An introduction to the application of

cognitive neuroscience for the evaluation

of marketing messages

Prof. Fabio Babiloni

Dept. Molecular Medicine, University of Rome
«Sapienza», Rome, Italy
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The selection of the information

Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

The selection of the commercial advertising

Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

The major part of the external sensory inputs is
simply not retained
• Each second we are exposed to an estimated billion of bits of information that reach us through all our
senses, yet humans are capable of processing only around 10-100 bits of that information, letting
most of the input go by unnoticed
• The total amount of the «internal memory» of our brain is about 10 Gigabyte.
• Emotion is an internal process that gives a «value» to such sensory inputs, allowing to the important
inputs to be remembered and retained in the brain to drive future behavior.

Knowledge Information
Sensory
External collection
delivery External
world world

Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

Emotions improve the memorization of the
event

Where you been the 6/9/2002 ?

Where you been the 9/11/2001 ?

Amygdala

Enthorinal cortex Ippocampus

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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

 The importance of the emotions
• Emotions is a word that comes from the ancient Latin words
«ex motus», meaning «moved by…»
• Emotions indicates thus a «somatic answer» from the
different organs of our body to an external world stimulation,
and its appreciation of such answer from our consciousness.
• Thus, emotions are in the between from the external world
stimulation (a sound, an object) and the value we internally
attribute to such stimulation.
• Written literature since thousand years to now underline the
link between the body reactions and the internal evaluation of
events or facts we called emotions (e.g., the heart stopped to
beat for the scary or the heart beats faster when he saw
her…)
• There are several brain structures (amygdala, thalamus,
neocortex) involved in the somatic answers to the external
stimuli
• However, in many occasions such «somatic answers» were
generated in a subtle and tiny way, that can be detected by
acquisition devices but not directly from the consciousness of
the «owner»

Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

Neuroscience, consumer psychology and
consumer neuroscience 6

• Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system that seeks to understand the biological basis of
behavior.
• The application of neuroscience to consumer psychology has gained popularity over the past
decade in academic research and business practice.
• Consumer neuroscience is a field that adapt methods and theories from neuroscience
combined with behavioral theories, models, and tested experimental designs from consumer
psychology to develop a neuropsychologically sound theory to understand consumer behavior.

Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

Consumer neuroscience and neuromarketing

• A last critical distinction is between consumer neuroscience, which refers to academic research
at the intersection of neuroscience and consumer psychology, and neuromarketing, which refers
to commercial interest in the use of neurophysiological tools, such as eye tracking, skin
conductance, electroencephalography (EEG), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI),
to conduct company-specific market research.
• Neuromarketing has received considerable attention in the corporate world, and the growth of
neuromarketing companies over the last decade has been impressive.
• Many big companies in the advertising research area (McCann, TNS, Nielsen) in these last years
have started to seriously consider such body of techniques and tools as a valuable way to gain
additional and quantitative information about the consumer experience.

Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

A definition of neuromarketing

Assigned reading!

Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing spans several order of
magnitude in human responses

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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing is increasingly used worldwide

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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

 Different paradigms for the consumer behavior

Make Do Feel
decision

«Emotion probabily assists reasoning … certain levels of emotion processing probabily point us to the sector of decision making
space where our reason can operate most effectively»
Prof. Damasio, neuroscientist, «The feeling of what happens»

Make
Feel
decisions
Do
by
rationality

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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

What it is currently done in the market research

Focus group Preference Simulated Market tests

questionnaire choice
method
What is Open-ended answers, Importance weigthing Choice among products Decision to buy and
body language and for various product choice among products
measured behavior, not suitable attributes
for statistical analysis

Type of Speculative, except The respondent must A hypotehtical choice, End of process, to
when used to assess try to determine his so the same process as forecast sells and
response prototypes decision weightings the actual purchase but measure the response
process through introspection, without monetary to other elements of
then map those consequences marketing, such as price
weighting into the
response scale

Cost and Low cost; risk comes Moderate cost and Moderate cost (higher if High cost and high risk
ony from misuse of data some risk of alerting using prototypes instead of alerting competitors
competitive risk by the seller competitors of descriptions) and plus the risk of the
some risk of alerting product being reverse
competitors engineered before
launch

Technical skill Moderation skills for Questionnaire design Experiment design and Running an
inside the group and and statistical analysis statistical analysis instrumental market
required etnographic skills for (including choice and forecasting (highly
observers and analylists modelling) specialized)

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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

Neuroscience and marketing: some definitions
and assumptions 14

• People often are not able to properly explain by words the

feelings they have about a sensory perception and what
are the criteria in base on which they could generate a decision.

