Journal of Business and entrepreneurial
Enero - Marzo Vol. 7 - 1 - 2023
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e-ISSN: 2576-0971
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Neuromarketing as a platform for the
internationalization of hotel services in Colombia
Neuromarketing como plataforma para la
internacionalización de los servicios hoteleros en Colombia
Campo Elías López-Rodríguez
*
Fernando Augusto Poveda Aguja
*
ABSTRACT
The objective of this article is to analyze the incidence of
neuromarketing in organizations that internationalize hotel
services in the city of Bogota, Colombia, based on the
importance of this activity as an emerging alternative for
market research. Methodologically, Spearman's Rho
correlation coefficient is used to associate the size of the
companies studied with the influential factors provided by
neuromarketing in the internationalization of hotel services
in the Colombian capital. The main results determine that
elements such as business development, eye-tracking,
product and web page design as an application of
neuromarketing for the internationalization of hotel
services are fundamental for these organizations. It is
concluded that ensuring a favorable user experience when
obtaining the hotel service and facilitating service decision
making through stimuli are relevant benefits of
neuromarketing for the hotel market.
Keywords: Neuromarketing, internationalization,
services hotels.
* Research leader of the Specialisation in Financial Management programme of
the Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios - UNIMINUTO. E-mail:
clopezr3@uniminuto.edu.co Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4061-2979
* Posdoctorado en currículo, discurso y formación de investigadores, PhD.
Educational in Technology education, Doctorando Administración de la
universidad de la Salle, Corporación Unificada Nacional CUN , Chia Bogotá–
Colombia. Fernando_poveda@cun.edu.co , https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8149-
9963
e-ISSN: 2576-0971. Enero - Marzo Vol. 7 - 1 - 2023 . http://journalbusinesses.com/index.php/revista
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RESUMEN
El objetivo de este artículo es analizar la incidencia del
neuromarketing en las organizaciones que
internacionalizan servicios hoteleros en la ciudad de
Bogotá, Colombia, a partir de la importancia de esta
actividad como alternativa emergente para la investigación
de mercados. Metodológicamente, se utiliza el coeficiente
de correlación Rho de Spearman para asociar el tamaño de
las empresas estudiadas con los factores influyentes que
aporta el neuromarketing en la internacionalización de los
servicios hoteleros en la capital colombiana. Los principales
resultados determinan que elementos como el desarrollo
empresarial, eye-tracking, diseño de producto y página web
como aplicación del neuromarketing para la
internacionalización de servicios hoteleros son
fundamentales para estas organizaciones. Se concluye que
asegurar una experiencia favorable del usuario al obtener
el servicio hotelero y facilitar la toma de decisión del
servicio a través de estímulos son beneficios relevantes del
neuromarketing para el mercado hotelero.
Palabras clave: Neuromarketing, internacionalización,
servicios hoteles.
INTRODUCTION
From the perspective of Boz et al., (2017) the objective oneuromarketing is to analyse
the mind of the consumer as a strategy to understand what they want, the decisions
they make when making a purchase and to be able to carry out marketing strategies that
are satisfactory; Hence Lim (2018) highlights that most of the thoughts, learning and
emotions are produced at an unconscious level, and in traditional marketing, most of the
statements are verbal, unlike the inputs obtained from neuromarketing, being an activity
that is also known as the study of the brain and the influence of this when making a
purchase, this supported in neuroscience that studies the functioning of the brain and
nervous system (Meyerding & Mehlhose, 2020). Ortegón-Cortázar & Rodríguez (2016)
highlight the high relevance of emotions in marketing as an organisational function; it is
for this reason that the sciences are so important for marketing, especially neuroscience,
given that it allows us to know how much attention the consumer is paying, to determine
preferences and with this, to develop a more effective marketing strategy with potential
buyers (Neme-Chaves & López-Rodríguez, 2021).
