Traditional market research uses interviews, surveys and focus groups to better understand the impact of advertising and to predict the efficacy of campaigns. The accuracy of the results, however, is constrained by the consumer’s ability to explain their decision making – a skill humans are very poor at! To overcome this fundamental limitation, neuromarketing has adopted the tools of modern neuroscience to read the relevant information directly from consumer brains. Mind reading is not an easy task. The field is littered with spectacular failures from early 19th century phrenology to modern AI algorithms. And yet, there are also genuine advances. In this talk, I will review the neuroscience being used to accurately read minds and its limitations, focusing on how it can be used to enhance product development, understand consumer behaviour and predict market-level campaign performance. Inevitably this raises questions about where to draw the line between ethical and immoral uses of this technology. I propose five principles of neuro-ethical behaviour that provide a foundation for developing a Human Right of Cognitive Liberty.

Modern society exchanges increasingly large amounts of information about its members. Client data helps to personalize marketing offerings and optimize business interactions; clients also benefit from the disclosure of their personal data, since they receive better targeted offerings and faster interaction with online stores or service providers. However, the disclosure of personal data is dependent on privacy concerns that generate various levels of willingness to disclose personal data. Being rather restrictive in online purchasing, people rather willingly disclose information about themselves in social networking or other online activities. The issue was approached from the standpoint of Social Exchange Theory, and three subsequent studies helped to see several new insights into modelling willingness to disclose personal data. Interesting effects of exaggerated distrust, relationship between social networking and online buying, importance of regulatory environments – all that raises new questions that may attract attention of research community. Will be happy to present some findings!

The narratives that prevail in the professional community, created and reproduced in the public sphere, make us believe that our world is a new and unfamiliar planet, where we must constantly learn to live anew. On the one hand, the abundance of information, activities and choices severely reduces people’s attention to brand communication. On the other hand, the abundance of technologies, media channels and shopping methods makes it difficult for marketers to choose. Changing cultural, generational and value attitudes make it necessary to constantly rethink the arguments used in communication. You may find a petrol station brand manager considering how to make his brand sustainable and a crisp manufacturer considering how to have a brand purpose, both looking at how to increase online sales. This may be relevant if such a customer segment is found in the standard marketing STP model and the value generated is sufficient, there is a clear opportunity to reach such a segment and the positioning will be influential for this segment. But how many brands have segmentation based on research and economic indicators? How many marketing investment choices are shaped by segmentation? Are the messages sent based on the needs of the chosen segment for the category in which the brand operates? And most importantly, whether all employees and the CFO understand the marketing plan as an investment or see it as a vague but unavoidable necessity. If all this is not the case, unfortunately there is nothing to reshape.

Technology is changing marketing at an incredible speed. The abundance of digital marketing platforms, tactics and technical capabilities has never been greater than they are right now.  The challenge for marketing leaders and their teams today is not based on limitations in options. On the contrary, the challenge is to make the right decisions on how to focus attention and resources where it matters most.
On the other hand, the world is undergoing fundamental changes and we cannot ignore them by playing in our toy boxes. Consumer fatigue with brands communication and declining loyalty, inflation, political instability and, finally, pandemic-induced behavioral changes are all creating a new space for us to rethink traditional marketing rules.
In my presentation, I will outline what I consider to be the three most important areas of change in marketing thinking: – in Sales, Branding and Customer Relationships management.
At the end of the presentation, I’ll invite you to take a glimpse into the future and discuss how artificial intelligence will change the way marketers work.