aurelie cloix dissertation
TRANSCRIPT
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The perception and attitudes of UK students
towards neuromarketing.
by
Aurelie Cloix
Dissertation Supervisor: Iain Black
Word Count: 11,523
Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment
of the degree of MA (Hons) in
Business Management
at
School of Management and Languages
Heriot-Watt University
Edinburgh
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Abstract
This research study considers the perception of neuromarketing and its current use within
businesses. The aims include evaluating UK students’ perception and attitudes towards
neuromarketing and marketing in general. An Ethical Position Questionnaire (EPQ) was used
as a basis for understanding students’ ethical stance (Forsyth, 2015). It has been found that
students will use neuromarketing if the research tool is proven as being profitable for business
or improve brand image. Interestingly, students believe that neuromarketing could invade
privacy and yet, still content with its use for marketing profit. The EPQ revealed which major
ethical ideology each participant belonged to, the majority of students were deemed to be
situationists.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my parents for the chance they gave me to be part of this amazing
adventure, also for their financial support and the confidence they instilled in me. My
boyfriend, sisters and brother for their moral support throughout and belief in me. Thank you
to Iain Black for all his advice and support and finally to Heriot-Watt University.
I confirm that this work is my own work and that when the appropriate sources were
referenced when required. I confirm that the SML Undergraduate Dissertation Courses:
Regulations and Procedures has been read and understood. I have gained On-line Research
Ethics Approval Form passed off by the Chair of the School’s Ethics Committee.
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Table of Contents
Abstract ..............................................................................................................................................2
Acknowledgments ..............................................................................................................................3
Chapter One – Introduction .............................................................................................................6
1.1 Introduction to neuromarketing ...........................................................................................6
1.2 Research aims ......................................................................................................................9
1.3 Research objectives .............................................................................................................9
Chapter Two - Literature Review ................................................................................................. 10
2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 10
2.2 Neuromarketing ...................................................................................................................... 10
2.2.1 The brain .......................................................................................................................... 11
2.2.2 Reasons for neuromarketing ............................................................................................ 11
2.2.3 Importance, relevance of neuromarketing ....................................................................... 12
2.3 Ethics ...................................................................................................................................... 15
2.3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 15
2.3.2 Ethics definition ............................................................................................................... 15
2.3.3 Marketing ethics .............................................................................................................. 18
2.3.4 Business ethics ................................................................................................................. 18
2.3.5 Moral Behavior – Ethics Position Questionnaire ............................................................ 20
2.3.6 Neuroethics ...................................................................................................................... 22
2.3.7 Neuromarketing ethics ..................................................................................................... 22
2.4 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 25
Chapter Three - Research Design and Methodology .................................................................. 26
3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 26
3.2 Research philosophy ......................................................................................................... 26
3.3 Data collection method ..................................................................................................... 28
3.4 Framework for data analysis............................................................................................. 29
3.5 Limitations and potential problems .................................................................................. 29
3.6 Fieldwork details .............................................................................................................. 30
3.7 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................... 31
Chapter 4 – Empirical Material .................................................................................................... 32
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4.1 Presentation and analysis of data ............................................................................................ 32
4.1.1 Demographics .................................................................................................................. 32
4.1.2 Perception of neuromarketing and marketing .................................................................. 33
4.1.3 Ethical stance ................................................................................................................... 35
Chapter 5 – Discussion ................................................................................................................... 40
Chapter 6 – Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 44
6.1 Review of aims and objectives ............................................................................................... 44
6.2 Limitations and further research ............................................................................................. 44
6.3 Overall Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 45
References ....................................................................................................................................... 47
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Chapter One – Introduction
1.1 Introduction to neuromarketing
The marketing field is often seen as unethical, as it is argued, that advertising is a technique
used to persuade consumers to buy (Packard, 1967). Packard identifies the different
marketing techniques used by businesses to lure potential consumers. One of these
techniques, being the use of psychological techniques wherein members of the psychology
and sociology sector study the consumer’s reactions to a specific product or advertising.
They work cooperatively with businesses to refine their advertisement strategies as a way to
promote brand loyalty, and ultimately generate larger profits. In 1957, Viscary a marketing
executive, claimed that sales at his cinema have increased by including messages such as
“eat popcorn” and “drink Coca Cola” (Karremans et al., 2006). According to an article in
Nation, cited by (Murphy et al., 2008), Viscary’s subliminal imagery is “The most alarming
invention since Mr. Gatling invented his gun.” The public was concerned by Viscary’s
discovery because “the autonomy violation produced intrinsic discomfort with consumers
having their preferences manipulated” (Murphy et al., 2008). Even in the 1950s marketers
were perceived negatively by the public, in more current times a study conducted by Gallup
in 2011 showed that advertising practitioners were perceived as one of the most dishonest
and unethical groups of professionals, just above car sellers. This already negative perception
of marketing alongside the advancement and improvement of technology for marketing
benefit breads insecurity and fear within the public (Byun and Byun, 2013).
These fears and insecurity can be put into context, for example, via the manipulation of the
public for profit recently witnessed with the Volkswagen scandal (BBC, 2015). On the 18th
of September 2015, Volkswagen and its subsidiaries, were affected by one of the biggest
emission scandals of all times, it has come to media attention that 11 million of their cars
were fitted with software that manipulates the nitrogen oxide emissions. One of the World’s
largest car manufacturers lied to the public in order to increase sales, the Volkswagen group
crossed the line of ethicality and breached their social responsibility. As (Friedman, 1962)
stated:
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"There is one and only one social responsibility of business -- to use its resources and engage
in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game,
which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud”.
In modern times a paradigm shift has occurred, in that, neuromarketing is now one of the
tools used for marketing research. Neuromarketing aims to analyze how parts of the brain
are physiologically affected by marketing strategies, as brand familiarity and product
preferences have been shown to stimulate certain neural activity (Madan, 2010).
Neuromarketing uses neuro imaging devices, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET) and electroencephalogram (EEG) to better
understand consumers’ preferences and behaviors for marketing purposes (Fugate, 2007). It
has been suggested that the use of such tools can design better selling techniques and
irresistible marketing campaigns (Editorial, 2004a). Commercial Alert, a non-profit
organization based in United States of America, was created to protect the public from
commercial obtrusion, claiming that neuromarketing will stop free will. The protection group
has lodged complaints with the US government and universities pointing out the issues
related to the ethics of neuromarketing (Madan, 2010, Commercial Alert, 2003). However,
Madan (2010) also argues that neuromarketing can have a positive impact on businesses, as
soon as, ethical constructs are established within the domain.
The term “neuromarketing” was coined in 2002, however, the use of neuro imaging for
marketing purposes started decades before (Madan, 2010). Neuro imaging has rapidly
evolved due to technological advancement (Madan, 2010). In 1989 an EEG study using 4
electrodes (today more than 256 electrodes can monitor the brain activity) revealed that
different parts of the brain produced certain electrical signals when positive and negative
television scenes were shown (Reeves et al., 1989).
One of the pioneering studies undertaken to understand how the brain responds to different
type of products was in 2002 (Erk et al., 2002). The basis of this study was to assess how the
brain responds to different types of cars, including sports cars, limousine and small cars.
With the use of functional MRI, researchers proved that an electrical signal was generated
and then activated the reward segment of the brain when stimulated by the sports cars image.
Yet, when the small car was shown no activation occurred (Erk et al., 2002).
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Following on from this initial research, a key and well known research study was undertaken
in 2004 in order to assess brand preference using functional MRI (McClure et al., 2004,
Madan, 2010, Vlăsceanu, 2014, Flores et al., 2014). Subjects of the experiment did a semi
anonymous taste test, tasting very similar chemical composition drinks: Pespi and Coke
whilst being monitored via an imaging experiment. The blind taste test results showed that
consumers had a slight preference towards Pepsi, whereas, when the brand was labelled on
the cup consumers preferred the Coke sample. The functional MRI demonstrated a greater
brain activity when the brand Coke was known, whereas, no notable activation occurred
when Pepsi was drunk. This study illustrated that the knowledge of a brand can influence
consumer preferences and that specific segments of the brain are activated when a brand is
shown to the subjects (McClure et al., 2004). This research is very popular amongst the
literature and has drawn large amount of criticism because of the fear that neuro imaging will
be powerful enough to manipulate our brain and to find the coveted consumers “buy buttons”
(Morin, 2011), (Vlăsceanu, 2014, Editorial, 2004, Editorial, 2004a).
