Nowadays companies set aside an estimated budget of more than 300 billion dollars annually for marketing activities such as advertising, promotion, packaging and slogans. However, it is fairly difficult to guess how many of these activities achieve their intended purpose. Neuromarketing techniques that aim to understand consumer behaviour and resolve the formation of perception, have been increasingly used in some marketing studies and thus has increased in popularity. As to provide more information about the content of these studies;

1) Advertising studies: By using neuromarketing techniques, these studies aim to understand subjects, such as what effects advertisements have on the subconscious of consumers and which visuals or messages lead to emotional reactions. Using the results of such studies, companies can optimize their advertisements, determine factors such as the advertisement’s message, music, use of a celebrity and formulate advertisement campaigns.

2) Consumer Experience Studies: In our current understanding of consumerism, where great importance is placed on the marketing of experiential marketing, these studies attempt to determine the effect created by the product by researching sensory effectiveness; in other words, the images formed by sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. On the other hand, shopping or purchasing experience studies aim to understand many factors such as, what consumers focus on most in stores, what route they take around the store, how the in-store atmosphere affects them, how to position the shelving system and the frequency of the inclination to purchase products. Consumer experience studies aim to determine subjects such as how the consumer feels when using the product after purchase, whether or not they were inclined to purchase the product again, whether or not brand loyalty formed or how many of the risks relating to the product they were willing to accept.

3) New Media Studies: These studies attempt to determine the effect of social media tools -something that has recently been viewed as indispensable- on consumers. At the same time, they are studies that are conducted tracking particularly the eye movements of consumers in order to determine factors such as how labels, banners, headings and texts must be in web site designs.

4) Packaging, Logo and Emblem Studies: These studies attempt to determine what logos, emblems or images -elements that brands perhaps struggle with the most but have become their most important assets in terms of positioning- evoke in consumers and how they affect them. Additionally, correctly being able to understand packaging design that both provides protection and increases the attractiveness of the product is also highly important for companies.

5) Public Perception Surveys: These are studies that involve the determination of how public relation campaigns (a component of marketing) are run, what kind of an impression the brand image leaves on the subconscious of consumers and the creation of the perception maps of various public service announcements or social responsibility projects.

Author: Asst. Prof. Pınar BACAKSIZ