According to Monfort Barboza et al., (2013), in order for hotels to optimise their market
share, it is necessary to know the public and innovate in their relationship processes
with consumers in order to increase customer satisfaction, which is closely linked to
marketing and the value proposition of these business offers.
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In 2019 the services sector had encouraging figures, as for 2017 Colombia's services
exports reached USD 9,536 million, for 2018 they were USD 10,617 million, and USD
10,589 million in 2019; however, in 2020 due to the COVID-19 contingency travel
decreased drastically, and the hotel occupancy rate was 7.9% being lower by 43.7
percentage points with respect to May 2019 (World Bank, 2020).
It is not only important for the hotel sector the valuation of consumers, but also for the
different existing offers in the consumer market, therefore, Shigaki et al., (2017) mention
that if customers are dissatisfied with the good or service offered, they will not only stop
buying it, but they will discredit it in front of others; Hence, an effective practice to
recognise the true needs and desires and try to meet these perspectives would be
implementing neuroscience technologies to marketing, considering that satisfying the
customer and the value he gives to the product is essential to manage and maintain
relationships with the consumer (Kotler & Armstrong, 2012).
Considering the above, the following question arises: What is the impact of the use of
neuromarketing activities in the commercial development of organisations that
internationalise hotel services in Bogotá Colombia? To do so, it is necessary to develop
a conceptual approach associated with neuromarketing and the internationalisation of
services, characterise the level of importance of the factors associated with
neuromarketing in organisations that internationalise hotel services in the Colombian
capital, correlate the factors that determine the incidence of neuromarketing in the
organisations studied according to their size, and finally determine the benefits that the
implementation of neuromarketing activities can bring in organisations that wish to
internationalise hotel services in Bogotá Colombia.
Veloso et al., (2016) understand neuromarketing as a transdisciplinary field of knowledge,
which represents the interaction of areas such as anthropology or psychology
specialising in neuroscience to study the consumer, which is understood as the
adaptation of behavioural methods and theories, combined with neuroscientific theories
and modern psychology (Stasi et al., 2018). Neuromarketing is currently an emerging
field in marketing research, as it studies the sensory and cognitive response to advertising
and marketing stimuli (Sreedevi et al., 2013).
Consumer neuroscience is presented as a new case of study and approach to markets,
as it is a research approach that makes use of neuroscientific procedures (Shigaki et al.,
2017), hence Sebastian (2014) asserts that marketing stimuli influence the moment of
decision to purchase a product, which can be measured in brain wave patterns and acute
emotions. Neuromarketing is considered a fascinating technique to get into the
consumer's mind and find out what they want, due to the application of neuroscientific
technology (Ruanguttamanun, 2014).
According to Rivas-Vallejo & Guijarro-Cagua (2017) neuromarketing in addition to being
a strategy for market research, provides the necessary information to design products
and investigate consumer behaviour for the success of companies; as it could help
organisations in their development and innovation with the objective information it
provides to understand the needs and desires of their customers (Burgos-Campero &
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Vargas-Hernández, 2013). Some well-known companies are known to have ventured
into the topic of neuromarketing with the aim of recognising the emotions of their
consumers when using a product or viewing advertising (Castro-García & Loor-
Zambrano, 2020).
For Salas (2018) neuromarketing studies arise at the time when the human being is
considered as an emotional and rational being, not as only one of the two; and it has
been shown that consumers usually make their purchasing decisions by their
unconscious, so it is necessary that the company activates subconscious emotions
through their products or advertising (Mendoza-Vargas, 2018). This is similar to the
comments of Canorea-Tiralaso & Cristofol-Rodríguez (2018) who state that
neuromarketing guarantees the in-depth study of emotions in the individual when it
comes to consumption; in decision-making, it is observed that, for the buyer,
consumption is emotional rather than a rational decision (Veloso et al., 2016). Table 1
lists different conceptual positions on neuromarketing
Table 1.
Definitions of neuromarketing
Author
Definitions
Rivas-Vallejo &
Guijarro-Cagua.