The following dissertation considers the emerging field of study which combines
neurosciences and marketing (Ulman, Cakar and Yildiz, 2014). Neuromarketing has its
advocates, mostly multinational corporations, because they have the necessary capital to
invest in the equipment and personnel required for large scale analysis to be undertaken. The
benefit of using this new market research tool, for these multinational companies is to
penetrate the consumer’s brain, and their subconscious desires; resulting in the creation of
the best and most effective marketing campaigns. Contrary to this, opponents perceive it as
unethical, because humans are tested for a consumption-end purpose and to further the profits
of already large companies (Commercial Alert, 2004; Ulman, Cakar and Yildiz, 2014). The
vivacious debates amongst academics and researchers concerning the use of neuro imaging
for marketing purposes is ongoing and will persist for years to come (Hubert and Kenning,
2008).
This research is important for researchers and society in general because neuromarketing is
a relatively unknown field and any studies undertaken would help increase its profile in the
public domain. It would be interesting to evaluate participants’ perception of this new field
as well as their perception of marketing. This is the first time that a study based on UK
students’ perception of neuromarketing will be made. Moreover, it is the first time that a
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study will be based on UK students’ ethical stance and the relationship this has to perception
of neuromarketing and marketing.
1.2 Research aims
The purpose of this research was to investigate UK students understanding and attitudes to
neuromarketing and towards marketing in general. Moreover, the ethical stance of each
respondent was identified in order to determine if there was a relationship between ethical
stance and their subjective perception of neuromarketing and marketing.
1.3 Research objectives
In order to fulfil the research aims it was needed to set clear objectives. The first objective
was to critically review the use of neuromarketing by businesses, to assess the level of
neuromarketing currently in operation. The second objective was to assess the perception of
neuromarketing within current literature and discuss the importance of the topic. The third
objective was to analyze students’ perception of neuromarketing and marketing in general.
The last objective was to identify students’ ethical stance and the relation, if any, to their
attitudes towards neuromarketing and marketing. These objectives have been chosen in order
to add to current literature.
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Chapter Two - Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
In order to retrieve appropriate literature, the online database on Heriot-Watt university was
used, searching key words such as “neuromarketing perception” or “ethical stance”. Google
scholar was also used, using the same key words but only a few articles were accessible.
Then using Google search to identify any additional information on the topic that could be
considered practical rather than academic.
The first part of the literature review aims to explain the concept surrounding neuromarketing
and give some examples of its use whilst critically reviewing key literature within the field.
As a topic neuromarketing has strong critics and advocates. Arguments can be found that
suggests neuromarketing can invade research participants and even manipulate consumers
purchase decisions (Murphy et al., 2008). Whereas, the advocates of neuromarketing claim
that it can bring more profit to their businesses by designing better targeted advertisements
(Vlăsceanu, 2014). Whilst some authors argue that neuromarketing is still at its infancy and
the research done with some devices are not significant, thus, neuromarketing should not be
seen as a threat to consumers and the population in general (Eser et al., 2011). The
aforementioned arguments will be discussed in more detail in this chapter. The second part
of the literature review aims to briefly review the literature on business and marketing ethics
as well as neuromarketing ethics. The outcome will be a model on ethics positions (Forsyth,
2015) which will help to analyze the relationship between ethical stance and perception of
neuromarketing and marketing.
2.2 Neuromarketing
A very brief introduction to the brain system will be undertaken in order to understand its
use for neuromarketing.
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2.2.1 The brain
The brain can be separated into three different parts: the neocortex, the limbic system and
the reptilian brain. The human brain has two systems which function differently but are
interrelated: system one, our subconscious, immediately perceives events and reacts to
external stimuli, while system two is slower and takes time to analyze a situation, this is our
conscious (Kahneman, 2012). Neuromarketing focuses on system one, which is the part of
our brain that decides subconsciously whether to purchase or not (Kahneman, 2012, Barkin,
2013). The reptilian brain which relates to our basic instinct and our subconscious is
responsible for 95% of consumers decisions (Fugate, 2007). Neuromarketing has become
popular because it permits marketers to penetrate the subconscious level and understand
consumers decision making process (Barkin, 2013).
2.2.2 Reasons for neuromarketing
Traditional marketing uses research tools such as focus group, questionnaires and in depth
interviews to understand consumers’ behavior, it focuses on the conscious mind, the cerebral
cortexes. This type of research tools can be considered as subjective and potentially create a
bias environment. As participants of focus groups and survey members do not always know
what they actually want or like on a conscious level. Sometimes they try to please others
with their answers which could skew data in this type of research (Solomon et al., 2013,
Fugate, 2007). This conscious part of the brain is responsible for only 5% of consumers’
decision making process.
The rational choice theory in economics states that the consumer is seen as rational, which
means that he acts logically and for the best of his interest (Scott, 2000). However, most of
the time consumers do not make rational decisions, for instance, hedonic consumption is a
term use to describe impulsive consumption of non-utilitarian goods (Hirschman and
Holbrook, 1982). Marketing researchers require access to more modern tools in order to
further their understanding of irrational consumers’ behavior and continue being profitable.
That is why marketing researchers are starting to desire access to brain based information
about consumers’ preferences, this can be done with the use of neuromarketing.
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Neuromarketing is a new field of study that encompasses economics, psychology and
neuroscience (Madan, 2010, Barkin, 2013) more than 300 companies currently operate in the
field (Ulman et al., 2014). The main purpose of neuromarketing is to analyze the effect of
marketing stimuli on consumers’ brain in order to create targeted marketing campaigns
(Ariely and Berns, 2010). Neuromarketing uses neurosciences techniques such as EEG, MRI,
eye tracking and micro sensor, the former being very expensive (Bayle-Tourtoulou and
Badoc, 2015). Medical devices such as the fMRI or EEG have a capital requirement of
around $1 million (Barkin, 2013). Those devices are used to measure the brains electrical
activity and response to stimuli, within the neuromarketing sector the stimuli consists of
marketing advertisements (Zurawicki, 2010).
2.2.3 Importance, relevance of neuromarketing
The field of neuromarketing is growing in importance. The literature on neuromarketing is
divided strongly into two arguments, for and against, as previously stated.
A pioneer in marketing and advertising, John Wanamaker, once said “I know half the money
spent on advertising is wasted but I can never find out which half” (Hoffman and Novak,
2000). Every year companies spend billions of dollars on marketing campaigns to build
strong brand image in order to generate increased revenue and value to their stakeholders
(Walvis, 2007). The car company Chrysler spent $10 million for a two-minute TV
advertisement during the Super Bowl which generated a small increase of 15% on visitors to
the Edmunds.com website, a car sales website (Forbes, 2012). Neuromarketing could be
the answer for companies such as Chrysler which keep on losing money from poor
advertising methods. According to (Vlăsceanu, 2014), neuromarketing will allow
organizations to concentrate their advertisings on a better targeted group reducing the waste
of money generated by poor campaigns. For this reason, neuromarketing could be considered
as a beneficial and viable marketing tool.
In contrast, authors equally argue that neuromarketing can be used to understand how to
manipulate the consumers subconscious, especially the weak minded such as children or
elderly (Flores et al., 2014, Murphy et al., 2008). The use of neuro imaging such as MRI for
marketing purposes has been banned in France. The law released in 2011 stipulates that neuro
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imaging can only be use for medical purposes, scientific researches and judicial expertise
(Act 2011-814, 2011). However, until widespread legislation comes in, French companies
can easily go to neighbouring countries, Belgium for example, in order to undertake neuro
imaging for their marketing research (Le Neuromarketing, 2013). Consumer groups such as,
Commercial Alert, fight against the use of neuroscience for marketing purpose (Fisher, 2010,
Fisher et al., 2010, Madan, 2010). The negative perception of neuromarketing can be
illustrated through this ban in France and the formation of Commercial Alert, already some
members of society fear the potential of this research, these fears including the manipulation
of consumers and violation of their rights. The use of neuro science for marketing purposes
is quite alarming as numerous popular companies such as PespiCo’s Frito-Lay, Ebay, Yahoo,
Microsoft use it as a tool to design their advertising campaigns and packaging (Burkitt,
2009). The full list of companies using neuromarketing is not accessible as the practice is
quite controversial and businesses are not yet required to publish any research undertaken on
neuromarketing. To assess consumers’ perception of a new Frito-Lay TV advertisement, a
focus group was held by the company and simultaneously an EEG test was performed with
the same participants. The TV advertisement showed a prank on a woman, the data yielded
from the focus group were vastly different from the EEG test. Participants said they did not
like the prank in the TV advert because they did not want to be considered as lacking
sympathy for the prank victim. Yet, their brain scan response suggested that their pre-frontal
cortex was stimulated due to the advertisement stimulus and thus they in fact enjoyed the
advertisement (Burkitt, 2009). The ethicality of such practice can be questioned as in the
near future technology will be more advanced and marketers will be able to use neuro
imaging to gauge participants’ responses and subsequently locate the “buy button” and
finally manipulate consumers (Flores et al., 2014, Murphy et al., 2008). The two main ethical
dilemmas raised by neuromarketing are the invasion of privacy and the potential for mind
control (Flores et al., 2014, Murphy et al., 2008).
