Right evaluation of marketing stimuli with neuroscience. An electroencephalography experiment

December, 2020

Abstract

Emotional valence is very important in order to create the imprint of the memory of brands and companies in the minds of consumers and to create an adequate perception of companies and influence their purchasing decisions. Therefore, it is a main objective of neuromarketing and neuromanagement. A very suitable method in neuromarketing and neuromanagement studies is the ecological electroencephalography paradigm (in time domain). Confirming that ecological electroencephalography is useful to appreciate the valence generated with visual stimuli in marketing actions is the problem of this experiment. Therefore, the objective of this work is to confirm or refute the hypotheses that have been raised in this regard. Since the theoretical corpus included in this work has been obtained mainly by functional magnetic resonance imaging and other electroencephalography techniques in addition to ecological electroencephalography, this knowledge is sometimes directly assumed for EEG in general and is sometimes not very precise. It has been found that stimuli with positive valence generate more brain activity in the left hemisphere than in the right, as proposed by the first hypothesis. However, negative valence stimuli do not generate greater brain activity in the right hemisphere than in the left, as proposed by the second hypothesis.

Highlights

• An ecological electroencephalography methodology is used instead of event related potential (ERP) methodology.

• The stimuli that most increase the brain activity of the left hemisphere are those of positive valence.

• The stimuli of positive valence create a positive perception of the brands.

• The stimuli of negative valence do not increase right-hemisphere brain activity measured by EEG.

• This work has been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki).