Nueromarketing and Mind Control: Is this an Ethical Business Model?

What is neuromarketing?

A form of marketing that allows marketers to use brain reactions in order to gain knowledge of how decisions are made. This allows marketers to collect data based on our unknowingly subconscious decisions.

Below is a companies research on Neuromarketing, he made a video discussing the matter and he disagrees with its morality.

Heres my memoir of the video:

How products with a good marketing strategy like that “control our brains” nice images, discounts, smells, people’s fears, and desires within people’s brains to sell their products. This is called neuromarketing. They have set up experimental stores and have people go “pretend” shopping to observe how people buy. Each is wearing a special pair of sunglasses that track eye movements.

Based on their findings:

– They were able to follow the look, which explains to them how individuals make decisions to buy.

– This form of marketing plays with peoples subconscious minds without the subjects knowledge, similar to manipulation

-Using certain elements they can manipulate the color, shape, size things that stimulate the mind and encourage people to buy.

-Every-time one person sees an ad their minds react many times subconsciously.

-Food advertisements use strong emotions in their ads to get people interested in buying their yummy food. Similar to a story the ad goes through a series of events and then a climax where the product is showed and then the ending.

-They use it with kids by using toys and the playground inside, and they don’t go to eat the food they go to have fun. 95% of families who visit McDonald’s do so because of their kids.

-McDonald’s marketing expert says McDonald’s said that if a kid goes to McDonald’s as a kid they will most likely continue to come as teenagers and adults.

-McDonald’s was sued for this type of marketing. Mother wanted McDonald’s to stop marketing to children by giving these gifts to children. Normalizes eating McDonald’s is normal to children by marketing using barbies and other loved characters from tv shows/movies, however when they eat they get all the fats and sugars and things that aren’t good for them.

-In a separate study with kids and food, the children pointed to the food that they thought was from McDonald’s and even stated it tasted better.

-When adults think of McDonald’s they think fast, which is why they chose them over other places.

-Cleaning products placed throughout the store, and without people realizing it made them think about cleaning products and the store was able to increase sales by 7%. McDonald’s did the same thing which also increased its sales.

-McDonald’s decline in the use of Neuromarketing research.

-Neuroscience has McDonald’s listed on their sites as one of their top clients.

-Neurosciences do research on how the smells, color, shape size, etc that make that feel-good sensation that’s the reward center in our brains, the same sensations someone gets similar to when they have sex or do cocaine.

-These types of studies aren’t really ethical.

-Salesbrain has marketing materials they sell to businesses that coach them in Neuromarketing. The decision-maker of the brain that triggers the pain, insight into the act of buying. Don’t stop at wants and needs, go further to the pain, and use their pain to insight people to buy the product that helps them.

I believe the main objective of the video was to inform people that companies are using this form of marketing to make money off of people and this is unethical. I neither agree nor disagree, but I do understand his point that companies are using this technique, but as a small business owner, I don’t necessarily believe its all unethical. At the end of the day, all businesses want to make money so us consumers know what we are paying for. And with children parents who are worried about this have the authority to say no. But when the kids grow up we can’t control what they do so if they decide to buy the food knowing its unhealthy, that’s their decision. I think its a little extreme that they compare people purchasing power as puppets, but I get the comparison.

I’m conflicted!

What do you think about neuromarketing?

-taylor micheal.