Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is one of the best available devices that can record the activities of living human brain non-invasively. Its precision and high spatial resolution is matched by none other methodology. The entry barrier to fMRI research is exceptionally high. fMRI has widely been used in medical and scientific research, but its application to marketing research has been limited because of two important reasons. First, the cost problem. The MR scanning devices often cost multi-million dollars and using fMRI for marketing research can be costly. Second, analyzing data from fMRI study is another formidable task. fMRI measures the brain’s hemodynamic activities using voxel as a measuring unit; Voxels are often a cubic with 2 to 3 millimeters on one side. Since a typical adult brain represents over one million voxels in one scan volume, and each scan generally has 2 to 3 seconds of interval time, one experimental block of 40 seconds, for example, will create over 40 million data points. Compared to a typical marketing research data which in general have two dimensions (2d) of rows and columns, fMRI data is inherently 4d with added dimensions of voxel and time. Furthermore, the fMRI signal is sensitive to various sources of noises. In this talk, we offer support for marketing researchers who want to explore fMRI method for their research in the future. First, we discuss issues related to experimental design for fMRI experiments. We explain preprocessing steps that are recommended for fMRI data and show how to apply statistical methods to make inferences that can increase internal validity. Then, we will explicate how to apply big data analytics to fMRI data during this talk to find deep insights into customer’s brains. A real neuromarketing fMRI data will be used to break down the steps for fMRI research and data analytics. Finally, we will open a discussion to discover future research opportunities for marketing research using fMRI. The purpose of this talk is to lower the entry barrier of fMRI method in neuromarketing research so that more people in the marketing field can benefit from the most advanced scientific achievement of our time and discover deepest insights into our customers.

This research investigated how neuromarketing can improve and determine the effectiveness of action-based public health and social cause marketing communications with social amplification platforms. Action-based advertisements (Ferrier, Ward, & Palermo, 2012) aim to encourage consumers to ‘act’, ‘share’, make a ‘pledge’ or complete a ‘challenge’ for a public health or social cause. Public health messages as non-commercial advertisements attempt to change public behaviour (Vecchiato, Cherubino, Trettel, & Babiloni, 2013). Research was conducted using a 64 channel EEG wet cap with electrodes placed according to the international 10/20 system (Gountas et al., 2014; Treleaven-Hassard et al., 2010). The study applied an exploratory design which involved 4 tasks where participants viewed 7 advertisements (6 action-based, 1 control) and their logos while EEG was recorded. Preliminary LORETA results from the first five seconds of the most effective advertisement indicated approach responses due to left prefrontal and right parietal cortex activation (Davidson & Irwin, 1999; Vecchiato et al., 2013). Results suggest that consumer’s decision making about an advertisement occurs within the first five seconds of viewing an advertisement.

The study examines physiological and neuronal processes of 26 inexpert wine drinkers in order to understand how consumers judge and choose wines during product experience. We analyzed if an increase in the beta band activity can be related to reward process and individual preference for a wine. We predicted that tasting different wines influence participants' preferences and beta band activity. We also hypothesized that high beta band activity would be related to preferences for a wine. The results confirmed that 1) tasting different wines modulate individual preferences and beta band activity and 2) the higher preferences for a wine corresponded to a stronger decrease in beta band oscillations.

There has been almost 20 years since science of marketing has developed in Mongolia and there has been significant progress in acquiring and using its findings. Business companies’ leadership have become aware of the importance of this science and see marketing as business philosophy and understand that analyzing the market, business environment and conditions by consumers is the key to success. Today’s society demands from marketing professionals’ delicacy and taking into account consumers’ needs and creating new needs and new means of consumption. Main purpose of business entities is to be aware of consumer needs, to establish its position on the market and to be successful. In order to provide consumers with the best products and keep them at the center of their attention it is important to establish optimal ratio of marketing factors that would most efficiently influence consumers with different behaviors.

As well as all other branches of trade, so retail trade itself undergoes various changes and trends with regard to the development of information and communication technologies which affect not only traders themselves but also their customers. It is the retail store environment itself which is one of the decisive aspects of purchase because more than 70% of consumer decisions take place directly at the point of sale. It is the last place which can reverse the purchasing decision. A final customers´ decision is influenced not only by price, quality but also by in-store communication and visual aspects of each store. That is the reason for continuous gathering of feedback on the effectiveness and efficiency of these means of communication in real environment. Besides traditional research techniques there are situations which require the involvement of relatively new research methods. Thanks to the innovative interdisciplinary approach with the use of neuromarketing, it is possible to create effective marketing strategies and thus stimulate the customer attention and emotions. By these emotions, it is possible to achieve better motivation toward purchase and an increase in the number of sales and subsequent raise in income. The paper deals with a complex, interdisciplinary examination of the in-store communication impact on customer visual attention, emotions and related spatial behaviour of customers in grocery stores. Research integrates measurements of mobile eye camera (Eye tracker), mobile electroencephalograph (EEG), face reading technology (FA) and internal position system in real conditions of retail store. The purpose of this research is to recognise the attention, emotional response and spatial customer preferences by means of selected in-store communication tools. At the end of the paper we explain how the neuromarketing methods can be used for better understanding of consumer behaviour at the point of sale.

Consumer decision making and behaviour happen largely under the radar of the conscious mind. In order to market brands and products effectively, the limbic system in the brain holds many clues as to how to segment consumers and increase impact with key target groups.