Neuromarketing in Ukraine is a relatively new but dynamic line that pulls together neurobiology methods and marketing research to understand consumers' unconscious reactions. The gradual change from a transactional model to a model of long-term interaction with the client in Ukrainian business stimulates the identification of new, more exact methods for consumer behavior investigation. Neuromarketing takes on strategic importance, as it allows not only to record behavioral patterns, but also to analyze the audience's emotional and cognitive response, which directly influences consumer decisions[3].
The core issues can be divided into financial, technical, HR, interpretation and ethical problems, and simply distrust or suspicions over neurotechnology since neuromarketing is a relatively new research method in Ukraine.
Implementation of functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or electroencephalography (EEG) requires significant financial investments. The cost of portable neuroinstruments is decreasing globally, but in Ukraine it remains significant due to the deficit of local distributors, service support, and underdeveloped related services. The cost of order for any pilot survey including eye-tracking or facial coding in a small Ukrainian agency will be multiples higher than in the same European one, due to importation of equipment, poor competition, and the need for accompanying expertise. Neuromarketing is often unavailable for small companies because of its high price. They mostly apply simplified methods (for example, "face-reading" elements, or analysis of colour emotional impact), instead of sophisticated equipment [4].
Another important neuromarketing deterrence in Ukraine is the shortage of qualified specialists and poor expertise of personnel. The Ukrainian market extremely needs qualified experts who can professionally combine neurophysiology, psychology, and marketing. There is a lack of special programs in Ukrainian educational institutions that would combine training in the field of marketing with the basics of neuroscience, cognitive psychology, or physiology. It creates an ambiguous situation when companies cannot find specialists who not only possess neurodiagnostic methods, but also can correctly interpret the results, and take into account marketing specifics. At the same time, existing specialists in biomedical engineering or psychophysiology are usually not oriented towards business objectives and market needs. Researches require specialized laboratories, medical equipment, and technicians to ensure accurate measurements (e.g., eye-tracking or heart rate analysis).
Data interpretation is complicated by errors in analysis as the data obtained (brain activity, physiological responses) are difficult to interpret unambiguously. Even using eye tracking to detect a glance direction requires deep analysis to understand why a consumer is looking at an element - because of interest or because the interface is unclear [1]. Recording brain activity (e.g., through MRI) does not always clearly indicate emotion. Increased activity can indicate both delight and indignation or deep reflection, especially in cases where military themes are used during the war in Ukraine.
Ethical and emotional aspects include the study of subconscious emotions. As in any other country, it is perceived by part of Ukrainian society as a violation of privacy. There is criticism that neuromarketing allows for the manipulation of the unconscious, forcing people to buy unnecessary products, which causes distrust of brands. Ukraine has limitations for ethical codes. The society is on its way to develop an ethical framework for applying all methods, so compliance with ethics often depends on the integrity of the company itself. As the researchers note, Ukraine does not have specific legal regulations to implement neurotechnology in marketing, and that creates a "gray area."
Ukrainian top managers are mostly skeptical of alternative approaches, especially when it comes to methods that do not have an immediate “visible” effect but require long-term calculations. The reason for distrust may also be the fact that neuromarketing is based on sophisticated neurophysiological measurements, and it is not always easy to "translate" them into the language of ROI or CPA. It causes doubts in business surroundings if neuromarketing is expedient [5]. This phenomenon is exacerbated by the lack of local cases that could clearly confirm the effectiveness of technologies in real conditions of the Ukrainian market.
One of the potentially important areas where Ukrainian companies could crack the above problems is development of low-cost solutions for basic emotional analysis - for example, cloud platforms for online testing of reactions to video advertising or UX design. Such solutions can fill the niche between expensive laboratory technologies and traditional surveys while providing Ukrainian companies with access to deep behavioral analytics.Our domestic developers already have experience in creating applications for tracking health, mood dynamics, and productivity. The same algorithms can be adapted to marketing tasks.
Incorporating neuromarketing into business education programs is a strategic drive in Ukraine. This is not just about special courses within marketing specialties, this also deals with integrating this subject into MBA programs, executive education, and management training. This will create a critical mass of managers who are not only aware of such tools, but also understand their logic, possibilities of application, and limitations. To do this, it is necessary to launch training modules in cooperation between universities, clusters and business associations based on practical cases and simulation studies. It is also advisable to start demonstration projects based on universities, research centers or business incubators. Such pilot initiatives may involve collaboration between companies and student laboratories where business provides real-world tasks, and researchers interpret data based on available neurotools (eye-tracking, 77 facial coding, EEG-lite, etc.)[2].This will help to get more practical experience and trust in the tools from the business side. It is important that such projects could involve different industries (retail, e-commerce, interface design, educational technologies) to identify industry-specific effectiveness of the methods.
References:
1. Van Praet D., Unconscious Branding: How neuroscience can empower (and inspire) marketing. St. Martin's Press, pp. 43 - 56, (2012).
2. Bharadiya J.P., Machine Learning and AI in Business Intelligence: Trends and Opportunities. International Journal of Computer (IJC), (2023), pp. 123–134. URL: https://ijcjournal.org/index.php/
InternationalJournalOfComputer/article/view/2087.
3. Erhart A.,The Power of Neuromarketing: Using EEG and Eye-Tracking Technology to Ad Design. Cybertek Marketing, (2024). URL:https://cybertekmarketing.com/digital-marketing/the-power-ofneuromarketingusing-eeg-and-eye-tracking-technology-to-optimize-ad-design
4. Kurban O.V., Kurban S.O., Neuromarketing: advertising, PR, digital-marketing, branding, pp. 18 - 21, (2019). URL:https://creativity.ua/marketing-and-advertising/nejromarketing-doslidzhennja-ta-n/
5. Kukharska N.O., Neuromarketing: essence, principles, methods, problems and prospects. Economic space, issue 196, (2024). URL:https://economic-prostir.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/196-35-39-kuharska.pdf [in Ukrainian].
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