Determining the ethical aspects of using neuromarketing in modern market conditions
Authors:   Odessa National I.I. Mechnikov University, Zhmai Oleksandr , Filatova Mariia ,   Odessa National I.I. Mechnikov University
Published: December 2021

Significant opportunities, a wide choice and saturation of the market with goods and services make it difficult for consumers to make decisions about buying certain goods. Companies, experiencing high competition, actively use all possible approaches and methods of marketing. Often consumers do not rely on rational factors, but on their own subconscious motivations caused by marketing incentives. Therefore, companies pay considerable attention to research into consumer behavior and tastes to bring the end consumer closer to the product, convincing him of the need for its consumption. Most domestic companies continue to use the tools of classical marketing, despite the emergence of innovative methods of promotion. Traditional marketing research yields results that can be ineffective and deviate significantly from reality, so companies are beginning to look for alternative ways to study consumer behavior. One of the modern directions of research on consumer behavior is neuromarketing, whose methods exacerbate the problem of ethics of neuroscience. The purpose of this article is to analyze the possibilities of neuromarketing tools to study consumer behavior and determine the ethical aspects of the use of neuromarketing in today's market conditions. This goal involves the following tasks: 1) to reveal the relevance of the use of neuromarketing; 2) define the concept of neuromarketing and its types; 3) compare traditional marketing research and neuromarketing; 4) define the concept of neuroethics; 5) consider the problems of neuroethics in marketing; 6) consider the role of the code of ethics on the example of the NMSBA Code of Ethics; 7) identify solutions to ethical problems of neuromarketing. It has been found that neuromarketing is a promising marketing tool because it provides new information that cannot be obtained through traditional marketing research. It uses neurobiology to identify consumers’ subconscious decision-making processes and to understand the true stimuli for their behavior. Neuromarketologists conduct research to determine consumer actions that occur under the influence of their feelings, thoughts, and subconscious processes. Therefore, neuromarketing makes it possible to increase the value of products for consumers and society, provided that it simplifies the relationship between consumers and products. Unlike traditional marketing research, neuromarketing research allows to obtain results with smaller deviations from reality due to the ability to study consumers’ subconscious processes. Brain research for medical and commercial purposes involves the need to study ethical, legal and social issues and consequences that may arise in the research process. These questions are studied by a science called neuroethics. The most common ethical problems of neuromarketing are autonomy, informed consent, consumer confidentiality, and privacy. But if you follow the rules of the code of ethics, the use of these tools can be more effective.