum, a reward-related brain region, predicted real-world ad success. fMRI was the most predictive of the physiological methods, and adding it substantially improved predictions compared with questionnaires alone. Questionnaires still mattered; brain data added to them rather than replacing them.

The six stimuli model and the "primal brain"

A popular framework comes from Christophe Morin and Patrick Renvoisé, set out in their book The Persuasion Code (Wiley, 2018). It names six stimuli that make a message persuasive. In plain marketing terms, a message should be:

1. Personal: about the buyer's problem, not your product.
2. Contrastable: a clear before and after, with and without.
3. Tangible: concrete and easy to grasp, such as "cut onboarding from two weeks to two days".
4. Memorable: strong at the start and the end.
5. Visual: shown, not only described.
6. Emotional: tied to a feeling such as relief, pride or fear of loss.

This is useful as a copywriting checklist. Be careful with the theory behind it. The model speaks of a "primal brain" that controls decisions, an idea close to the old "reptilian brain" or triune brain model. Comparative neuroscientists largely abandoned that model around the turn of the century and now regard it as a myth. Use the six stimuli as good writing practice, not as brain science.

Is neuromarketing ethical?

Critics raise three main concerns:

• Consent and privacy: participants may not know how their data will be used.
• Manipulation: findings could be used to push people past their rational judgement.
• Vulnerable groups: children are more susceptible to persuasive advertising.

The Neuromarketing Science and Business Association (NMSBA) publishes a code of ethics that covers informed consent, confidentiality of participant data, disclosure of methods and no coercion of participants. Academic reviewers call it a useful starting point but not a complete answer. There is also a credibility problem: many bold claims made by neuromarketing firms have been dismissed as hype.

How can sales and marketing teams use neuromarketing?

Most teams will never book an fMRI lab. You can still apply what the research supports:

• Lead with the buyer's pain. Open sales decks, emails and landing pages with the problem the buyer has, then show the change your product makes.
• Make contrast obvious. Show the old way next to the new way, or the cost of doing nothing next to the result.
• Be concrete. Replace vague claims with specific outcomes and numbers you can prove.
• Use visuals that carry the message. A screenshot, chart or before-and-after image often explains faster than a paragraph.
• Respect the brand effect. The Coke vs Pepsi study shows that brand knowledge shapes perceived quality. Consistent branding is part of the product experience.
• Use urgency honestly. Limited offers can work, but fake scarcity damages trust. See our guide to FOMO marketing.
• Test on your own audience. Treat any principle as a hypothesis. Run A/B tests on headlines, images and calls to action before you roll changes out. Our split testing guide explains how.

If you buy neuromarketing research from a specialist firm, ask which methods it uses, how many participants it tests, whether it follows the NMSBA code and whether its predictions have been checked against real sales.

Books on neuromarketing

• The Persuasion Code by Christophe Morin and Patrick Renvoisé (2018): the six stimuli model applied to sales and marketing messages.
• Brainfluence by Roger Dooley (2011): short, practical chapters on applying consumer psychology and neuroscience to marketing.

For related tactics, see what is persuasive marketing and our psychological tips for social media content.