Arguments that contain elements of ethical dilemmas very rarely have only two arguments,
in reality some authors argue that neuromarketing is at its infancy. At this stage it is solely a
complementary tool when compared to traditional marketing research and not a major threat
(Oullier, 2012). As mentioned, neuromarketing is not developed enough to locate the “buy
button” in consumers’ brains (Oullier, 2012). A small percentage of brain function has been
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fully mapped and understood and therefore, the detailed studies of brain signal activation
might be futile and not help researchers to fully understand the consumers brain (Hubert and
Kenning, 2008). According to (Oullier, 2012), neuromarketing may be a tool to understand
consumer behavior, however, under no circumstances can it predict advanced human
behavior. It is discussed that the neuroimaging tools used for market research are not yet
effective enough to obtained detailed information that could be used to manipulate
consumers’ brains without them knowing (Murphy et al., 2008, Madan, 2010). The authors
proposed a code of ethics in case “stealth neuromarketing” becomes the normal within
advertising (Murphy et al., 2008).
Not only lacking a strong code of ethics neuromarketing could also suffer from
misinterpretation or over-interpretation because of the data uncertainty obtained from the
equipment and then subsequent analysis (Ulman et al., 2014). Scientific validity during
neuromarketing research is taken into consideration as authors argue that the field lacks
simple frameworks that allow for the validation of the results. The ability of the researcher
to analyze and understand the data correctly and also the reliability of the equipment used is
a consideration that must be taken into account for each published paper. It is argued that the
parameters are oversimplified and researchers need to have a high level of knowledge before
their paper should be granted the status of a research journal.
Neuromarketing has strong critics and advocates in business and academia, although it is not
only consigned to these sectors. The topic is gaining an infamous status among bloggers and
journalists, there are websites and journalists criticizing its efficacy illustrating popularity
amongst society (NeuroBollocks, 2015, Vaughan, 2015, Ulman et al., 2014). The website
NeuroBollocks (2015), a website using humour to explain neuro-topics, and an article in the
Guardian Newspaper (Vaughan, 2015), criticizes neuromarketing suggesting that it misleads
consumers and the research method is a ploy aimed at gullible consumers (NeuroBollocks,
2015, Vaughan, 2015). Moreover, they criticize an advertisement made by Porsche, where a
comparison is made between driving a fighter jet and one of their premium cars, using
computer generated images of the brain. The advert may fool some members of the public,
however, the EEG monitor is wireless. This being a technology that is yet to be invented.
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In the previous section we have defined and reviewed the use of neuromarketing and reasons
for its controversy, its advocacy and, in part, reputation amongst the public. The potential for
businesses to reduce their spending on marketing by creating targeted campaigns certainly
can be seen as beneficial and demonstrate a potential future for neuromarketing. However,
the critics can claim that neuromarketing can manipulate consumers and invade their privacy,
a drawback that certainly outweighs the benefits. Moreover, it is claimed that
neuromarketing lacks rigid ethical principles. In the next section we will review the concept
of ethics and ethical decision making. To then introduce a framework which will help to
gauge students’ ethical stance and their attitudes towards the use of neuromarketing.
2.3 Ethics
2.3.1 Introduction
The use of neuro imaging for marketing purposes raises various ethical dilemmas that must
be addressed before neuromarketing becomes mainstream. These include the potential for
mind control, consumer rights, the possibility of promoting unhealthy or dangerous products
and the probable manipulation of minorities such as weak minded, children or elderly
(Murphy et al., 2008, Madan, 2010).
This section will briefly introduce ethics and demonstrate how significant it is in business,
in marketing and in neuromarketing. The aim of this section is to introduce an ethical
framework in order to understand one’s ethical stance.
2.3.2 Ethics definition
Ethics are set of moral principles which affects people actions and decisions within society.
These moral principles influence and dictate how members of a population should behave,
aiding with the choices they make and examining the consequences of their conduct (Walsh,
2015) . Normative theory of ethics studies the “right” and “wrong” of a specific situation, it
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is a set of moral codes derived from cultures, traditions, religions and philosophy (Griseri
and Seppala, 2010, Crane and Matten, 2010). Each individual has a personal belief, or moral
compass, to decide what is ethical or unethical in a situation. However, certain actions are
considered unethical by the whole population (consider genocide) and these actions become
foundations for ethical frameworks. There are several models available for ethical decisions
making which are quite interrelated and contain numerous similar constructs. Applying an
ethical decision making framework is useful to understand how a rational individual can
come to the conclusion over their subjective position concerning an ethical or unethical
activity. With this report a framework will be used in order to assess the ethical stance of an
individual when considering neuromarketing.
According to (Thoma and Rest, 1999, Jones, 1991), individuals go through four components
to make an ethical decision. Those four components are:
1) Moral sensitivity: identifying the moral issue, listing the possible actions to resolve
the issue, acknowledging all the stakeholders involved in the issue and how they will
be affected by the outcomes of each action.
2) Moral judgement: following the first component, the individual should now be able
to identify the morally “right, good, ethical or fair” course of actions.
3) Moral motivation: according to its previous judgement the individual selects the best
action to follow.
4) Moral character: the individual implements his decision and should have the
necessary skills, courage and perseverance in order to sustain his moral behaviour.
These four components do not follow a logical order and an individual can sometimes skip
or fail one of the step. Failure to go through one of the components will results in an unethical
decision being undertaken (Jones, 1991). It has been argued that when facing an ethical
dilemma, one’s action is considerably influenced by the context of the situation, which can
explain the incompletion of the four components (Jones, 1991). The context of each situation
can be assessed before an ethical decision is made, to fully explore each situation further
theories of ethics are required.
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The theory of ethics by Hunt and Vitell (1986), explains how one makes an ethical decision
based on the deontology and teleology moral philosophy. There are two major normative
ethical theories in moral philosophy: deontological and teleological (Hunt and Vitell, 1986,
Ferrell and Gresham, 1985). The deontological perspective evaluates the “rightness” or
“wrongness” of a specific behavior or situation. The teleological perspective emphasizes the
belief of “goodness” or “badness” in the consequences of a situation (Ferrell and Gresham,
1985).
“The H-V model addresses the situation in which an individual confronts a problem
perceived as having ethical content” (Hunt and Vitell, 1986)
The model suggests that:
1) the individual should perceive a situation as having an ethical dilemma,
2) different alternatives or possibilities are brainstormed to resolve the dilemmas,
3) the alternatives are then assessed both deontologically and teleologically.
During the identification of the different solutions to the ethical dilemmas there are two
major philosophical approaches that can affect ethical judgement, as previously stated, the
deontological approach and the teleological approach.
The deontological approach or rule based approach is guided by rules or norms that one
person has, it focuses on the behavior or action of an individual. When an individual chooses
this approach he only evaluates the possible alternatives of the ethical dilemmas, but not the
consequences. This approach is also named the Kantian approach (Hunt and Vitell, 1986).
The deontological evaluation process focuses only on the rightness versus wrongness of a
behavior and not on its consequences. Deontologists consider “lying, cheating, deceiving or
stealing” as an unethical behavior, whereas, “honesty, fairness, justice or fidelity” is
considered as an ethical behavior by deontologists (Hunt and Vasquez-Parraga, 1993).
The teleological approach is based on consequences of one’s action or behavior and how bad
or good these consequences are for this person and the people around in the population. The
teleological evaluation process is based on: the consequences of an act on each groups and
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the importance of each group, the probability of the consequences to occur and the
desirability or undesirability of these consequences to occur.
