Towards a Better Understanding of Consumer Behavior: Marginal Utility as a Parameter in Neuromarketing Research

Abstract

Understanding consumers’ decision-making process is one of the most important goal in Marketing. However, the traditional tools (e,g, surveys, personal interviews and observations) used in Marketing research are often inadequate to analyse and study consumer behaviour. Since people’s decisions are influenced by several unconscious mental processes, the consumers very often do not want to, or do not know how to, explain their choices. For this reason, Neuromarketing research has grown in popularity. Neuromarketing uses both psychological and Neuroscience techniques in order to analyse the neurological and psychological mechanisms that underlying human decisions and behaviours. Hence, studying these mechanisms is useful to explain consumers’ responses to marketing stimuli.This paper (1) provides an overview of the current and previous research in Neuromarketing; (2) analyzes the use of Marginal Utility theory in Neuromarketing. In fact, there is remarkably little direct empirical evidence of the use of Marginal Utility in Neuromarketing studies. Marginal Utility is an essential economic parameter affecting satisfaction and one of the most important elements of the consumers’ decision-making process. Through the use of Marginal Utility theory, economists can measure satisfaction, which affects largely the consumer’s decision-making process. The research gap between Neuromarketing and use of Marginal Utility theory is discussed in this paper. We describe why Neuromarketing studies should take into account this parameter. We conclude with our vision of the potential research at the interaction of Marginal Utility and Neuromarketing.

Picking Your Brains: Where and How Neuroscience Tools Can Enhance Marketing Research

“…Traditional marketing techniques such as self-reports or interviews mainly allow the measurement of conscious reactions to marketing-related stimuli (e.g., advertisements, brands). Conversely, neuroscience tools enable researchers to measure physiological signals aroused by marketing stimuli such as music, videos, brand logo, or websites (Schneider and Woolgar, 2015;Alvino et al, 2018;Alvino, 2019;. These tools also help to understand how a consumer experiences marketing stimuli and to identify the factors that influence and modify consumers' preferences.…”

Deep Learning for EEG-Based Preference Classification in Neuromarketing

“…The idea of a 'buy button' in the brain may be overexaggerated; however, the research efforts to utilize the neural measures in monitoring the consumer thought processes are not trivial [20]. Understanding the neural process behind the preference, feelings, and decision-making can enhance the prediction of the user preferences and choices, and neuromarketing provides a precise objective determination of the implicit preferences of the consumers [21].…”

“…We used the PSD technique in this study to divide each EEG signal into four different frequency bands: theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (8-13 Hz), beta (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30), and gamma (30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40). The Python signal processing toolbox (MNE) was used for PSD calculation, and the average power over the frequency bands was computed to build a feature using the avgpower function in the MNE toolbox.…”

Investigating Individual Preferences and Brain Activity in a Wine Tasting Experience: A Neuromarketing Approach

“…Neuromarketing research examines physiological and neuronal processes in order to investigate how the product experience modulates individual preferences and consumer behavior (Alvino et al (2018)). Several studies show that the frontal cortex (FC) is anatomically and functionally connected to structures that reward processes (Davidson & Irwin (1999)).…”