A Review of Studies on Neuromarketing: Practical Results, Techniques, Contributions and Limitations

This article investigates the potential use of Eye Tracking as a neuromarketing tool and its potential for marketing in general. We sought to identify some of the main applications within the mainstream of marketing. The objective of this research was achieved by means of a conceptual literature review. The results of our research indicate important potential uses for Eye Tracking in practical marketing applications, such as brand equity, segmentation, new product development, pricing decisions, place decisions, promotion decisions, and social marketing studies. It is believed that in the near future, neuromarketing tools such as Eye Tracking will be part of mainstream marketing studies.

Purpose: This study examines the differences between genders in visual attention and attitudes toward different types of advertisements.Design/methodology/approach: An experimental design using a structured questionnaire and six print advertisements with a male, female and neutral focus was used to evaluate gender differences. In total, 180 students from a public university in Brazil participated in the study. An eye-tracking device was employed, using the Tobii Studio software, to get the visual attention metrics for this study.Findings: In the case of the female advertisements, no significant difference between visual attention and attitude was found; however, differences were found in the case of male visual attention to the image and their relative attitudes toward the advertisements.Research limitations/implications: Because it is a laboratory experiment using quota sampling, mainly Latin consumers, the potential for broader generalization may be limited. Besides, since they are real image advertisement images, there may be some interference in the respondents' responses from previous interactions with the brand or product exposed or even from a prior observation of this advertisement.Originality/value: This study provides deeper insight into Latin consumers' preferences and associations, who have a different cultural and national context. This study contributes to the use of the eye-tracking tool as a neuromarketing technique to evaluate and analyze visual attention.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate if shared brands provide sustainable competitive advantage according to an adapted valuable, rare, imitability/replaceability and organization (VRIO) model to the Brazilian wine sector in the opinion of the government agencies, associations and managers of the wineries.Design/methodology/approach: This study was based on a qualitative and exploratory research, based on in-depth interviews. Fine wines that have geographical indications and are located in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul were analyzed and content analysis was used to explore data.Findings: It was concluded that shared brands in the Brazilian wine sector can be considered a source of sustainable competitive advantage according to the resource-based view.Research limitations/implications: Qualitative research has the aspect of the subjectivity of the researcher when analyzing the data.Practical implications: The government agencies, associations and wineries can improve the production process and seek certified products for commercialization in the domestic and foreign markets. These contributions may also, in practice, be used by other sectors and countries.Originality/value: This work contributes to the understanding of the shared brand’s concept, including geographical indications, collective brands and the sector brands. The proposition that shared brands provide sustainable competitive advantage, according to an adapted VRIO model was confirmed. Barney’s VRIO framework (Barney, 1991, 1995) hitherto thought for individual companies, has the letter “O” of Organization replaced by the letter “A” of Association, becoming VRIA. The authors found that the four conditions that form the here proposed acronym VRIA are valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable/replaceable and association.

One of the biggest questions in today's market is what drives consumers to decide on one product instead of another; therefore there is a growing interest in understanding how brain responses influence the decision making process of consumers. Neuromarketing presents itself as one of the main areas of study aimed at achieving this goal, however it is still a new and constantly developing field. This research analysed the studies of neuromarketing applied to consumer behaviour over the last five years through an integrative literature review, identifying how the studies on this subject are being developed. This study concludes that major advances are being made in the area, and that neuromarketing can really help in the understanding of cognitive processes and their influence on decision-making, and it has a better performance when used jointly with traditional marketing techniques.