The article discusses the growing trend of neuromarketing, which involves using neuroimaging techniques to understand consumer preferences and behaviors. The authors highlight two main reasons for the popularity of neuromarketing: the potential for neuroimaging to become cheaper and faster than other marketing methods, and the hope that it can provide marketers with information that is not obtainable through conventional methods. While neuroimaging is unlikely to be significantly cheaper in the near future, there is growing evidence that it can provide valuable insights into consumer experiences. The most promising applications of neuroimaging in marketing may occur before a product is even released, during the early stages of product development. The authors explore the potential of neuroimaging to reveal hidden information about consumer preferences, such as what people truly value and how they will behave in the future. They discuss the limitations of reverse inference, where brain activation is interpreted as evidence of specific mental processes, and emphasize the need for more data-driven methods like multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to interpret brain imaging data. MVPA can predict individual choices based on complex activation patterns and does not rely on prior hypotheses. The article also examines the costs and benefits of using neuroimaging in marketing. While it may not be more cost-effective than traditional methods, MVPA techniques could reveal hidden information that is crucial for marketing decisions. The authors suggest that neuroimaging could be particularly useful in early product design, helping to gauge responses to products before they are marketed. They provide examples of how neuroimaging could be applied to various products, including food, entertainment, architecture, and political candidates. Finally, the authors address the ethical considerations of neuromarketing, such as privacy concerns and the potential for companies to use neural information to influence consumer behavior. They conclude by emphasizing the need for academic research to ensure that neuromarketing contributes positively to the interface between people and businesses, fostering more human-compatible product design.The article discusses the growing trend of neuromarketing, which involves using neuroimaging techniques to understand consumer preferences and behaviors. The authors highlight two main reasons for the popularity of neuromarketing: the potential for neuroimaging to become cheaper and faster than other marketing methods, and the hope that it can provide marketers with information that is not obtainable through conventional methods. While neuroimaging is unlikely to be significantly cheaper in the near future, there is growing evidence that it can provide valuable insights into consumer experiences. The most promising applications of neuroimaging in marketing may occur before a product is even released, during the early stages of product development. The authors explore the potential of neuroimaging to reveal hidden information about consumer preferences, such as what people truly value and how they will behave in the future. They discuss the limitations of reverse inference, where brain activation is interpreted as evidence of specific mental processes, and emphasize the need for more data-driven methods like multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to interpret brain imaging data. MVPA can predict individual choices based on complex activation patterns and does not rely on prior hypotheses. The article also examines the costs and benefits of using neuroimaging in marketing. While it may not be more cost-effective than traditional methods, MVPA techniques could reveal hidden information that is crucial for marketing decisions. The authors suggest that neuroimaging could be particularly useful in early product design, helping to gauge responses to products before they are marketed. They provide examples of how neuroimaging could be applied to various products, including food, entertainment, architecture, and political candidates. Finally, the authors address the ethical considerations of neuromarketing, such as privacy concerns and the potential for companies to use neural information to influence consumer behavior. They conclude by emphasizing the need for academic research to ensure that neuromarketing contributes positively to the interface between people and businesses, fostering more human-compatible product design.