Following this evaluation of moral judgement, an evaluation is then made on the perceived
alternatives and each one of them is categorized as ethical or unethical. An ethical decision
is a decision that is legal and morally acceptable by the community in general (Jones, 1991).
It is proven that when an individual is in the process of making an ethical decision he uses
both the deontological and teleological approaches (Hunt and Vitell, 1986).
2.3.3 Marketing ethics
Marketing ethics is a set of moral standards, judgement, codes applied to the marketing field
(Gaski, 1999). According to the Chartered Institute of Marketing, "marketing is the
management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer
requirements profitably." (CIM, 2015). This definition lacks an ethical dimension to guide
and restrain research marketers. Moreover, what is viewed as good and ethical might differ
according to different point of views and differing situations (Carrigan et al., 2005).
According to Kant philosophy or the ethics of duty, companies have a moral obligation and
a duty to satisfy and benefit the society (Carrigan et al., 2005).
2.3.4 Business ethics
It has been stated that neuromarketing could benefit businesses by reducing the amount spent
on advertising and therefore making them more profitable by designing more effective
targeted advertising campaigns (Vlăsceanu, 2014). However, making a business more
profitable without acknowledging the potential of harm or manipulation to consumers is
considered by many as unethical (Murphy et al., 2008, Flores et al., 2014, Eser et al., 2011).
In this section a brief review of the literature on corporate social responsibility and business
ethics will be made to understand the ethical argument against the use of neuromarketing by
corporations.
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The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) emerged during the 1950s but moral
and obligations existed since the beginning of trade and commerce (Griseri and Seppala,
2010). Howard Bowen is considered as the “father of corporate social responsibility”
(Carroll, 1999). He defined CSR as an obligation for corporations to follow policies,
decisions, lines of actions according to the objectives and values of the society where the
business operates (Carroll, 1999). In current business operations due to globalization and the
ease of access to information the importance of CSR has risen vastly. Companies now have
entire departments devoted to their CSR image, companies must now ensure they have a high
degree of transparency. CSR is a vast topic encompassing multiple business aspects, that are
all strongly related to the ethical position of the company.
As Friedman said in 1962 the most important part of business is to make profit as long as it
avoids “deception and fraud” (Friedman, 1962). To counter the argument that businesses
subsist only for profit, Carroll in 1979 created the pyramid of corporate social responsibility
which contains 4 different types of responsibilities: philanthropic or discretionary, ethical,
legal and economic (Griseri and Seppala, 2010, Carroll, 1999, Carroll, 1991). Businesses are
expected by society to be profitable through the production of goods and services, they are
expected to obey the law and to behave according to ethical norms that go beyond the law
(Carroll, 1999).
Business ethics are now a corner stone in operating business, through their CSR image,
companies are now expected to make ethical decisions for the benefit of society rather than
just financial gain. Companies using neuromarketing disregard business ethical procedure
and CSR, by virtue of manipulation of the public, for financial gain. However, France has
legislated against the use of neuromarketing, stating it is an unethical procedure for business
(Act 2011-814, 2011). If other countries were to follow this legislation, the use of
neuromarketing would become a banned research methodology for marketing campaigns.
Allowing for business ethics and CSR to continue ensuring the best for society and its
consumers, whilst remaining profitable for the shareholders.
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2.3.5 Moral Behavior – Ethics Position Questionnaire
Moral behavior and judgement depends on one’s own ethical ideologies and moral thought
(Forsyth, 1980). There are two factors that can describe the differences in moral thoughts
(Forsyth, 1980). Firstly, the degree to which an individual ignores universal moral rules in
support of relativism. Meaning, that the individual will act for “the greatest good for the
greatest number”, whatever the means. Secondly, the individual “idealistically” believes that
acting in accordance of universal moral rules will result in the best consequences. (Forsyth,
1980) designed the Ethics Positioning Questionnaire (EPQ) which assess an individual’s
moral thought. The EPQ measures an individual’s degree (high or low) of idealism or
relativism. Participants with high idealism and high relativism are defined as “situationist”,
the individual will favor the best consequences for all involved, even if the law is breached.
Individuals scoring high idealism and low relativism are “absolutist”, this is very similar to
the deontology moral philosophy. Absolutists believe that when making a judgement
universal moral rules must be followed to have the best outcome for all. High relativism and
low idealism are “subjectivists” they rely on their personal thought and judgement rather
than universal moral rules. Low relativism and low idealism are “exceptionists” which is
relatively similar to the teleology moral philosophy. Exceptionists follow moral rules when
making a judgement, but, they agree to make exceptions to universal moral principles. Below
is a table representing the four ethical ideology: situationist, absolutist, subjectivist and
exceptionist (Forsyth, 1980, Forsyth, 2015)
21
Table 1: The four ethical ideologies adapted from (Forsyth, 1980)
Relativism
High Low Id
eali
sm
High
Situationists: base their judgement
depending on the situation, reject
moral rules.
Absolutists: similar to deontologists. By
following the rules the best outcome can be
achieved.
Low
Subjectivists: reject moral rules base
their judgement on their personal
values.
Exceptionists: similar to teleologists. They
judge a situation based on its consequences.
The EPQ was designed with the aim of classifying individuals according to their ethical
ideologies (Forsyth, 1980, Forsyth, 2015). The EPQ includes 20 “attitude statements” or
questions, 10 in connection with idealism and 10 concerning relativism. Participants have to
evaluate each question using a 9 point Likert scale ranging from completely agree to
completely disagree. the EPQ scores of each participants are then calculated using the mean
score of the idealism items and the mean score of the relativisms items. As mentioned in
table 1, participants with low mean scores on both relativism and idealism would be
categorized as exceptionists, those with high mean scores in both scales would be
situationists. Individuals with low mean score in idealism but high score in relativism would
be classified as subjectivists and those with low mean scores in relativism but high scores in
idealism would be categorized as absolutists. (Forsyth, 1980) stated that ethical stance or
moral ideologies do not predict moral behavior. For instance, when confronted to an ethical
dilemma a “situationists” participant could still make a decision based on moral rules. Using
this EPQ the ethical stance of the participants will be assessed, in terms of the four ideologies.
22
2.3.6 Neuroethics
The term “neuroethics” is relatively recent as it was coined in 2002 by William Safire during
a conference on the same theme and was later used by academics (Vlăsceanu, 2014).
Neuroethics is a field dealing with the ethics, legal and social aspects of neurosciences
research, it combines different disciplines such as law, philosophy and neuroscience
(Vlăsceanu, 2014). The ethicality of neuromarketing can be considered when neuroscience
is used, to understand consumers’ decision making process and consumers’ evaluation of
brand. The issue of information privacy for the subjects of the research is of great importance,
and certainly included in the topic of neuroethics. Whilst undertaking the research, numerous
risks are present for the participants, such as, the discovery of brain abnormalities or
associated disease (Byun and Byun, 2013). In order to reduce this risk and a violation of the
individuals ethics, it is essential to inform participants about their rights and benefits at the
start of the study (Ulman et al., 2014).
2.3.7 Neuromarketing ethics
The field of ethics has been a major concern for neuromarketing as no specific legislation
was in place at the beginning of its use (Eser et al., 2011). According to (Oullier, 2012), brain
imaging used for marketing purposes has been banned in France since an amendment was
made to the French Civil Code in 2011. The law states that “brain imaging methods can be
used only for medical or scientific research purposes or in the context of court expertise”
(Oullier, 2012). However, French companies can use eye tracking and galvanic skin
response. If a French brand wants to use neuro imaging for marketing purpose it has to be
done outside of the country. This new law raised concerns amongst the public, and with these
concerns, the importance of neuromarketing ethics has risen dramatically, now a key part of
neuromarketing.
Ethical matters have been raised by many, the historical case of Emory University in 2002
is one example. Commercial Alert wrote a letter to stop neuromarketing researchers at Emory
University undertaking their research (Commercial Alert, 2003). The letter suggested that
23
neuromarketing is an offence to The Belmont Report, an ethics guideline written in 1979 for
researchers who use human subjects to conduct their biomedical and behavioral research.
According to Commercial alert, neuromarketing would “increase disease and human
suffering”, the morality of the research methods was questioned as the benefits would be felt
by large companies and not society. Moreover, (Ulman et al., 2014), emphasizes the
importance of protecting vulnerable groups from overconsumption. They argue
neuromarketing will encourage and further consumption within these vulnerable groups.