• There are a body of published research and knowledge that

suggest that during such decision-making process consistent and
reliable brain signals can be gathered.

• The correct interpretation of such signals could be used to

refine and to improve the advertising, in order to maximize
its pleasant characteristics and convey the correct information to
the consumer.

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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

What is expected from the use of neuroimaging
applied to the marketing science
• There are high hopes that neuroimaging technology
could solve some of the problems that marketers face. A 15

prominent hope is that neuroimaging will both

streamline marketing processes and save money.
• Another hope is that neuroimaging will reveal
information about consumer preferences that is
unobtainable through conventional methods.
• Marketers hope that neuroimaging will provide a more
efficient trade-off between costs and benefits. This hope
is based on the assumptions that people cannot fully
articulate their preferences when asked to express them
explicitly, and that consumers’ brains contain hidden
information about their true preferences.
• Such hidden information could, in theory, be used to
influence their buying behaviour, so that the cost of
performing neuroimaging studies would be outweighed
by the benefit of improved product design and increased
sales. In theory, at least, brain imaging could illuminate
not only what people like, but also what they will buy.
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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

 Product development cycle and
neuromarketing insertion

Neuroimaging
Methods

Concept phase Design

(Market analysis Development Testing
and feasability) Prototyping

Market delivery

Release
Support

Feedback

Neuroimaging
Communication Methods
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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

The use of neuroimaging as early as possible in
the development of a product
• Marketers are excited about brain imaging is that they hope it will provide an accurate marketing research method
that can be implemented even before a product exists.
• The assumption is that neuroimaging data would give a more accurate indication of the underlying preferences
than data from standard market research studies and would remain insensitive to the types of biases that are often
a hallmark of subjective approaches to valuations.
• If this is indeed the case, product concepts could be tested rapidly, and those that are not promising eliminated
early in the process. This would allow more efficient allocation of resources to develop only promising products

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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing is spread out through the
world
• Neuromarketing Science & Business Association (NMSBA, www.nmsba.com) in 85 countries

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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

Scientific papers from the research group

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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

Psychological constructs useful for the
evaluation of the brain responses to the
commercial advertisings

Approach
Withdrawal
Interest

Memory

Attenzione

Attention
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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing Emotion

 Neuroethics 21

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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

Compulsive Buying Disorder

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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

About the neuromarketing and ethics

• Is the neuromarketing too effective?

• Will consumers be brainwashed via neuromarketing?
• Is neuromarketing conducted correctly?
• Privacy concerns
• Code of ethics for the operators in the field of the
neuromarketing

Assigned reading!

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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

Ethical code for neuromarketing research

Articles
ARTICLE 1: CORE PRINCIPLES
a. Neuromarketing researchers shall comply with the highest research standards enforced in their respective
countries and use accepted scientific principles.
b. Neuromarketing Researchers shall not act in any way that could negatively impact the reputation and the
integrity of the Neuromarketing research profession.
c. Neuromarketing findings shall be delivered to clients without exaggerating or misrepresenting the
neuromarketing insights beyond what is scientifically accepted.

ARTICLE 2: INTEGRITY
a. Neuromarketing researchers shall take all reasonable precautions to ensure that participants are in no way
harmed or stressed as a result of their involvement in a Neuromarketing research project.
b. Neuromarketing researchers shall not deceive participants or exploit their lack of knowledge of neuroscience.
c. No sales offer shall be made to a participant as a direct result of his/her involvement in a project.
d. Neuromarketing researchers shall be honest about their skills and experience,

ARTICLE 3: CREDIBILITY
a. Concerns or critics about publicly known neuromarketing projects shall be first presented to the attention of the
NSMBA before they are shared widely.
b. Neuromarketing researchers involved in functional brain imaging shall disclose a protocol for dealing with
incidental findings.

