Both from the perspective of the company and the consumer, marketing’s relation to ethics is important. This post will focus on the relation between neuromarketing and ethics. It will give insights into whether neuromarketing is ethical or it interferes with free will and the American Marketing Association’s Code of Conducts. First, a definition of the two will clarify. Ethics is defined as the science of morals. It is about humans’ moral behaviour and how to act, how to know the difference between right and wrong. This post will concern itself with business ethics and more specifically, marketing ethics. Neuromarketing is a field of consumer research that studies consumers’ response to marketing stimuli.

Opponents of neuromarketing would argue that it interferes with the consumers’ free will. Those consumers will be victims of campaigns that manipulate them into buying a product by going under their defense mechanisms. According to the American Marketing Association’s Code of Ethics it would be unethical if it harmed consumers, did not foster trust in the marketing system, and did not embrace ethical values. In my opinion neuromarketing provides us with an opportunity rather than a skew of possibilities favoured in the companies’ favour as enhanced by the marketing blog “Neuromarketing – Where Brain Science and Marketing Meet” written by Roger Dooley, a committed blogger and scientist with many interestings perspectives on neuromarketing. I suggest that the science behind neuromarketing also can develop consumers’ skills and knowledge about our own consumer behaviour. Neuromarketing ensures a better allocation of products and services. But the technology shall not necessarily only be embraced on the one side of the transaction. The other side of the transaction – the consumers – can also benefit by knowing how our mind works and thus make more rational decisions. For example, by acknowledging that buying a product releases the stimulating chemical product, dopamine, into our brain, we can take better decisions. Is buying this product a result of a chemical reaction in my brain, or is it a product I actually need. Not for my own chemical satisfaction, but for rational usage. By following ethics in conducting customer research, neuroscience provides an insight into our mind, which is something that should be embraced by both parties of the transaction.

In sum, neuromarketing poses some ethical questions concerning ethical customer research and advertising. But all in all, neuromarketing – used with caution – can optimize the allocation of products and services, and give consumers insights into how the human mind works so as to make better and more informed decisions.