Members of these groups may already suffer from consumption related debt. According to
the Federal Reserve System (2014) the percentage of consumer credit in the United States
has increased by 53.8% from 2009 to 2014.
(Madan, 2010), argues that neuromarketing can become a more ethical research methodology
if brain images of consumer were used solely to understand their behavior. However,
neuromarketing is currently used to help the marketing field not a social tool to help
consumers. The CEO of sales brain declared that the definition of marketing was to try to
sell consumers something that they do not want or need and that neuromarketing could find
consumers’ buy button (Renvoise). (Carr, 2008), citing Bloomberg Business Week
Magazine, underlines that the Whiskey brand Jack Daniels has used neuromarketing to target
young adults in their advertisements. They used participants between 25 and 34 years old to
design effective marketing campaigns. This is where neuromarketing can be seen as
unethical: when the target population is vulnerable (children, mentally deficient, etc.) or
when the product advertised is considered as dangerous or unhealthy (alcohol, cigarettes,
junk food, etc.).
(Murphy et al., 2008) suggest that a code of ethics could protect professionals within the
neuromarketing sector from “accusations of irresponsible behavior”. Table 2 below is based
on the code of ethics by (Murphy et al., 2008).
24
Table 2: Code of Ethics based on work by Murphy et al. (2008)
Protection
of research
subjects
Protection of
vulnerable niche
populations from
marketing
exploitation
Full disclosure of
goals, risks, and
benefits
Accurate media and
marketing
representation
Internal and
external validity
Informed
consent
Additional ethics
rules should be
designed
particularly for
vulnerable and
protected subjects Companies using
neuromarketing
should disclose any
verbal or written
communication were
ethics principles have
been respected during
the research.
Transparency in
mass media of the
research methods
employed and
measures of validity
Results of the
research should be
meaningful,
understandable and
effective for the
neuromarketing
consumers
Protocol for
dealing
with
incidental
findings
If neuromarketing is
used to target
vulnerable groups
the campaign should
benefit the groups
and not negatively
influence them.
Adherence to a code
of responsible
communication and
truth-in-advertising
to reduce the fear
and scepticity of
neuromarketing.
Safety and efficacy
verification should
be maintained at
each stage of the
process.
Right to
withdraw at
any point
during the
study.
Following various ethical concerns, the NeuroMarketing Science and Business Association
(NMSBA, 2013) has been created. NMSBA is an association aimed at every professional
who have an interest and undertake research in the field of neuromarketing. NMSBA
proposes a code of ethics that every member should agree upon in order to join the
association. More than 100 companies using neuro imaging for marketing purposes have
joined the organization (NMSBA, 2013).
A case study in 2014 was designed to assess the ethical perception of neuromarketing used
by a nonprofit and profit organization, an abuse/ addiction charity and a beer retailer
respectively (Flores et al., 2014). The use of neuromarketing by a profit organization was
seen as unethical, as the organization aimed to increase sales. However, the use of
neuromarketing by a non-profit organization was seen as ethical by the participants, as the
organization aimed to reduce alcohol abuse and addiction (Flores et al., 2014).
The perception of neuromarketing amongst marketing professionals and academics and
neurologists has been considered in (Flores et al., 2014, Eser et al., 2011) . In general
marketing professionals, academics and neurologists do not consider the use of
neuromarketing as a manipulative way to sell non-essential goods and services. From the
25
study the participants perceived various factors as vital when considering neuromarketing.
These factors included, awareness of neuromarketing research, knowledge and ethics of
neuromarketing and also interest and participation in the study (Eser et al., 2011).
According to (Flores et al., 2014) “ethical dilemmas arise when a situation involves a
deontologically moral act that results in negative consequence, in order, to produce a positive
consequence”. Initially looking at a deontological act from a business position it is clear that
their duty towards the shareholder is to generate maximum profits. However, the use of
neuromarketing by the business, resulting in the manipulation of the subconscious mind of
the consumer without their consent, is in fact a breach of the consumers’ simple human
rights. The business has made profits via the manipulation of the consumer and therefore an
important ethical dilemma has arisen and must be addressed.
2.4 Conclusion
Neuromarketing is a developing field and only a small selection of articles are currently
available. Most articles debate the ethicality of neuromarketing through the evaluation of
collected participant data. The literature surrounding neuromarketing does have a strong
divide of opinion, yet, there is no clear and final response to the questions surrounding the
ethicality of neuromarketing. Individual authors express their opinions strongly, however,
the respondents in the surveys have very mixed opinions on the topic. With the development
of associations and Government intervention neuromarketing guidelines may be created in
the near future that will aid in undertaking research projects and also allay fears within the
public. Until that point, a rather blurred ethical viewpoint will exist and both advocates and
critics of neuromarketing will have freedom to continue their research.
26
Chapter Three - Research Design and Methodology
3.1 Introduction
The literature on neuromarketing and ethics was discussed in the previous chapter. Research
has been undertaken to consider the viewpoints of various professionals and researchers,
however, literature concerning the perception of students towards neuromarketing and their
ethical stance has not yet been studied. Continuing research on the relationships between
ethical stance and neuromarketing perception is required, in particular, the stance of the
student community. In order to address this gap in the research, the following research
questions were proposed:
What is students’ perception of neuromarketing and marketing in general?
Is there a relationship between students’ ethical stance and neuromarketing
perception?
The aim of this chapter is to introduce and discuss the research philosophy and methodology
that was selected in order to conduct the study.
3.2 Research philosophy
Business management is considered as a social science and as such, needs a research
philosophy to ensure that the researcher is not bias during the study. The researcher can
influence the findings of a study by analyzing the data subjectively and imparting their own
thoughts or feelings. To ensure this does not occur, a research philosophy must be taken into
account.
A research philosophy is a belief about the way data should be collected, analyzed and
interpreted; it considers the nature and development of knowledge (Blumberg et al., 2012).
There are two main research philosophies: positivist and interpretivist, these are the two
extremes of a continuum. Positivism was the first research philosophy created in the 19th
century by Comte (O’Gorman, Lochrie and Watson, 2014); it uses the natural sciences (e.g.
27
mathematics, physics and biology) and absolute laws to predict results objectively, through
the collection and interpretation of quantitative data. Interpretivism (or non-positivism) was
created later in the 20th Century, as sociologists rejected the positivism construct.
Interpretivists have core beliefs that assume that reality has been constructed through
observation and experimentation, and that it is impossible to separate from what is known.
By stating that reality cannot be separate from our knowledge, the interpretivist paradigm
hypothesizes that the researcher’s values and opinions are intrinsic during the entire study
(Angen, 2000). Early interpretivists believed that humans do not always hold objective
beliefs and comportment cannot be generalized and summarized only into numbers
(Lancaster, 2009). The main difference between interpretivism and the positivism paradigm
is that the former takes into consideration the behavior, perception and reaction of people
whereas the latter focuses on counting how many people think and behave in a specific way.
In other words, interpretivism focuses on meanings and positivism focuses on facts
(O’Gorman, Lochrie and Watson, 2014). Positivism is realistic and objective whereas
interpretivism is subjective. Interpretivism is used to interpret social action, numerous
interpretations of a phenomena are possible thus it can be considered as subjective (Yen,
2010). Interpretivism does not seek to reveal the absolute truth but focuses on finding a trend
that would explain specific phenomena (O’Gorman, Lochrie and Watson, 2014).
Interpretivism study phenomena in more depth than positivism. Ontology is the first stage to
take into consideration when formulating research strategy (MacIntosh and O'Gorman,
2015).
For this research an objective perspective will be followed as the study can be considered as
objective and external (Hussey, 1997). Epistemology is the second step, it concerns the
relationship between the researcher and the study undertaken (Hussey, 1997). This study is
considered as positivist as it is observable, independent and measurable. Positivist research
looks at relationships or correlations between variables, therefore, the positivism paradigm
is selected for this study, ensuring the correct research methodology was selected.
In order to explore the title of the dissertation the use of a questionnaire was the main method
used to evaluate the different objectives. A questionnaire can be considered as primary data,
the original data collected by the researcher, it was used to ask exact questions in order to
gather information for the research question (Kolb, 2008). An online questionnaire was used
28
as it can collect large amounts of data in a short period of time. Moreover, the data collected
from the questionnaires are said to be more accurate and objective as it is uses quantitative
data to quantify answers rather than a subjective interview or focus group (Kolb, 2008).
