The grand paradox of branding

Itiel E. Dror and Nir Wegrzyn

An exploration into the role of brand in driving purchase decisions from a cognitive-neuroscience perspective.

Introduction

The commonplace and widely used marketing model is based on rationality. It assumes that purchases are subject in one way or another to an awareness-consideration-decision process. As close as that may be to introspective self-reported behaviour, it neglects what we know about how the brain actually functions. Specifically, the way in which existing associations and the effect of immediate stimuli can impact buying decisions. 

Here we discuss, from a cognitive-neuroscience perspective, how the brain actually drives purchasing decisions, and demonstrate that there is a need to focus on different elements in the marketing mix in order for it to...

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