(2017)
Neuromarketing is a strategy that serves to decode and
understand the mind and behaviour of every consumer, thus
finding needs and satisfying them.
Salas (2018)
Neuromarketing is the fusion of marketing and neuroscience and
aims to study the factors that lead a consumer to the process and
completion of a purchase.
Stasi et al. (2018)
Neuromarketing refers to commercial interest in tools such as
electroencephalography (EEG) and imaging techniques such as
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to understand
consumer behaviour.
Calderón &
Rondón (2016)
Neuromarketing is the process of incorporating improvements in
marketing and neuropsychology.
Castro-García &
Loor-Zambrano,
(2020)
Technological changes and innovations have impacted marketing,
giving rise to neuromarketing.
Kumar & Singh
(2015)
Neuromarketing uses consumers' brains for research in a
commercial context, making it a shortcut for advertisers, as probing
into the minds of customers is facilitated.
Mañas-Viniegra
et al., (2020)
Neuromarketing makes it possible to recognise the reactions of
customers in different situations, in order to develop strategies to
retain and attract the market.
Ferrer-López
(2020)
Neuromarketing could be the answer to pricing a product correctly
and finding out how much the customer is willing to pay for a
business offer.
Source: own elaboration
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The information in the human brain is complex, which is why technologies are used to
obtain more data on what is happening in the psyche, depending on the stimuli received
(Casado-Aranda et al., 2021). Based on the above, Bastiaansen et al. (2018) think that
neuroscience, together with marketing and psychology have provided new strategies to
analyse consumer behaviour in order to create tactics and competitive advantages.
Veloso et al., (2016) explains that in neuromarketing it is not only dispensable to use
classical data collection elements, it is necessary to take into account the complexity of
the human brain and how it works. Some of the main neuromarketing techniques are
functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), encephalography (EEG), Magento
Encephalography (MEG) and Tomography (PET) (De Andreis, 2012).
Neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI, EEG and MEG are excellent methods for
collecting information, being more efficient and faster than conventional methods
(Niedziela & Ambroze, 2021). With this, Burgos-Campero & Vargas-Hernández, (2013)
state that fMRI observes changes in cerebral blood flow by means of a scanner while the
individual is exposed to stimuli. According to Ares & Vidal (2021) fMRI together with
EEG are methods used to measure neurophysiological activity, which consist of
calculating neuronal activity when photographic stimuli are received.
One difference between fMRI and EEG is that fMRI is reliable when dealing with the
inner brain, while EEG has limited spatial resolution (De Andreis, 2012). Coca Carasila
(2010) comments that EEG captures the electrical currents produced by neurons when
exposed to a stimulus, whether it is a product or a TV commercial via electrodes. MEG
is very similar to EEG, but it senses the magnetic fields of neurons, i.e. it records the
magnetic fields that are generated by the brain's electrical activity and has similar
temporal resolution to EGG, but better spatial resolution (Sebastian, 2014).
For Coca Carasila (2010) neuromarketing also implements the analysis of facial
expressions, eye tracking and skin behaviour. There are tools such as Eye Tracking,
which indicates where the consumer's attention is most focused and, with the help of
other technologies, records information about sensations and emotions in a negative or
positive way (Dos Santos et al., 2015). Mañas-Viniegra, Núnez-Gómez & Tur-Vines
(2020) also mention Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) as a neuromarketing technique that
records areas of interest according to a subject's eye movements (AOI). Similar to the
above, bioelectrical activity is also mentioned, which is known to easily capture through
the skin the emotion and attention paid to an advertisement or other stimulus (Ferrer-
López, 2020).
Gani (2017) states that the internationalisation of services could be a boost for the
economic competitiveness of a country; services, especially for emerging countries, are
a platform for their economy to grow, and there is recognition of the country brand at
the international level (López-Rodríguez & Neme-Chaves, 2021). For Dávila et al., (2014)
these intangibles contribute to the generation of employment and the development of
the productivity of nations, although in some developing countries internationalisation is