3.3 Data collection method
Survey or questionnaire are often used in business studies as a deductive approach. For this
research, a cross-sectional study will be undertaken, as it captures a situation at an exact point
in time (Saunders et al., 2009).
An online questionnaire was used in order to collect the data for the dissertation, as this
method of data collection is relatively fast and cheap, certainly when compared to large focus
groups and interviews. The “participant profile” or sample population was composed of
students, above 18 years of age, studying in the UK and all genders were represented (Kolb,
2008). The questionnaire was designed online on surveymonkey.com and was sent to five
different participants in order for it to be tested and to identify any potential errors. The
adjusted questionnaire was then sent through the social media platform Facebook on the
Heriot-Watt university page. Random respondents answered the questionnaire at various
times over a period of time, this type of sampling is referred as probability sampling.
On the first page before the questionnaire began, an information page described the aim of
the project and the involvement required from each participant. The questionnaire was
composed of eight questions which could be answered in an average of 10 minutes. It was
clearly stated that participants would remain anonymous and their answers would only be
reviewed by the researcher. Moreover, it was also stated that participants have the right to
withdraw at any time and for any reasons. Finally, the contact details of the researcher and
of the Chair of the School’s Ethics Committee was given.
The questionnaire was designed to evaluate participants’ understanding of neuromarketing
and their ethical stance based on Forsyth (1980) Ethics Positions Questionnaire. Participants
were firstly asked on their knowledge of neuromarketing, then a brief definition and
introduction to the topic was made. Participants were then asked about their attitudes towards
29
neuromarketing and marketing in general. Their perception was rated using a 5 point Likert-
type scale, as it is used to gauge participants’ opinion on a selected topic. Then, two following
questions were designed to gauge participants’ ethical stance in terms of the four ideologies.
A similar Likert-type scale was designed in order to collect participants’ answer for their
ethical stance. The questions to evaluate the ethical stance of the participants were based and
adapted from previous work by (Forsyth, 1980) For the whole questionnaire the scale ranged
from strongly disagree to strongly agree with the option of undecided.
3.4 Framework for data analysis
The data was analyzed using the software SPSS and then exported from surveymonkey.com
to the software SPSS. The data was cleaned before the analysis. There was a great number
of respondents who answered some of the questions partially and did not complete the
questionnaire. Due to the data missing at random it was not possible to analyze the data using
regression analysis. It was not possible to say with any level of certainty if relations between
the data was due to anything more than just chance. The means were calculated for each
items and also frequencies were computed using SPSS. Excel was used as a secondary tool
in order to analyze the data from questions four and five, to ascertain their ideology.
Subsequently, situationists participants and their answers to questions two and three,
regarding neuromarketing and marketing was also analyzed.
3.5 Limitations and potential problems
Limitation and delimitation are the research constrains, as some areas of the study had to be
excluded (Hussey, 1997). Limitations are potential weaknesses in the undertaken study
(Hussey, 1997). Delimitation is the scope of the study and how the research is restricted to
one area (Hussey, 1997). During this dissertation there were limitations that had large
consequences, the major issue being the very low response rate. The questionnaire was filled
out by 95 respondents, however, some answers were missing, at random, meaning that for
most of the questions only 58 responses could be considered as valid. Another limitation was
the inability to distribute the questionnaire equally across all demographics of students. A
longer questionnaire would have been ideal for this study to gain more detailed answers on
neuromarketing, however, longer questionnaires can deter time conscious individuals.
30
3.6 Fieldwork details
A Questionnaire was the research methodology followed to collect data, it is considered as a
positivistic methodology. A sample of the population had to be taken into consideration as
the population was too large and it would have been time consuming and expensive to collect
relevant data. The data sample used was the student population of UK. In order to conduct
this research, the use of the program SPSS was required.
Data was exported from the website surveymonkey.com to the software SPSS. The data had
to be cleaned and re-arranged for the analyses to be executed. A Likert-type scale was used
for participants to input their answers. Unfortunately, when exporting the data to SPSS some
data did not transcribe correctly. A zero value for “undecided” repeated throughout the data
and also multiple versions of the Likert scale existed for each question data set. The data had
to be carefully analyzed and a new and uniform numbering scale, without zero, was used to
ensure consistency between the data sets. Once this had been performed the data could be
analyzed in greater detail.
From surveymonkey.com the number of respondents was 95, however, as stated, a lot of data
was missing from some questions, as participants seem to miss out various questions at
random. Respondents with no data had to be codified so that the remainder of data could be
analyzed, the missing data was given the value of-9999 on the SPSS data analysis sheet. The
mean for each participant and each item question was calculated using SPSS. The mean and
mode were computed to give significant information about the overall participants’
perceptions for each question, allowing for comparison between participants and questions.
For the EPQ the total number of participants that was found within each ideology was
calculated, only the situationists had significant values. For each question, the situationists
score on the Likert scale was analyzed, the percentage of situationists that answered from
strongly agree to strongly disagree was expressed as a percentage of the total situationists
response and the frequency of the response. The method used to analyze and interpret data
will be further discussed in the next chapter.
31
3.7 Conclusions
The research philosophy and methodology for this project was assessed in this chapter. Using
a positivist approach for the research philosophy it allows for the data to be expressed as
empirical data, data that has been observed and collected objectively. Using a questionnaire,
the primary data of the experiment was collected and subsequently analyzed. The data was
then extracted from surveymonkey.com and imported into SPSS and excel to allow for
analysis. The next chapter concerns the presentation of the findings from the data collection.
32
Chapter 4 – Empirical Material
This chapter will present the data collected from the questionnaires. The questionnaires were
completed online by 95 participants. However, some questions were left unanswered and
this will be mentioned during the analyses.
4.1 Presentation and analysis of data
4.1.1 Demographics
Table 3 illustrates the participant’s demographics for the whole survey. Gender was
represented with an even split of 50% male and 50% female. The initial question “have you
ever heard of neuromarketing” was asked and it is interesting to see that 82.11% of the
sample had never heard about neuromarketing. This may represent a limitation or barrier for
the study, a simple paragraph was given at the beginning of the questionnaire to outline the
concept of neuromarketing. The total number of respondents was 95, however, with multiple
participants not fully completing all the questions the missing data had to be codified (see
section 3.6 Fieldwork details). The most represented age group was the 18 to 25 years old,
with 61.54%, this most likely due to the sample being aimed at University students.
Table 3: Profile of questionnaire participants
Gender Percentage
Female 50%
Male 50%
Age
18-25 61.54%
26-35 23.08%
36-55 7.69%
55+ 7.69%
Knowledge of neuromarketing
Yes 17.89%
No 82.11%
33
4.1.2 Perception of neuromarketing and marketing
Table 4 represents the question number with their corresponding items. Question 2 includes
items 1 to 6 and question 3 includes items 7 to 10.
Table 5 represents the answers participants gave for question two and question three, these
questions assessed their perception of neuromarketing and marketing in general. Many
respondents were undecided as shown in table 2. For items 3,4 and 5 in the second question,
the most popular response was undecided, with 30.5%, 21.10% and 18.9% respectively.
These responses could be explained by the large number of participants, 82.11%, that had
not heard of neuromarketing before.
Table 5: Questionnaire scores per item
Item number Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree
Ques
tion 2
1 2.10% 6.30% 12.60% 23.20% 16.80%
2 2.10% 6.30% 10.50% 23.20% 18.90%
3 4.20% 10.50% 30.50% 10.50% 5.30%
4 3.20% 9.50% 21.10% 15.80% 11.60%
5 9.50% 15.80% 18.90% 11.60% 5.30%
6 3.20% 9.50% 15.80% 18.90% 13.70%
Ques
tion 3
7 4.20% 13.70% 13.70% 25.30% 4.20%
8 1.10% 9.50% 8.40% 34.70% 7.40%
9 4.20% 23.20% 9.50% 22.10% 2.10%
10 4.20% 17.90% 6.30% 23.20% 9.50%
Item
number
1 If neuromarketing is proven to bring more profit to my business I would use it
2 If neuromarketing is proven to bring additional brand awareness to my business I would use it
3 Neuromarketing influences my purchase decisions
4 Neuromarketing is a good tool to use for businesses
5 I believe that neuromarketing is beneficial towards consumers
6 A consequence of neuromarketing is privacy invasion
7 Marketing is an ethical profession
8 I believe that advertisements in general influences my purchasing decisions
9 I feel manipulated by marketing strategies
10 I feel overwhelmed by advertisements
Table 4: Question 2 and 3 with their corresponding items
Qu
estio
n 2
Qu
estio
n 3
34
Table 6 illustrates the mean and mode of each questionnaire item. For the rest of the analysis
the following legend is used to ensure that all the data has a standardized value:
1 = Strongly disagree; 2 = Disagree; 3 = Undecided; 4 = Agree; 5 = Strongly agree
The mode was computed as the data analyzed were ordinal, they ranked from 1 to 5 or from
strongly disagree to strongly agree. Participants largely agreed that they will use
neuromarketing if it is proven to bring more profit and brand awareness to their businesses.
