Ethical considerations regarding stakeholders in neuromarketing research. empirical insights from NMSBA corporate members, TAAN advertising agencies and Romanian companies

Abstract

The main challenges arising from the business environment nowadays are related to customers’ polyvalent behavior, to their continuously changing wishes and diversifying needs, and to the increasing number of stimuli to which they are exposed and which are meant to capture their attention. The truth is that it has become increasingly difficult to approach targeted consumers by means of specific advertising messages and by emphasizing a company’s performance. Given the current context, we discussed two issues: first, the usage of neuromarketing techniques in order to better understand and influence consumers, second, the question of whether this approach is ethical or not. In order to identify ways in which various stakeholders, activating in the field of neuromarketing research, apply a code of ethics while developing research, the authors implemented three qualitative studies, using the interview as a primary data collection technique. Thus we tested the degree of interest and involvement of the NMSBA member companies regarding this issue and the ethical challenges posed by their work (study 1), the extent to which international advertising agencies design, develop, and/or implement ethical advertising campaigns using neuromarketing techniques (study 2), and thirdly, the perspective of the Romanian beneficiary companies on the impact of ethical principles applied in neuromarketing research (study 3). The highlighted results present a number of remarkable scientific conclusions, but mostly enlightening from a practical and applicative standpoint. Furthermore, these three studies reflect a unique set of findings due to the added comparative dimension which includes an international perspective, as well as a national, Romanian one.