This is your brain on neuromarketing:reflections on a decade of research

Abstract

In this commentary, we reflect on the last decade of research in the field of neuromarketing and present a schematic illustration of the basic process of a typical neuromarketing study. We then identify three critical points of interest in this illustration that have not received enough discussion in neuromarketing-relevant literature, and which we consider to be somewhat problematic. These are the dominance of event-based designs in neuromarketing, the potential of alternative modalities in neuromarketing and the current focus on reverse inference in neuromarketing. We argue that, taken together, these points have substantive implications for the development of a more reflective neuromarketing, which in turn has greater potential to make a positive impact on marketing knowledge, marketing practice and public perceptions of marketing activity in general.