Surprisingly, participants also largely agreed that a consequence of neuromarketing is
privacy invasion.
The mode was computed as the data analyzed were ordinal, they ranked from 1 to 5 or
from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Participants largely agreed that they will use
neuromarketing if it is proven to bring more profit and brand awareness to their businesses.
Surprisingly, participants also largely agreed that a consequence of neuromarketing is
privacy invasion.
Table 6: Questionnaire item score mean and mode
Mean Mode
Ques
tion 2
1 3.76 4
2 3.83 4
3 3.03 3
4 3.38 3
5 2.79 3
6 3.5 4
Ques
tion 3
7 3.19 4
8 3.62 4
9 2.91 2
10 3.26 4
Table 7 takes into consideration only the participants who have knowledge of
neuromarketing. The highest difference between the table 3 and 4 lies in the mode for item
1 and 2 in the second question on neuromarketing.
35
Table 7: Questionnaire item score mean and mode for knowledgeable participants
Mean Mode
Qu
esti
on
2
1 4.18 5
2 4.18 5
3 3.55 4
4 4.09 3
5 3.36 3
6 3.36 4
Qu
esti
on
3 7 3.45 4
8 3.45 4
9 2.55 2
10 3.18 4
4.1.3 Ethical stance
The participants’ ethical stance was calculated on SPSS. The correlation between ethical
stance (idealism and relativism) and the item 3 (neuromarketing influences my purchase
decisions) was computed on SPSS using bivariate correlation. The correlation between
idealism mean score and neuromarketing influences my purchase decision was -0.11 which
means that there is no significant relationship between these two variables. The correlation
between relativism mean score and neuromarketing influences my purchase decision is 0.074
which again illustrates that there was no significant relationship between these two variables.
Following this the ethical stance of each participant was computed using excel, as
participants that answered the latter questions, four and five, did not omit answers. A total
of 52 respondents remained. Using the mean score of each participants’ answers to questions
three and four on ethical stances the table 8 was created. Participants with a mean score
higher than 2.5 in question three and question four were considered as high relativism and
high idealism, thus being situationists. Participants scoring below 2.5 in both question three
and question four were considered as low in relativism and low in idealism, thus being
Exceptionists. The highest number lies within the situationists ethical stance, meaning, that
most participants make their ethical judgements based on the situation and not on its
consequences. As stated by Forsyth (1980), high relativism is related to an ideology called
ethical skepticism which means that participants look critically at morality and analyze each
36
situation in order to make a judgment. This result is not surprising as it has been argued that
the majority of the society will evaluate a situation based on a combination of both
deontology and teleology (Hunt and Vasquez-Parraga, 1993).
Table 8: Participants ethical stances
Relativism
High Low
Idealism
High Situationists:
42 participants
Absolutists:
6 participants
Low Subjectivists:
3 participants
Exceptionists:
1 participant
Following this analysis, an evaluation of the situationists’ answers was analyzed to ascertain
if any further trends were present. Situationists were chosen for this evaluation as they
represented the largest data set. The data was exported from SPSS to Excel and for each
question the frequency and percentage of occurrence was computed.
Question 1: Have you ever heard of neuromarketing?
Situationists Answers
Yes No
Frequency 8 34
Percentage 19.04% 80.95%
The percentage of situationists who have never heard of neuromarketing is 80.95%.
37
Question 2: If neuromarketing is proven to bring more profit to my business I would use it
Situationists Answers
Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree
Frequency 2 5 8 15 12
Percentage 4.8% 11.9% 19.0% 35.7% 28.6%
Situationists agreed at 35.7% that they will use neuromarketing if it was proven to bring
profit to their business.
Question 3: If neuromarketing is proven to bring additional brand awareness to my business
I would use it
Situationists Answers
Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree
Frequency 2 5 6 15 14
Percentage 4.76% 11.90% 14.29% 35.71% 33.33%
Situationists agreed at 35.7% that they would use neuromarketing if it was proven to bring
additional brand awareness.
Question 4: Neuromarketing influences my purchase decisions
Situationists Answers
Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree
Frequency 2 7 22 6 5
Percentage 4.76% 16.67% 52.38% 14.29% 11.90%
Situationists are undecided and tend to disagree regarding the fact that neuromarketing could
influence their purchase decisions.
38
Question 5: I believe that neuromarketing is beneficial towards consumers
Situationists Answers
Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree
Frequency 7.00 9.00 16.00 5.00 5.00
Percentage 16.67% 21.43% 38.10% 11.90% 11.90%
Here as well, situationists are undecided and tend to disagree to the fact that neuromarketing
is beneficial for consumers in general.
Question 6: A consequence of neuromarketing is privacy invasion
Situationists Answers
Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree
Frequency 2.00 7.00 10.00 12.00 11.00
Percentage 4.76% 16.67% 23.81% 28.57% 26.19%
Situationists agree by 28.57% that the consequence of neuromarketing is privacy invasion.
Question 7: Marketing is an ethical profession
Situationists Answers
Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree
Frequency 2.00 10.00 10.00 17.00 3.00
Percentage 4.76% 23.81% 23.81% 40.48% 7.14%
Situationists agree by 40.48% that marketing is an ethical profession.
Question 8: I believe that advertisements in general influences my purchasing decisions
Situationists Answers
Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree
Frequency 1.00 7.00 7.00 21.00 6.00
Percentage 2.38% 16.67% 16.67% 50.00% 14.29%
39
Situationists agree by 50% that advertisements influence their purchasing decisions.
Question 9: I feel manipulated by marketing strategies
Situationists Answers
Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree
Frequency 4.00 16.00 6.00 14.00 2.00
Percentage 9.52% 38.10% 14.29% 33.33% 4.76%
Situationists disagree by 38.10% that marketing strategies manipulate them.
Question 10: I feel overwhelmed by advertisements
Situationists Answers
Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree
Frequency 2.00 10.00 4.00 19.00 7.00
Percentage 4.76% 23.81% 9.52% 45.24% 16.67%
Situationists agree by 45.24% that they feel overwhelmed by advertisements.
40
Chapter 5 – Discussion
This chapter aims to discuss the results obtained during the data collection stage of the
project. The discussion will consider the values associated with the data, whilst making
references to the literature review. The original aims of the study were designed to address
the following questions:
What is students’ perception of neuromarketing and marketing in general?
Is there a relationship between students’ ethical stance and neuromarketing
perception?
Considering the first aim of the study, the first implication of the research was not really
surprising, as 82.11% of the respondents had never heard of neuromarketing. This result may
have influenced the rest of the answers given in the questionnaire by respondents. With a
lack of knowledge on the topic it was difficult to assess their perception of neuromarketing.
In future research with students, it would be advisable to explain in more length the idea
behind neuromarketing.
A similar study to this dissertation was undertaken that showed quite interesting results (Eser
et al., 2011). Eser et al (2011), studied the perception of neuromarketing amongst academics,
neurologists and marketing professionals rather than students. The majority of respondents
agreed that “neuromarketing is not a manipulative way to sell unnecessary goods and
services” which is very positive for the neuromarketing field and may encourage companies
to further their investments towards this new research method. The professionals were able
to make more informed decisions surrounding neuromarketing as they had the required
knowledge to draw from. Interestingly, participants that had a neurological or marketing
background had greater positive attitudes to neuromarketing, again suggesting a more
informed decision could be made. During this study, with students, it was found that 50%
of respondents were undecided when asked the question “neuromarketing influences my
purchase decisions”. Participants who were undecided are most likely to have no or a little
knowledge of neuromarketing, thus, not able to form an opinion.