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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

Ethical code for neuromarketing research
ARTICLE 4: TRANSPARENCY
a. Participation in a Neuromarketing research project shall always be entirely voluntary
b. Neuromarketing researchers shall maintain a public website describing their services and the credentials of their
core team members as well as post a physical address where officers of the company can be contacted.
c. Neuromarketing researchers shall allow their clients to audit the process by which neuromarketing insights are
collected and processed.
d. Neuromarketing researchers shall ensure that Neuromarketing research projects are created, delivered and
documented with transparency and reported with as many details as the clients would require to understand the scope
and relevance of the project.

ARTICLE 5: CONSENT
a. Neuromarketing researchers shall explain the tools they use to participants in layman terms.
b. Before providing consent, participants in Neuromarketing research shall explicitly express their understanding of the
protocols as well as the general objectives of the study.
c. Participants shall be fully informed about the project before any Neuromarketing technique can be used to collect
their neuromarketing insights.
d. Once a Neuromarketing study has commenced, participants shall be free to withdraw.

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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

Ethical code for neuromarketing research
ARTICLE 6: PRIVACY
a. Neuromarketing researchers shall ensure that participants are made aware of the purpose of collecting insights.
b. Neuromarketing researchers shall have a privacy policy which is readily accessible to participants from whom
they collect insights.
c. The identity of participants will not be revealed to the client without explicit consent.
d. Personal information collected shall be collected for specified Neuromarketing research purposes and not used
for any other purpose.
e. Personal information may not be kept longer than is required for the purpose of the neuromarketing project.
f. Neuromarketing researchers shall ensure that adequate security measures are used to protect access to the
insights collected during any project.
g. The Neuromarketing research data itself, including brain scans and brain data shall remain the property of the
research company and will not be shared.

ARTICLE 7: PARTICIPANT RIGHTS

a. Participants to any neuromarketing research project shall confirm that they are not obligated to participate in
the project.
b. Participants to any neuromarketing research project shall be able to withdraw from the research at any time.
c. Participants to any neuromarketing research project shall be guaranteed that their personal data is not made
available to others.
d. Participants to any neuromarketing research project shall be guaranteed that the insights will be deleted or
modified upon request.
e. Particular care shall be taken to maintain the data protection rights of participants when personal data is
transferred from the country in which they are collected to another country. When data processing is conducted in
another country, the data protection principles of this Code must be respected. 26

Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

Ethical code for neuromarketing research

ARTICLE 8: CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

Neuromarketing studies involving participants less than 18 years of age shall only take place with the informed
consent of the participant’s parents.
ARTICLE 9: SUBCONTRACTING
Neuromarketing Researchers shall disclose prior to work commencing, when any part of the project is to be
subcontracted outside the neuromarketing researchers’ own organization (including the use of any outside
consultants).
ARTICLE 10: PUBLICATION
When results of a project are publicly shared, neuromarketing researchers shall clearly articulate which part of the
report represents interpretation of the data vs. which part of the data represent the key findings. Neuromarketing
researchers shall not associate their names to a Neuromarketing research project unless they have actively
participated in the project and are able to defend the findings
ARTICLE 11: COMMITMENT
Neuromarketing researchers shall commit that they will apply this code and ensure their own clients and other
parties will comply with its requirements. Failure to do so will result in the termination of their membership.
ARTICLE 12: IMPLEMENTATION
a. Neuromarketing researchers and their clients shall acknowledge that they know the code and also respect other
self-regulatory guidelines that are relevant to a particular region or project; The Code is applicable for all involved
in a Neuromarketing project.
b. The NMSBA Members shall show their acceptance of the code, by publishing the code on their website or by
publishing a link to www.nmsba.com/ethics

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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

The role of neuroscience for marketing

• The role of neuroscience in marketing sciences is to provide a

view of brain processes during the observation or fruition of
commercial information about products
• Brain imaging data could be employed together the data from
the conventional research to provide a larger view on the
reaction of the consumers to the commercial advertisings.
• Such role cannot be overemphasized from the media but could
provide insights that current methodologies are not able to
return.

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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

One single brain structure cannot be linked to a
uniques brain process

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Fabio Babiloni: Corso di Neuroeconomia e Neuromarketing

 Discussion

Contacts:
Prof. Fabio Babiloni
Dip. Medicina Molecolare
Università di Roma - Sapienza
email: fabio.babiloni@uniroma1.it

Thank you for

your attention!
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