Marketing Team Presents Consumer Neuroscience Research at American Academy of Advertising Conference

A team from the Department of Marketing, led by Dr. Terry Daugherty, recently presented their work at the American Academy of Advertising Conference in Chicago, IL (March 26–29).

The American Academy of Advertising (AAA) is an organization of international scholars and professionals that fosters research relevant to the field by providing a forum for the exchange of ideas through academic meetings and publications.

Along with researchers from Northwestern and Harvard, the University of Akron team took part in the “New Approaches to Measuring Advertising Effectiveness” session on Friday, March 27, and discussed their research using dense-array electroencephalography (dEEG) to evaluate advertising.

According to Dr. Daugherty, “There is a great deal of frustration in the marketing research industry because traditional techniques (e.g., focus groups, surveys, etc.) are not always capable of identifying successful advertising before campaigns are launched. This is why using consumer neuroscience techniques, such as eye-tracking and EEG, are emerging as alternative behavioral approaches for examining consumer behavior.” In the Suarez Applied Marketing Research Laboratory, “We are identifying neural correlates in the brain that help marketers differentiate between successful and unsuccessful forms of advertising. While the research is very much a work in progress, the potential for providing insight is high and we are excited our work is being recognized nationally,” he notes.

The research has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Business Research. Team members also include Dr. Federico de Gregorio and Kathleen Kennedy from marketing and Ernest Hoffman and Megan Nolan from the Department of Psychology.