41
Furthermore, the study by Eser et al. (2011), showed that one of the most important factor to
take into consideration in neuromarketing was ethics. This was also a topic of interest during
this research paper and the ethicality of participants was measured, a variation to the work
by Eser et al. (2011). Forty-two participants scored high in both relativism and idealism
meaning that they could be classed as situationists according to Forsyth (1980). Situationists
tend to make an ethical judgement based on the situation and not on the consequences of the
act. When combined with the concept of neuromarketing this could be considered as
alarming, as situationists would undertake neuromarketing without considering the
consequences. These include, the manipulation of consumers or even the violation of basic
human rights.
The study conducted by Flores et al (2014) evaluated the perception of neuromarketing when
comparing between a non-profit and profit organization. Respondents perceived the use of
neuromarketing by profit organizations as unethical, and believed that this type of
organization should not use neuromarketing. Interestingly, respondents were “unclear” about
the ethicality of neuromarketing when it is used by a non-profit organization. In this study,
survey participants were undecided regarding the use of neuromarketing by businesses and
that their purchasing decisions could be influenced by the topic Once again the majority,
50%, of the primary data from the questionnaire was undecided, this could be attributed to a
lack of knowledge on the topic. Yet 65.52% of the participants stated they would use
neuromarketing if it was shown to bring more profit to their business. This suggests that
participants would be happy to use this method of marketing to further themselves financially
even with limited understanding of the topic. Surprisingly 53.44% of participants believed
that their privacy could be invaded by neuromarketing and yet still content with the use to
gain profits. Suggesting the quote by Friedman, ‘that businesses have to be profitable as
long as they do not deceive or commit fraud’, is relevant amongst the participant community.
They most likely will not know of Friedman, however, the concept that a business is for
profit, whatever the consequences, is widespread.
Equally the participants who had a knowledge of neuromarketing, 19.04%, followed a
similar but more pronounced trend. For question 2, items 1 and 2 the mode score was 5 and
the mean 4.18. This states that these participants agree with use neuromarketing to gain both
profits and brand awareness. The mode at 5 shows that of the 19.04% the majority of
42
participants strongly agreed with the use of neuromarketing. This data illustrates that
participants that knew of the topic were stronger advocates, this links to the neurologists and
marketing professionals, as with greater understanding and knowledge less fear of the
unknown was observed.
The study by Gallup in 2011 showed that marketing professional were perceived negatively
by the public. Within this study 41.38% of the survey participants agreed that marketing is
an ethical profession. To explain the difference from the public survey it could be considered
that students have not had the required experience of the business world to fully comprehend
the negative perception marketing professionals hold. Since 2011, the business world has
changed dramatically, now CSR is a cornerstone of many corporations. Transparency and
ethical practice are strongly enforced worldwide; it would be interesting to retake the 2011
public survey under a more modern business environment. Potentially marketing
professionals may be viewed as more ethical and more in line with the student participant’s
perception.
A 2005 study has demonstrated that only 3% of UK consumers will purchase ethical products
whereas 89% of the same group claimed to have ethical issues of concern (Carrington et al.,
2014). The misalignment of ethical intentions into actual behavior is known as the intention-
behavior gap (Carrington et al., 2014). The public could hold the belief that neuromarketing
is unethical, but still purchase products and services that were advertised through the use of
neuromarketing campaigns. Moreover, as stated earlier, even if participants perceived
neuromarketing as being invasive the majority of them would be content to use it, if it brings
more profit and brand awareness.
Furthermore, the significance and impact of neuromarketing is questioned in the literature
by (Ulman et al., 2014). The authors argued that some neuromarketing companies are
overestimating their results in order to be perceived as useful and credible in the eyes of their
multinationals clients. Without the necessary frameworks in place to ensure scientific
validity of the results the research published must be scrutinized in depth before acceptance.
With the growth of the subject, rigid ethical and improved scientific experimentation the true
value of neuromarketing will be ascertained.
43
As stated by Forsyth (1980), high relativism is related to an ideology called ethical
skepticism which means that participants look critically at morality and analyze each
situation in order to make a judgment. This result is not surprising as it has been argued that
the majority of the society will evaluate a situation based on a combination of both
deontology and teleology (Hunt and Vasquez-Parraga, 1993). Unfortunately, in this research
the number of participants for each category other than situationists were very low. In the
future it would be interesting to compare each ethical ideology, in particular comparing
between absolutists and exceptionists would be useful for this research study. An absolutist
is considered to be based around a deontological philosophy, whereas, exceptionists are
towards teleology. This would be interesting to see if any differences arose between the main
ethical theories.
44
Chapter 6 – Conclusions
6.1 Review of aims and objectives
In review of the aims of this research study, it can be concluded they were partially met.
Understanding students’ attitudes and perceptions to neuromarketing and marketing was
successfully achieved through the collection of primary data from the questionnaire.
Unfortunately, the relationship between participants’ ethical stance and their attitude towards
neuromarketing did not yield the results expected.
The objectives of the study can be divided into two parts, review of literature and recording
perceptions of neuromarketing, which was concluded with the aims. The review of the
literature illustrated a high level of neuromarketing present in the business world, however,
the opinions surrounding neuromarketing differed vastly.
6.2 Limitations and further research
In conclusion the study was greatly limited by the total number of participants recorded,
repeating this study with a larger data sample would yield greater insight into the perception
of neuromarketing from the student population. The questionnaire itself had a large
limitation, it was possible to skip through questions without supplying an answer. This meant
many participants ‘completed’ the questionnaire without giving numerous answers.
Changing the format of the questionnaire, so that each question had a minimum requirement
before you could procced would remove this issue.
To collect a larger sample of data various other forms of primary data could have been used.
For example, using focus groups or interviews could certainly allow for a larger mix of
quantitative and qualitative data. It could be interesting to compare between different cultures
across universities worldwide to give a complete view of the student’s attitude to
neuromarketing. This study would require the collaboration of various university
departments worldwide, however, the data gained would be invaluable to this study.
45
6.3 Overall Conclusion
It has been sixty years since Packard wrote his book The hidden persuaders, and explained
the different techniques used by marketers to influence consumers to buy goods and services.
Packard was one of the first to inform the public of the existence of techniques used to
convince consumers to buy more. Research methods in marketing have evolved greatly over
the years, now an interface between the pinnacle of neurological studies and marketing
techniques has been reached. Businesses, governments and associations are working together
to create a unified definition of neuromarketing, currently, “Neuromarketing can be best
defined as any marketing or market research activity that uses the methods and techniques
of brain science or is informed by the findings or insights of brain science.”(NMSBA, 2013).
Neuromarketing as a subject has a very long journey ahead until it is accepted globally. Many
consider neuromarketing as a “mixture of bad science, bullshit and hope” (Vaughan, 2015).
There are many advocates and critics in both academia and business, this strong divide will
require vast amounts of research to answer all the unknowns in the topic. Once the knowledge
has been amassed the public must be introduced to the topic and then safeguarded with strong
ethical frameworks. Then at this stage businesses will benefit from neuromarketing as this
research tool will help to design marketing stimuli that will please targeted consumers (Eser
et al., 2011).
This study was undertaken in order to explore an unknown, the perceived ethicality of
neuromarketing by students in the UK. With fierce opposition from the French government,
Commercial Alert, academics and bloggers (Murphy et al., 2005, Act 2011-814, 2011,
Commercial Alert, 2003, NeuroBollocks, 2015), it was interesting to see if the student
community had similar attitudes to neuromarketing. Students will be the future leaders of
society, ranging from Government right through to business, and understanding their
perceptions at this stage gives valuable insights into what may occur in the future. By
performing this study some of the unknowns regarding the student population have been
addressed.
Whilst undertaking this study to answer the research questions, Forsyth (1980) ethics
position questionnaire was used as a theoretical framework. This is the first time an EPQ has
46
been used in conjunction with neuromarketing and student perception. The system of
measurements for the ethical stance in this study was originally suggested by Forsyth (1980),
the methods used were strongly influenced by this study. From the EPQ it was reported that
situationists were the largest group, forty-two respondents, in the study. This is an acceptable
outcome, as when presented with the requirement to make an ethical decision the population,
on average, uses both deontology and teleology (Hunt and Vitell, 1986).
47
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