Vulnerable consumers: marketing research needs to pay more attention to the brain health of consumers

Andrija Javor; Monika Koller; Nick Lee; Hans Breiter

doi:10.1007/s11002-022-09654-3

Vulnerable consumers: marketing research needs to pay more attention to the brain health of consumers

Mark Lett. 2023;34(2):337-342. doi: 10.1007/s11002-022-09654-3. Epub 2022 Nov 3.

Authors

Andrija Javor¹, Monika Koller², Nick Lee³, Hans Breiter^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Montclair, NJ 07043 USA Ronin Institute.
² Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020 Vienna, Austria Department of Marketing, Institute for Marketing and Consumer Research, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
³ Coventry, CV4 7AL UK Warwick Business School, University of Warwick.
⁴ Chicago, IL USA Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University.
⁵ Boston, MA USA Laboratory of Neuroimaging and Genetics, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard School of Medicine.

Abstract

We propose here that marketing research should increase consideration of the brain health of consumers, and argue that it would help both extend our current knowledge of vulnerable and other marginalised groups, as well as extend generalizability and external validity of marketing research in general. We show that such a focus would help enrich methodology, especially around causal inference, as well as impact on our understanding of a number of key emerging themes in marketing research. We particularly focus on the consumer behaviour around digitalisation, as well as compulsive buying behaviour. Further, we show that increasing consideration of consumer brain health will further efforts towards inclusivity of marketing, and help continue progress towards marketing research as a force for good.

Keywords: Brain health; Causal inference; Marketing ethics; Neuroscience; Research methods; Vulnerable consumers.